Updating packages for non Nvidia or ATI drivers...

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1

Hello again.

I had a doubt that was tingling me since a couple of days.
If I have a rig with an Intel, Sis or other graphics card, how are the drivers updated? Through the Xorg repository? In this case the question would be more specific for an Intel HD graphics 3000, but if it could be generalized, would be better.

Thanks for your help.

2

Mm… was the question a bit too silly?

3

Yes, if you are looking for a more recent version of the driver, then through the appropriate xorg repo is one way to update the drivers.

4

The open source drivers are all contained with the Linux kernel. The newer the kernel, potentially, the newer the driver though not every built-in driver gets updated with each new kernel release. What you do get is updates for new hardware, bug fixes and new features with each new kernel. Like most things, there is more to it than just the driver, with xorg and mesa making up two more video components to get a complete video software & hardware system. Some companies, such as nVIDIA and AMD offer proprietary video drivers, which can be compiled into your kernel, and often they are faster and have more features. But also they can be a pain and break often when new kernels are released. I have a bash script useful in doing a kernel update you can find here: https://forums.opensuse.org/blogs/jdmcdaniel3/s-k-c-suse-automated-kernel-compiler-version-2-50-34/, It never hurts to give the latest stable release a try and SAKC does not remove any other kernels, so all you have are there to be used and tried out.

I found a few interesting sites for Intel you can see here: https://01.org/linuxgraphics/ & intel(4): Intel integrated graphics chipsets - Linux man page

Thank You,

5

On Fri, 11 Jan 2013 23:06:02 +0000, jdmcdaniel3 wrote:

> The open source drivers are all contained with the Linux kernel

Well, there are potentially two different drivers involved - there is/may
be a kernel driver, but there’s also a Xorg driver - sometimes it
requires a kernel update, other times it doesn’t. (For example, the fglrx
driver does have a kernel module, but it can be built without rebuilding
the entire kernel, too).

Jim

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Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
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