How To Use The Intel Linux Graphics Drivers Repository In Ubuntu-Based Linux Distributions (Linux Mint, Etc.)

The Intel Linux Graphics Installer only supports Ubuntu 13.04* and 12.10 (and Fedora), and even though the drivers should work on other Ubuntu-based Linux distributions like Linux Mint, the installer doesn't work and the Intel repository isn't added automatically.

article updated on May 29, 2013

But you can still upgrade the drivers to the latest version available in the Intel repository that comes with the Intel Linux Graphics Installer, even if you use an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution such as Linux Mint, by manually adding the repository. Read on!

The actual installer checks if you have an Intel graphics card, adds the Intel Linux Graphics repository and performs an upgrade, so you don't really need to use it to upgrade the drivers and you can simply add the repository and upgrade using your Linux distribution update tool (or apt-get, etc.).

How to add the Intel Linux Graphics Installer repository in Ubuntu-based Linux distributions such as Linux Mint

Before proceeding, please note that some users have reported issues, like the touchpad not working - this depends on your hardware so I can't tell you if everything will work or not, so use this at your own risk!

Also, reverting the changes isn't very easy. When upgrading the packages, you must copy the package names to some text file, then disable the repository via Software Sources (or delete the .list file from /etc/apt/soures.list.d/), run "sudo apt-get update" and then downgrade the packages you've saved to the text file using: "sudo apt-get install package1/raring package2/raring" and so on (for each package that was upgraded; replace "raring" with "quantal" if you're using an Ubuntu 12.10 based Linux distribution). Alternatively, you can use THESE  instructions (I didn't test them though). Unless you understand what I've explained above and know how to fix various issues that may arise, I suggest you don't use this repository!

That said, you can now proceed with adding the Intel Linux Graphics repository for Linux distributions based on Ubuntu 12.10 or 13.04:

- for Linux distributions based on Ubuntu 12.10 (like Linux Mint 14):

echo "deb https://download.01.org/gfx/ubuntu/12.10/main Ubuntu 12.10 #Intel Graphics drivers" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/intellinuxgraphics.list

- for Linux distributions based on Ubuntu 13.04 (like Linux Mint 15):

echo "deb https://download.01.org/gfx/ubuntu/13.04/main Ubuntu 13.04 #Intel Graphics drivers" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/intellinuxgraphics.list

Then, for any of the above, add the repository GPG key and update the software sources using the following commands:

wget --no-check-certificate https://download.01.org/gfx/RPM-GPG-KEY-ilg -O - | sudo apt-key add -
wget --no-check-certificate https://download.01.org/gfx/RPM-GPG-KEY-ilg-2 -O - | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt-get update

And finally, use your distro's update tool to upgrade the packages or alternatively, run "sudo apt-get dist-upgrade" (but make sure this command doesn't try to remove any packages and if for some reason it does, abort and disable the repository).