1. Introduction

In general, Intel graphics driver is well integrated in Linux distributions so users won't worry about the driver setup.

This guide is for those users who would like to build the latest driver from scratch. This will be useful when trying the upstream stuff and customize the graphics driver.

Section 3 is for people who only need build the 2D driver to try a new 2D feature or bug fix. Section 4 and 5 are for people who want to build the whole stack including 3D.

2. Getting source

To make the Intel graphics chipset work, below components are needed:

1, kernel module agpgart and drm;

The source of kernel modules is included in Linux kernel.

2, libdrm;

Libdrm is included in freedesktop drm source.

3, Xorg 2D driver: xf86-video-intel;

4, Mesa and 3D driver;

To get the detailed download address for above components, please refer http://intellinuxgraphics.org/download.html.

3. 2D only driver build

In order to test or use the latest Intel X driver, you typically don't need to upgrade other components of the graphics stack, like Mesa or the DRM drivers. In order to build the driver, you'll need several development packages installed (list taken from the Fedora build requirements for the driver):
- autoconf
- automake
- libtool
- hwdata (for PCI IDs)
- xorg-x11-server-Xorg >= 1.3.0.0-6
- xorg-x11-server-sdk >= 1.3.0.0-6
- libXvMC-devel
- mesa-libGL-devel >= 6.5-9
- libdrm-devel >= 2.0-1

If these packages are available, building should be as simple as:
$ ./autogen
$ make
$ sudo -c "make install"

Note that depending on your distribution, you may need extra flags, like --prefix=, --exec-prefix=, --libdir=, --sysconfdir=, etc. depending on where your X server is installed (see ./configure --help for details).

Once the new driver is installed, make sure your xorg.conf file (often in /etc/X11/) points at the new driver, which should be called "intel" or "i810" assuming the "make install" step created the appropriate symlinks.

4. Whole stack building

We suppose you have downloaded all components under directory $DOWN_ROOT except kernel source.

4.1 Linux kernel

Just using an upstream kernel is fine in most cases, and you can build customized kernel if needed.

4.2 libdrm

Build and install libdrm:

$ cd $DOWN_ROOT/drm

$ ./autogen.sh

Note: libdrm installs to /usr/local/lib by default. To install in /usr/lib run:

$ ./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr --exec-prefix=/

$ make

$ make install

libdrm.so will be installed to /usr/lib.

4.3 Xorg 2D driver

If you install xorg in another directory(refered as $XORG_DIR) instead of overriding the xorg shipped in your Linux distribution, you need set two macros at first:

$ export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=${XORG_DIR}/lib/pkgconfig:$PKG_CONFIG_PATH

$ export ACLOCAL="aclocal -I ${XORG_DIR}/share/aclocal"

Of coz, if you install xserver to another directory, you need compile all xorg modules. As for the detailed guide about xserver and xorg module compilation, please refer to Xorg Modular Developers' Guide.

Note: You might need to use the latest Xorg and xserver release to sync with the latest intel driver.

The compilation of 2D driver is simple:

$ cd $DOWN_ROOT/xf86-video-intel

$ ./autogen.sh --prefix=${XORG_DIR}

$ make && make install

At last, 2D driver library file (intel_drv.so) will be installed to $XORG_DIR/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/.

4.4 Mesa and 3D driver

You can refer http://wiki.x.org/wiki/Development/git for new building process and skip this section.

If you only need Intel driver, you can specify it when run autogen.sh by adding option: --with-dri-drivers="i915 i965".

5. Full stack configurations

5.1 Load kernel modules

If agpgart and drm are not compiled into kernel, when system boot up you need load these kernel modules: agpgart, intel-agp, drm and i915.

To automatically load kernel modules when system boot up, you can edit file /etc/modules to add modules' name (on Debian/Ubuntu); or edit file /etc/rc.local to add lines such as: modprobe agpgart.

5.2 Enable Intel driver

Make sure intel driver is used in Xorg configure file (usually is /etc/X11/xorg.conf):

Section "Device"

               Identifier "name"

               Driver     "intel"

               Entries...

               ...

EndSection

5.3 Enable DRI

DRI (Direct Rendering Infrastructure) is a framework for allowing direct access to graphics hardware under the X Window System in a safe and efficient manner. You need enable DRI in xorg.conf.

Firstly, make sure the GLX and DRI modules are being loaded:

Section "Module"

    # ...

    Load "glx"

    Load "dri"

    # ...

EndSection

Then, set the permissions for DRI appropriately. To allow anyone to use DRI, do:

Section "DRI"

    Mode 0666

EndSection

After restart X server, you can check whether direct rendering is enabled by running glxinfo, the output of glxinfo should show:

direct rendering: Yes

6. Reference

[1] http://intellinuxgraphics.org/testing.html - Intel Linux graphics website.

[2] http://wiki.x.org/wiki/Development/git - Document about building and installing whole stack.

[3] http://wiki.x.org/wiki/ModularDevelopersGuide - Document about building and installing Xorg.