Intel Releases First Arc Graphics Driver Package For Ubuntu
As reported by phonics, (opens in new tab) Intel has released the first Arc GPU driver package designed specifically for Linux. The new driver package eliminates the learning curve required to manually install Intel’s Arc drivers on Linux and simplifies the installation of Intel’s Arc GPU drivers on any supported Linux OS. However, at this time the new driver package is designed specifically for Ubuntu version 22.04 LTS and will not work with other versions.
For starters, Linux graphics drivers are not just one driver. Instead, to get a physical GPU working perfectly within a Linux environment, you need several different drivers, including a DRM kernel driver, an OpenGL driver for OpenGL rendering applications, and his ANV driver for Vulkan-enabled video games. These drivers are required on top of the actual Intel graphics drivers for Arc GPUs to work perfectly on Linux.
Before Intel released the new Arc driver package, users with Arc GPUs had to make sure all these additional drivers were installed and the correct versions were also installed. In addition to this, users also need to know the Linux kernel and Mesa 3d Graphics Library versions supported by Intel. This affects compatibility with Intel’s Arc GPU drivers.
With Intel’s new Arc graphics driver stack, all this extra work is eliminated as the driver package includes all the drivers you need to start with. Additionally, the installation method is similar to installing Windows-based drivers, making driver installation much easier for both novice and experienced Linux users.
Unfortunately, at the moment the Linux driver packages only support Ubuntu version 22.04 LTS and there is no word on when Intel will release the packages for other Linux versions (both Ubuntu and non-Ubuntu distributions). Is not … Nor is there any mention of how quickly Intel keeps its graphics driver packages up to date. this can be a problem. It depends on how hard the company supports Linux’s consumer base.
Therefore, in some situations you may need to manually update your drivers if Intel does not regularly update their driver packages with the latest driver updates. But for now, I’m happy that Intel is providing a driver package. Because this greatly shortens the learning curve required to get a user running Ubuntu version 22.04 LTS to work with his Arc GPU.