Intel Releases Linux Graphics Drivers Installer

Intel has released a tool that allows Linux users to easily install the latest graphics drivers to ensure the best user experience with Intel graphics hardware.

The first public Intel Linux Graphics Installer release has been made available for download a few days ago and it currently supports Ubuntu (12.04 and 12.10 for now) and Fedora (17 and 18). By looking at the package changelog, it seems this has been under internal testing since October, 2012.

In my test, I was unable to use the Intel Linux Graphics Installer tool to upgrade the Intel graphics drivers under Ubuntu 12.10 64bit due to some issues with multiarch dependencies and it seems this affects other users too (this shouldn't occur on 32bit, however, I was unable to test in on 32bit since this doesn't work in VirtualBox). Hopefully, this will be fixed soon. Unfortunately, this means I can't fully test the Intel Linux Graphics Installer for now so I can't tell you if everything works properly after the driver upgrade so, especially if you're on 64bit, you should wait and not install this yet. I'll post a new article when this is fixed Update: these issues seem fixed now and after an update, everything works as expected on my Ubuntu 12.10 64bit machine. Still, use this with care (quote from the installer download page):

Attempting to "force" package upgrades may break your OS installation, requiring a re-install or other time-intensive remedies (requiring a high level of expertise). Do not forcibly upgrade packages!

If you want to use Intel's new Linux Graphics Installer, download and install the deb or rpm package for your Ubuntu or Fedora version and architecture, then launch it from the menu / Dash or via command line ("intel-linux-graphics-installer") and use it to upgrade your Intel graphics drivers:

The tool will automatically add a repository which will be used to install the drivers and will allow you to automatically receive future updates.

Intel Linux Graphics Installer doesn't automatically add the repository key but there are instructions on how to add it under Ubuntu and Fedora on the downloads page.

Intel Linux Graphics Installer

The installer doesn't work on Ubuntu-based Linux distributions such as Linux Mint or elementary OS, but you can still use it on such Linux distributions - see: How To Use The Intel Linux Graphics Drivers Repository In Ubuntu-Based Linux Distributions (Linux Mint, Etc.).