intel(4) Kernel Interfaces Manual intel(4)
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 sup-
ported in depth 8. For the i810/i815 other depths support the TrueColor and DirectColor visuals. For the i830M and later, only the True-
Color 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, and Pineview-M in Atom N400 series, Pineview-D in Atom D400/D500 series.
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 "AccelMethod" "string"
This sets the acceleration method. The legacy method is uxa, the experimental one is sna.
Default: uxa.
Option "ColorKey" "integer"
This sets the default pixel value for the YUV video overlay key.
Default: undefined.
Option "DRI" "boolean"
Disable or enable DRI support.
Default: DRI is 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 "NoAccel" "boolean"
Disable or enable acceleration.
Default: acceleration is enabled.
The following driver Options are supported for the 830M and later chipsets:
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 behaves incorrectly in the presence of compositing, but some prefer it
due to it syncing to vblank in the absence of compositing. While most XV-using applications have options to select which XV adaptor
to use, this option can be used to place the overlay first for applications which don't have options for selecting adaptors.
Default: Textured video adaptor is preferred.
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 "Shadow" "boolean"
This option controls the use of GPU acceleration and placement of auxiliary buffers in memory. Enabling the Shadow will disable all
use of the GPU for RENDER acceleration and force software-fallbacks for all but updating the scan-out buffer. Hardware overlay is
still supported so Xv will continue to playback videos using the GPU, but GL will be forced to use software rasterisation as well.
This is a last resort measure for systems with crippling bugs, such as early 8xx chipsets. It is still hoped that we will find a
workaround to enable as much hardware acceleration on those architectures as is possible, but until then, using a shadow buffer
should maintain system stability.
Default: Disabled
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 scan-
line synchronization is performed, meaning tearing will likely occur. Note that when enabled, this option can adversely affect the
framerate of applications that render frames at less than refresh rate.
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 render-
ing), 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.
Default: Enabled for G33 (includes PineView), and later, class machines.
Option "XvMC" "boolean"
Enable XvMC driver. Current support MPEG2 MC on 915/945 and G33 series. User should provide absolute path to libIntelXvMC.so in
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 "ZaphodHeads" "string"
Specify the randr output(s) to use with zaphod mode for a particular driver instance. If you this option you must use it with all
instances of the driver
For example: Option "ZaphodHeads" "LVDS1,VGA1" will assign xrandr outputs LVDS1 and VGA0 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 the command line as follows:
xrandr --output output --set property value
Note that you may need to quote property and value arguments that contain spaces. Each output listed below may have one or more properties
associated with it (like a binary EDID block if one is 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 out-
put 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.
CONTRAST - TV contrast, range 0-255
Adjust TV contrast, default value is 1.0 in chipset specific format.
SATURATION - TV saturation, range 0-255
Adjust TV saturation, default value is 1.0 in chipset specific format.
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. Avaliable common properties include:
BROADCAST_RGB - method used to set RGB color range(full range 0-255, not full range 16-235)
Adjusting this propertie allows you to set RGB color range on each channel in order to match HDTV requirment(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.
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 lay-
out.
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 sup-
ports 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 example below puts the VGA output to the right of the builtin laptop screen, both running at 1024x768.
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Laptop FooBar Internal Display"
Option "Position" "0 0"
EndSection
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
http://www.intellinuxgraphics.org/how_to_report_bug.html. 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 2.19.0 intel(4)