Good news for Ubuntu Linux users who want to buy an Intel Arc discrete graphics card, but don’t want to have to deal with kernel updates, Mesa, and firmware packages themselves – because Intel just released a packaged graphics driver for Ubuntu 22.04 LTS program. With this solution, Ubuntu 22.04 users can easily update the Mesa driver stack and backport the i915 kernel module to the DKMS module of the 5.17 OEM kernel.
Previously, many Ubuntu 22.04 LTS users had been shunned by Intel Arc due to the lack of out-of-the-box support for DG2/Alchemist GPUs.
Now, chip giant Intel is offering a set of AMDGPU-Open-like Radeon Software for Linux driver stack options, eliminating this embarrassment for related enterprise Linux/Long Term Support releases.
"Phoronix pointed out that this set of Intel packaged drivers has the same source as the upstream open source driver stack. Just built a Debian package for Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, and a DKMS module on the kernel graphics driver side. It still uses the same open source drivers, just distributed in a more convenient binary form."
For people who prefer to do their own kernel and Mesa builds, or use 3rd party PPAs like Oibaf and the Ubuntu Mainline Kernel PPA, it’s certainly possible to continue doing so.
Unfortunately, Intel has not disclosed how often this packaged driver will be updated or how much additional time it will take for QA/validation.
This means it’s state behind the latest upstream Mesa ANV Vulkan and Iris OpenGL drivers, as well as the latest upstream i915 kernel driver code.
