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intel(4x) intel(4x)
NAME
intel - Intel integrated graphics chipsets
SYNOPSIS
Section "Device"
Identifier "devname"
Driver "intel"
...
EndSection
DESCRIPTION
intel is an Xorg driver for Intel integrated graphics chipsets. The
driver supports depths 8, 15, 16 and 24. All visual types are
supported in depth 8. For the i810/i815 other depths support the
TrueColor and DirectColor visuals. For the i830M and later, only the
TrueColor visual is supported for depths greater than 8. The driver
supports hardware accelerated 3D via the Direct Rendering
Infrastructure (DRI), but only in depth 16 for the i810/i815 and depths
16 and 24 for the 830M and later.
SUPPORTED HARDWARE
intel supports the i810, i810-DC100, i810e, i815, i830M, 845G, 852GM,
855GM, 865G, 915G, 915GM, 945G, 945GM, 965G, 965Q, 946GZ, 965GM,
945GME, G33, Q33, Q35, G35, GM45, G45, Q45, G43, G41 chipsets,
Pineview-M in Atom N400 series, Pineview-D in Atom D400/D500 series,
Intel(R) HD Graphics, Intel(R) Iris(TM) Graphics, Intel(R) Iris(TM) Pro
Graphics.
CONFIGURATION DETAILS
Please refer to xorg.conf(5) for general configuration details. This
section only covers configuration details specific to this driver.
The Intel 8xx and 9xx families of integrated graphics chipsets have a
unified memory architecture meaning that system memory is used as video
RAM. For the i810 and i815 family of chipsets, operating system
support for allocating system memory is required in order to use this
driver. For the 830M and later, this is required in order for the
driver to use more video RAM than has been pre-allocated at boot time
by the BIOS. This is usually achieved with an "agpgart" or "agp"
kernel driver. Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, and Solaris have such
kernel drivers available.
By default, the i810/i815 will use 8 MB of system memory for graphics
if AGP allocable memory is < 128 MB, 16 MB if < 192 MB or 24 MB if
higher. Use the VideoRam option to change the default value.
For the 830M and later, the driver will automatically size its memory
allocation according to the features it will support. Therefore, the
VideoRam option, which in the past had been necessary to allow more
than some small amount of memory to be allocated, is now ignored.
The following driver Options are supported
Option "ColorKey" "integer"
This sets the default pixel value for the YUV video overlay key.
or "3") can be specified.
Default: All levels of DRI are enabled for configurations where
it is supported.
The following driver Options are supported for the i810 and i815
chipsets:
Option "CacheLines" "integer"
This allows the user to change the amount of graphics memory
used for 2D acceleration and video when XAA acceleration is
enabled. Decreasing this amount leaves more for 3D textures.
Increasing it can improve 2D performance at the expense of 3D
performance.
Default: depends on the resolution, depth, and available video
memory. The driver attempts to allocate space for at 3
screenfuls of pixmaps plus an HD-sized XV video. The default
used for a specific configuration can be found by examining the
Xorg log file.
Option "DDC" "boolean"
Disable or enable DDC support.
Default: enabled.
Option "Dac6Bit" "boolean"
Enable or disable 6-bits per RGB for 8-bit modes.
Default: 8-bits per RGB for 8-bit modes.
Option "XvMCSurfaces" "integer"
This option enables XvMC. The integer parameter specifies the
number of surfaces to use. Valid values are 6 and 7.
Default: XvMC is disabled.
VideoRam integer
This option specifies the amount of system memory to use for
graphics, in KB.
The default is 8192 if AGP allocable memory is < 128 MB, 16384
if < 192 MB, 24576 if higher. DRI require at least a value of
16384. Higher values may give better 3D performance, at expense
of available system memory.
Option "Accel" "boolean"
Enable or disable acceleration.
Default: acceleration is enabled.
The following driver Options are supported for the 830M and later
chipsets:
Option "Accel" "boolean"
Enable or disable acceleration.
Option "AccelMethod" "string"
Select acceleration method. There are a couple of backends
available for accelerating the DDX. "UXA" (Unified Acceleration
Architecture) is the mature backend that was introduced to
support the GEM driver model. It is in the process of being
superseded by "SNA" (Sandybridge's New Acceleration). Until that
process is complete, the ability to choose which backend to use
remains for backwards compatibility. In addition, there are a
pair of sub-options to limit the acceleration for debugging use.
Specify "off" or "none" to disable all acceleration, or "blt" to
disable render acceleration and only use the BLT engine.
