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I searched on the internet but couldn't find exactly what I am looking for. I have a DELL XPS 13 9360 running Ubuntu 16.10 and I'm pretty sure that it's running the generic video drivers. I've downloaded the intel tool from https://01.org/linuxgraphics/downloads/intel-graphics-update-tool-linux-os-v2.0.3, installed it and rebooted the operating system. Now I have two questions:

  • How do I know if I'm running the intel drivers?

And just in case that I am not using them already ...

  • How do I get them to be the ones being used?

Thanks for the help.

cl-netbox
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Ray Booysen
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2 Answers2

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The first and most easy option to check whether you are using intel graphics and drivers would be to open the System Settings application and then open the Details tab ... there in Overview :

enter image description here

The intel drivers are installed and in use by default, there's really no need to download and install anything unless you have a dedicated NVIDIA adapter and want to use proprietary NVIDIA drivers instead. You can check which drivers you use by opening a terminal and executing this command :

lspci -k | grep VGA (when you only have an integrated intel GPU) or lspci -k | grep -EA2 'VGA|3D' (if you have an additional NVIDIA GPU). But as far as I know, DELL XPS 13 9360 comes with an integrated intel HD Graphics 620 solution. Conclusion : everything works out-of-the-box.

To check which video drivers are installed in the operating system, just execute this command : 

$ dpkg --get-selections | grep xserver-xorg-video  
xserver-xorg-video-all              install
xserver-xorg-video-amdgpu           install
xserver-xorg-video-ati              install
xserver-xorg-video-fbdev            install
xserver-xorg-video-intel            install
xserver-xorg-video-nouveau          install
xserver-xorg-video-qxl              install
xserver-xorg-video-radeon           install
xserver-xorg-video-vesa             install
xserver-xorg-video-vmware           install

Find other available video drivers in the repositories with : $ apt search xserver-xorg-video

You can check which intel drivers versions are available and which one is installed by executing : 

$ apt policy xserver-xorg-video-intel
xserver-xorg-video-intel:
  Installed: 2:2.99.917+git20160706-1ubuntu1
  Candidate: 2:2.99.917+git20160706-1ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 2:2.99.917+git20160706-1ubuntu1 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu yakkety/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

More details about the installed drivers you get with : sudo lshw -c video and modinfo i915

cl-netbox
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The kernel boot parameter "nomodesetting" can cause an Ubuntu system with Intel video drivers installed to still stick to generic software rendering.

Check with the command

    cat /proc/cmdline

If the parameter nomodesetting appears in the output command line try rebooting the system but with nomodesetting temporarily removed from the boot parameters.

(This guide for how to add boot parameters can be useful if you wonder how to temporarily alter boot parameters: How do I add a kernel boot parameter?)

Once booted up, check what video drivers your system is used and how it performs in general (open system settings->details, start glxgears etc).

If temporarily removing nomodesetting did the trick, you can follow the guide mentioned above to ensure that nomodesetting is permanently removed from the boot parameters.

One reason an Ubuntu installation might have nomodesetting set might be that on the particular machine, booting the installation media for Ubuntu only showed a blank screen instead of the installation program unless the parameter nomodesetting was selected to be on. Then the installation program assumed the boot parameter should be set when installing the kernel and grub on the machine, an assumption which actually is reasonable.

This is what bit me when I installed Ubuntu 16.04 and 18.04 and I struggled to get accelerated graphics. Seemed like all Intel drivers was installed "out of the box" but then nomodesetting simply kept them from being used.

IllvilJa
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