Intel Graphics Driver for Mint Linux

Question

Though Mint 14 is based on Ubuntu 12.10 I get the following error when running the Intel Driver Manager under Mint:

diagnostics-view.c/diagnostics_view_start: Running diagnostic Checking distribution...
main-window.c/on_diagnostics_finished: Diagnostics finished with an error

Yes, I am using the correct 64 bit edition for my install

By the way, I am using a VIZIO CT15-A5 15.6-Inch Thin + Light Ultrabook with the Intel HD 4000 graphics processor and at present my System information says the following for display:

Display
Display
Resolution  1920x1080 pixels
Vendor  The X.Org Foundation
Version 1.13.0
Monitors
Monitor 0   1920x1080 pixels
Extensions
BIG-REQUESTS    
Composite   
DAMAGE  
DOUBLE-BUFFER   
DPMS    
DRI2    
GLX 
Generic Event Extension 
MIT-SCREEN-SAVER    
MIT-SHM 
RANDR   
RECORD  
RENDER  
SECURITY    
SGI-GLX 
SHAPE   
SYNC    
X-Resource  
XC-MISC 
XFIXES  
XFree86-DGA 
XFree86-VidModeExtension    
XINERAMA    
XInputExtension 
XKEYBOARD   
XTEST   
XVideo  
XVideo-MotionCompensation   

OpenGL

Vendor  Intel Open Source Technology Center
Renderer    Mesa DRI Intel(R) Ivybridge Mobile
Version 3.0 Mesa 9.0.3
Direct Rendering    Yes

Here is the output of inxi -Gx

funkdified@vizio ~ $ inxi -Gx
Graphics:  Card: Intel 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller bus-ID: 00:02.0 
           X.Org: 1.13.0 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: [email protected] 
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Ivybridge Mobile GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 9.0.3 Direct Rendering: Yes

Solution

The reason you are getting that error is probably because the Intel Driver Manager is not checking whether it can install on your distribution, it is just checking whether the distribution is Fedora or Ubuntu. This is usually done with the command

`uname -v`

For example:

$ uname -v
#36-Ubuntu SMP Tue Apr 10 20:39:51 UTC 2012

or $ uname -v #1 SMP Debian 3.2.32-1

If the Intel Driver Manager searches for a specific string, for example

$ uname -v | grep 'Fedora\|Ubuntu'

this will return false on a machine running Mint even though Mint is based on Ubuntu.

---

These are the steps necessary to modify lsb-release as suggested by @don_crissti below (taken from here):

$ sudo cp /etc/lsb-release /etc/lsb-release.bak 
$ sudo pico /etc/lsb-release

Replace with (I'm not sure exactly which lines are being checked here by intel-linux-graphics-installer, but definitely not the last one.)

DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=12.10
DISTRIB_CODENAME=quantal
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Linux Mint 14 Nadia"

$ sudo intel-linux-graphics-installer

Follow installer and wait for it to ask you to reboot. Once it is finished:

$ sudo rm /etc/lsb-release $ sudo mv /etc/lsb-release.bak /etc/lsb-release

Comments

[Abram]

Hi Don. See my edit. It seems I do have the driver installed. Surprises me though because of the great video playback in windows and poor playback in Mint. Hmmm. I wonder what else I could be doing differently.

[Rizwan Khan]

I have been experiencing lots of playback problems with VLC. I don't know on what player you've tried, but try MPlayer2 if you haven't already.

[Abram]

There is a workaround that I am after. I read about it once.. you can modify a file in the driver manager to allow the disto.. but I can't recall how.

[don_crissti]

@Abram - If you're sure your problems are caused by driver version and not by driver configuration... the checking is done via lsb-release in the source code so you'd have to modify it and re-compile the app. Instead of doing that you could modify lsb-release to trick the app. The workaround is described here. Make sure you read and understand the warnings.

[Abram]

Don, I will try your answer and Terdon's when I get hme tonight. I will first try the reconfigure, and then Terdon if I'm still experiencing issues. Thank you so much for your help Don.