Default: use UXA (render acceleration)
Option "TearFree" "boolean"
Disable or enable TearFree updates. This option forces X to
perform all rendering to a backbuffer prior to updating the
actual display. It requires an extra memory allocation the same
size as a framebuffer, the occasional extra copy, and requires
Damage tracking. Thus enabling TearFree requires more memory and
is slower (reduced throughput) and introduces a small amount of
output latency, but it should not impact input latency. However,
the update to the screen is then performed synchronously with
the vertical refresh of the display so that the entire update is
completed before the display starts its refresh. That is only
one frame is ever visible, preventing an unsightly tear between
two visible and differing frames. Note that this replicates what
the compositing manager should be doing, however TearFree will
redirect the compositor updates (and those of fullscreen games)
directly on to the scanout thus incurring no additional overhead
in the composited case. Also note that not all compositing
managers prevent tearing, and if the outputs are rotated, there
will still be tearing without TearFree enabled.
Default: TearFree is disabled.
Option "ReprobeOutputs" "boolean"
Disable or enable rediscovery of connected displays during
server startup. As the kernel driver loads it scans for
connected displays and configures a console spanning those
outputs. When the X server starts, we then take the list of
connected displays and framebuffer layout and use that for the
initial configuration. Sometimes, not all displays are correctly
detected by the kernel and so it is useful in a few
circumstances for X to force the kernel to reprobe all displays
when it starts. To make the X server recheck the status of
connected displays, set the "ReprobeOutputs" option to true.
Please do file a bug for any circumstances which require this
workaround.
Default: reprobing is disabled for a faster startup.
Option "VideoKey" "integer"
This is the same as the "ColorKey" option described above. It
is provided for compatibility with most other drivers.
Option "XvPreferOverlay" "boolean"
Make hardware overlay be the first XV adaptor. The overlay
Default: Textured video adaptor is preferred.
Option "Backlight" "string"
Override the probed backlight control interface. Sometimes the
automatically selected backlight interface may not correspond to
the correct, or simply most useful, interface available on the
system. This allows you to override that choice by specifying
the entry under /sys/class/backlight to use.
Default: Automatic selection.
Option "CustomEDID" "string"
Override the probed EDID on particular outputs. Sometimes the
manufacturer supplied EDID is corrupt or lacking a few usable
modes and supplying a corrected EDID may be easier than
specifying every modeline. This option allows to pass the path
to load an EDID from per output. The format is a comma separated
string of output:path pairs, e.g.
DP1:/path/to/dp1.edid,DP2:/path/to/dp2.edid
Default: No override, use manufacturer supplied EDIDs.
Option "FallbackDebug" "boolean"
Enable printing of debugging information on acceleration
fallbacks to the server log.
Default: Disabled
Option "DebugFlushBatches" "boolean"
Flush the batch buffer after every single operation.
Default: Disabled
Option "DebugFlushCaches" "boolean"
Include an MI_FLUSH at the end of every batch buffer to force
data to be flushed out of cache and into memory before the
completion of the batch.
Default: Disabled
Option "DebugWait" "boolean"
Wait for the completion of every batch buffer before continuing,
i.e. perform synchronous rendering.
Default: Disabled
Option "HWRotation" "boolean"
Override the use of native hardware rotation and force the use
of software, but GPU accelerated where possible, rotation. On
some platforms the hardware can scanout directly into a rotated
output bypassing the intermediate rendering and extra
allocations required for software implemented rotation (i.e.
native rotation uses less resources, is quicker and uses less
power). This allows you to disable the native rotation in case
of errors.
Default: Enabled (use hardware rotation)
Option "VSync" "boolean"
Default: enabled.
Option "PageFlip" "boolean"
This option controls the use of commands to flip the scanout
address on a VBlank. This is used by glXSwapBuffers to
efficiently perform the back-to-front exchange at the end of a
frame without incurring the penalty of a copy, or stalling the
render pipeline (the flip is performed asynchronrously to the
render command stream by the display engine). However, it has
historically been the source of many GPU hangs.
Default: enabled.
Option "SwapbuffersWait" "boolean"
This option controls the behavior of glXSwapBuffers and
glXCopySubBufferMESA calls by GL applications. If enabled, the
calls will avoid tearing by making sure the display scanline is
outside of the area to be copied before the copy occurs. If
disabled, no scanline synchronization is performed, meaning
tearing will likely occur.
Default: enabled.
Option "TripleBuffer" "boolean"
This option enables the use of a third buffer for page-flipping.
The third buffer allows applications to run at vrefresh rates
even if they occasionally fail to swapbuffers on time. The
effect of such missed swaps is the output jitters between 60fps
and 30fps, and in the worst case appears frame-locked to 30fps.
