[sf-lug] Intel graphics chipsets (was /firmware/radeon)

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Akkana Peck (akkana at shallowsky.com):

Not a complaint, but it helps to start with all the possibly relevant
data at hand, including the make/model of computer, and I'm _guessing_ 
yours is a Lenovo ThinkPad T410 or X201 -- based on Web-searching the 
'Subsystem: Lenovo Device 215a' line.

> 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
>         Subsystem: Lenovo Device 215a
>         Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 42
>         Memory at f2000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
>         Memory at d0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
>         I/O ports at 1800 [size=8]
>         Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
>         Capabilities: [90] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit-
>         Capabilities: [d0] Power Management version 2
>         Capabilities: [a4] PCI Advanced Features
>         Kernel driver in use: i915

Anyhow, whatever your make/model of laptop is (and I'm pretty sure it's
a Lenovo ThinkPad of some sort), remember to to use that datum + the Web
in researching your informational problem.

I mean, yes, your implied question might have been 'How do I use
standard software tools to identify the Intel video chipset?', but I'm
never one to turn away a cheap workaround, if it works.


> 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:0046] (rev 02)
> 
> So I do have a product ID. And googling for intel graphics 8086:0046
> takes me to http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Intel_HD_Graphics
> which tells me that 0046 is HD Graphics Arrandale, release date 2010.
> Hooray -- success!

Strictly speaking, 'Arrandale' was a series of Intel mobile CPUs
(marketed variously as i3, i5, i7, Celeron, and Pentium) that each
included an integrated Intel HD Graphics (Ironlake) GPU.  More below.

Quoted from the Thinkwiki page:

  NOTE!
  While almost all new ThinkPads have integrated Intel HD Graphics, on
  those ThinkPads with a Discrete NVIDIA GPU, the Intel GPU is disabled
  and cannot be enabled. There is no support for Switchable Graphics.

Wow, weird. 

> > Thing is, though, I strongly suspect that whatever you do with the PCI
> > ID information, the identification string you end up with will be a
> > little generic, because Intel simply isn't very specific in this matter.
> 
> Could be. But at least I know what generation it is.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_HD_and_Iris_Graphics and 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_graphics_processing_units#
clarify that the 2010 Arrandale mobile CPUs with 'integrated Intel HD
Graphics (Ironlake) GPU' and that the GPU was called a 'Westmere',
deemed to the 5th generation Intel graphics.

It's the nature of this field that it's cluttered with marketing names
for everything, so I'll bet that most of that barrage of nomenclature is
never going to matter to you.


To clarify about my job doing Linux compatibilty testing back in the
Oughts, $FIRM didn't give a damn what a machine's graphics chip was
called, but I did my best to include that information in the report on 
each machine.  What $FIRM cared about was whether I was able to make
particular releases of RHEL3, RHEL4, SLES, and Solaris work well on it.
Sometimes I could, sometimes I couldn't.  ($FIRM refused to permit use
of OS components not provided by the OS vendor, so making RHEL3 Update 5
work with a bespoke kernel didn't count.)