Important Linux Patch Arriving For Intel Arrow Lake Graphics

While all of the focus recently when it comes to Intel's open-source Linux graphics driver has been around getting Lunar Lake and Battlemage graphics ready, there is an important last-minute fix that is also needed for ensuring Arrow Lake graphics support is ready for Linux users.

Arrow Lake is an extension of the Meteor Lake family. Much of the Arrow Lake driver enablement has just been about adding new device IDs and otherwise continuing on with the Meteor Lake driver code paths. But now as we get closer to the Arrow Lake launch, the Intel Linux graphics driver engineers realize they need to mandate a newer version of the Intel Graphics System Controller (GSC) firmware compared to what is required with Meteor Lake.

So there is a patch for the Intel kernel graphics driver that on Arrow Lake a newer version of the GSC firmware is required for operation. Due to extending the Meteor Lake driver code and the GSC firmware being in common between Meteor Lake and Arrow Lake but only the latter needing a higher version, the logic needed to be incorporated into the driver handling.

The Intel Graphics System Controller firmware version 102.0.10.1878 is the minimum required for Arrow Lake. The patch adjusting the Arrow Lake GSC firmware requirement checking has been submitted both for the upcoming Linux 6.12 merge window and today via the DRM-fixes. But long story short if using a recent Linux kernel and Mesa along with the newest firmware binaries, you should be ready for Arrow Lake on Linux when these forthcoming Intel 15th Gen processors launch.

Today's DRM fixes pull request carries the patch for checking the Arrow Lake GSC firmware version. The patch in turn will be picked up in time for the Linux 6.11-rc6 kernel on Sunday. This week's Direct Rendering Manager pull also has a number of AMDGPU driver fixes.