The disadvantage of triple buffering is that there is an extra
frame of latency, due to the pre-rendered frame sitting in the
swap queue, between input and any display update.
Default: enabled.
Option "Tiling" "boolean"
This option controls whether memory buffers for Pixmaps are
allocated in tiled mode. In most cases (especially for complex
rendering), tiling dramatically improves performance.
Default: enabled.
Option "LinearFramebuffer" "boolean"
This option controls whether the memory for the scanout (also
known as the front or frame buffer) is allocated in linear
memory. A tiled framebuffer is required for power conservation
features, but for certain system configurations you may wish to
override this and force a linear layout.
Default: disabled
Option "RelaxedFencing" "boolean"
This option controls whether we attempt to allocate the minimal
amount of memory required for the buffers. The reduction in
working set has a substantial improvement on system performance.
However, this has been demonstrate to be buggy on older hardware
(845-865 and 915-945, but ok on PineView and later) so on those
chipsets defaults to off.
XvMCConfig file.
Default: Disabled.
Option "Throttle" "boolean"
This option controls whether the driver periodically waits for
pending drawing operations to complete. Throttling ensures that
the GPU does not lag too far behind the CPU and thus noticeable
delays in user responsible at the cost of throughput
performance.
Default: enabled.
Option "HotPlug" "boolean"
This option controls whether the driver automatically notifies
applications when monitors are connected or disconnected.
Default: enabled.
Option "Virtualheads" "integer"
This option controls specifies the number of fake outputs to
create in addition to the normal outputs detected on your
hardware. These outputs cannot be assigned to the regular
displays attached to the GPU, but do otherwise act as any other
xrandr output and share a portion of the regular framebuffer.
One use case for these extra heads is for extending your desktop
onto a discrete GPU using the Bumblebee project. However, the
recommendation here is to use PRIME instead to create a single
Xserver that can addresses and coordinate between multiple GPUs.
Default: 0
Option "ZaphodHeads" "string"
Specify the randr output(s) to use with zaphod mode for a
particular driver instance. If you set this option you must use
it with all instances of the driver. By default, each head is
assigned only one CRTC (which limits using multiple outputs with
that head to cloned mode). CRTC can be manually assigned to
individual heads by preceding the output names with a comma
delimited list of pipe numbers followed by a colon. Note that
different pipes may be limited in their functionality and some
outputs may only work with different pipes.
For example:
Option "ZaphodHeads" "LVDS1,VGA1"
will assign xrandr outputs LVDS1 and VGA1 to this instance of
the driver.
Option "ZaphodHeads" "0,2:HDMI1,DP2"
will assign xrandr outputs HDMI1 and DP2 and CRTCs 0 and 2 to
this instance of the driver.
OUTPUT CONFIGURATION
On 830M and better chipsets, the driver supports runtime configuration
of detected outputs. You can use the xrandr tool to control outputs on
found). Some outputs have unique properties which are described below.
See the "MULTIHEAD CONFIGURATIONS" section below for additional
information.
VGA
VGA output port (typically exposed via an HD15 connector).
LVDS
Low Voltage Differential Signalling output (typically a laptop LCD
panel). Available properties:
BACKLIGHT - current backlight level (adjustable)
By adjusting the BACKLIGHT property, the brightness on the LVDS
output can be adjusted. In some cases, this property may be
unavailable (for example if your platform uses an external
microcontroller to control the backlight).
scaling mode - control LCD panel scaling mode
When the currently selected display mode differs from the native
panel resolution, various scaling options are available. These
include
Center Simply center the image on-screen without scaling. This
is the only scaling mode that guarantees a one-to-one
correspondence between native and displayed pixels, but
some portions of the panel may be unused (so-called
"letterboxing").
Full aspect
Scale the image as much as possible while preserving
aspect ratio. Pixels may not be displayed one-to-one
(there may be some blurriness). Some portions of the
panel may be unused if the aspect ratio of the selected
mode does not match that of the panel.
Full Scale the image to the panel size without regard to
aspect ratio. This is the only mode which guarantees that
every pixel of the panel will be used. But the displayed
image may be distorted by stretching either horizontally
or vertically, and pixels may not be displayed one-to-one
(there may be some blurriness).
The precise names of these options may differ depending on the kernel
video driver, (but the functionality should be similar). See the output
of xrandr --prop for a list of currently available scaling modes.
TV
Integrated TV output. Available properties include:
BOTTOM, RIGHT, TOP, LEFT - margins
Adjusting these properties allows you to control the placement
of your TV output buffer on the screen. The options with the
same name can also be set in xorg.conf with integer value.
