Intel Updates Its Packaged Arc Graphics Driver For Ubuntu

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Intel Updates Its Packaged Arc Graphics Driver For Ubuntu

Last year Intel made available a packaged "Arc Graphics Driver" for Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and later Ubuntu 23.04 to provide a DKMS-backported kernel driver and packaged Mesa driver to make it easier to use Arc Graphics (DG2/Alchemist) during the phase when the upstream kernel support was still stabilizing and not yet found out-of-the-box on Linux distributions at the time. This week marked another rare update for this packaged driver...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Intel-Updated-Ubuntu-Package

[microcode]

This is a good and commendable workaround for non rolling release distros, but also a good argument for rolling release distros..

[pong]

Too bad they reportedly didn't include one single new ARC specific control / settings utility / source code / script or even API / HW interface description of how to do anything useful in terms of management / monitoring of their DGPUs -- power / clocks / fans / temperature / ASPM / whatever display & video options are relevant & missing -- management / monitoring / setting.

If they'd just publish the API(s) and hardware interface specifications I'm sure someone would have some nice OSS code to support much of it in a couple of weeks.

[skeevy420]

This is a good and commendable workaround for non rolling release distros, but also a good argument for rolling release distros..

IMHO, graphics drivers show the flaws in Linux kernel development and macro kernels in general. The whole reason that Ubuntu, RHEL, etc stick to specific kernel versions for 10 years is because there's no guarantee that random shit, like architectures, drivers, etc, won't be dropped between some point releases. While it'd make some things a lot easier on Ubuntu by rolling their kernel, it can also increase difficulties in other areas where kernel updates drop stuff that can break the old way of doing things which prevents them from holding up their guarantees and promises to customers and end-users.

Can you predict what will and won't be in the kernel in 10 years and then guarantee that support to millions of people? (That's rhetorical)

Both Rolling and LTS have their own special logistical nightmares.

[Weasel]

Nvidia does not have this issue. Download installer from Nvidia website (straight from the horse's mouth!), run it and install. Easy as shit, works in most distros. Bliss.

[Weasel]

This is a good and commendable workaround for non rolling release distros, but also a good argument for rolling release distros..

No it shows how stupid they are.

[Weasel]

IMHO, graphics drivers show the flaws in Linux kernel development and macro kernels in general. The whole reason that Ubuntu, RHEL, etc stick to specific kernel versions for 10 years is because there's no guarantee that random shit, like architectures, drivers, etc, won't be dropped between some point releases. While it'd make some things a lot easier on Ubuntu by rolling their kernel, it can also increase difficulties in other areas where kernel updates drop stuff that can break the old way of doing things which prevents them from holding up their guarantees and promises to customers and end-users.

Can you predict what will and won't be in the kernel in 10 years and then guarantee that support to millions of people? (That's rhetorical)

Both Rolling and LTS have their own special logistical nightmares.

Yep.

My friend just updated kernel recently because he got a new GPU and now his PC won't init (not because of the GPU btw). Updates are so fun, man, better throw everything there like in rolling release crap!

[andre30correia]

the problem here was intel launch drivers to late, when this gpu come out the drivers are a garbage even in rolling distros, this like amd drivers few years ago and even now some features take to much time to come out, since ubuntu lts will backport in few mouths the ubuntu 23.10 this is become a non problem for users who can t use ppa or mainline kernel

[microcode]

No it shows how stupid they are.

Not needing to monkey-patch backports onto your distro is "stupid"?

[Weasel]

Not needing to monkey-patch backports onto your distro is "stupid"?

Or you know, decouple components with a stable ABI so that they aren't needed?

They are stupid because they update everything at once and Linux has the same problem with ABI instability on the kernel-space drivers.

It can remain monolithic, with modules as libraries, so performance isn't affected at all. Just stabilize the fucking ABI for once.