BRIGHTNESS - TV brightness, range 0-255
Adjust TV brightness, default value is 128.
HUE - TV hue, range 0-255
Adjust TV hue, default value is 0.
TV_FORMAT - output standard
This property allows you to control the output standard used on
your TV output port. You can select between NTSC-M, NTSC-443,
NTSC-J, PAL-M, PAL-N, and PAL.
TV_Connector - connector type
This config option should be added to xorg.conf TV monitor's
section, it allows you to force the TV output connector type,
which bypass load detect and TV will always be taken as
connected. You can select between S-Video, Composite and
Component.
TMDS-1
First DVI SDVO output
TMDS-2
Second DVI SDVO output
TMDS-1 , TMDS-2 , HDMI-1 , HDMI-2
DVI/HDMI outputs. Available common properties include:
BROADCAST_RGB - method used to set RGB color range
Adjusting this property allows you to set RGB color range on
each channel in order to match HDTV requirement(default 0 for
full range). Setting 1 means RGB color range is 16-235, 0 means
RGB color range is 0-255 on each channel. (Full range is 0-255,
not 16-235)
SDVO and DVO TV outputs are not supported by the driver at this time.
See xorg.conf(5) for information on associating Monitor sections with
these outputs for configuration. Associating Monitor sections with
each output can be helpful if you need to ignore a specific output, for
example, or statically configure an extended desktop monitor layout.
MULTIHEAD CONFIGURATIONS
The number of independent outputs is dictated by the number of CRTCs
(in X parlance) a given chip supports. Most recent Intel chips have
two CRTCs, meaning that two separate framebuffers can be displayed
simultaneously, in an extended desktop configuration. If a chip
supports more outputs than it has CRTCs (say local flat panel, VGA and
TV in the case of many outputs), two of the outputs will have to be
"cloned", meaning that they display the same framebuffer contents (or
one displays a subset of another's framebuffer if the modes aren't
equal).
You can use the "xrandr" tool, or various desktop utilities, to change
your output configuration at runtime. To statically configure your
outputs, you can use the "Monitor-<type>" options along with additional
monitor sections in your xorg.conf to create your screen topology. The
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Some Random CRT"
Option "Position" "1024 0"
Option "RightOf" "Laptop FoodBar Internal Display"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Driver "intel"
Option "monitor-LVDS" "Laptop FooBar Internal Display"
Option "monitor-VGA" "Some Random CRT"
EndSection
TEXTURED VIDEO ATTRIBUTES
The driver supports the following X11 Xv attributes for Textured Video.
You can use the "xvattr" tool to query/set those attributes at runtime.
XV_SYNC_TO_VBLANK
XV_SYNC_TO_VBLANK is used to control whether textured adapter
synchronizes the screen update to the vblank to eliminate tearing. It
is a Boolean attribute with values of 0 (never sync) or 1 (always
sync). An historic value of -1 (sync for large windows only) will now
be interpreted as 1, (since the current approach for sync is not costly
even with small video windows).
XV_BRIGHTNESS
XV_CONTRAST
REPORTING BUGS
The xf86-video-intel driver is part of the X.Org and Freedesktop.org
umbrella projects. Details on bug reporting can be found at
https://01.org/linuxgraphics/documentation/how-report-bugs. Mailing
lists are also commonly used to report experiences and ask questions
about configuration and other topics. See lists.freedesktop.org for
more information (the xorg@lists.freedesktop.org mailing list is the
most appropriate place to ask X.Org and driver related questions).
SEE ALSO
Xorg(1), xorg.conf(5), Xserver(1), X(7)
AUTHORS
Authors include: Keith Whitwell, and also Jonathan Bian, Matthew J
Sottek, Jeff Hartmann, Mark Vojkovich, Alan Hourihane, H. J. Lu. 830M
and 845G support reworked for XFree86 4.3 by David Dawes and Keith
Whitwell. 852GM, 855GM, and 865G support added by David Dawes and
Keith Whitwell. 915G, 915GM, 945G, 945GM, 965G, 965Q and 946GZ support
added by Alan Hourihane and Keith Whitwell. Lid status support added by
Alan Hourihane. Textured video support for 915G and later chips, RandR
1.2 and hardware modesetting added by Eric Anholt and Keith Packard.
EXA and Render acceleration added by Wang Zhenyu. TV out support added
by Zou Nan Hai and Keith Packard. 965GM, G33, Q33, and Q35 support
added by Wang Zhenyu.
X Version 11 xf86-video-intel 2.99.917 intel(4x)