One of the problems with an open source operating system like Linux is the lack of official hardware support from device makers. Although a plethora of drivers exist for a large variety of devices, many of these drivers are reversed engineered and aren’t provided by the equipment manufacturers. Fortunately over the last few years, the attitude of hardware vendors has started to change and many manufacturers do now provide official drivers for their products. One such company is Intel. For many years now, Intel has been a strong proponent of Linux and recently the chip giant released a new version of its graphics drivers for Linux along with a program which allows you to easily install them.

The Intel Graphics Installer for Linux, which supports Ubuntu 13.10 and Fedora 19, allows you to stay current with the latest optimizations and fixes to Intel’s graphics drivers to ensure that you get the best experience under Linux. Intel has drivers for most of its GPUs including those found in the Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 processors as well as the embedded video solutions in its Express Chipsets.

To install the Intel Graphics Installer for Linux, download the correct installer for your operating system from the download page. There are 32-bit and 64-bit versions for Ubuntu 13.10 and Fedora 19. If you aren’t sure if you are using a 64-bit or 32-bit installation, use uname -a from the command line to find out.

For installing the downloaded .deb file on Ubuntu, you need to installed the ttf-ancient-fonts. The Intel installer has a dependency on these fonts which is easily fixed with:

Now the actual Intel driver installer can be added to your system using:

Where “intel-linux-graphics-installer_1.0.3_amd64.deb” is the name of the package you downloaded from Intel’s website. If you downloaded the 32-bit version or if Intel release a updated version, then the package name may be slightly different.

The installation process for Fedora is very similar. But to install the package use:

As with the Ubuntu install process, “intel-linux-graphics-installer-1.0.3-3.5.x86_64.rpm” is the name of the package you downloaded from Intel’s website. If you downloaded the 32-bit version, then the package name will be slightly different.

Once installed, find and run the intel installer for linux using the launcher:

On the initial greeting page, click “Begin” to proceed with the installation. The installer will then check your system to make sure it meets the system requirements. The first check is to see if you actually have an Intel GPU in your PC!

Click “Install” to continue. The installer will now add the drivers to your system.

Assuming each step is successful (indicated by a green OK), click “Report” to see a final summary of the installation process. Click “Close” and reboot your system when prompted.

Once your system is rebooted, it will be using the latest Intel drivers. Since the installer adds Intel’s graphic driver repository to your system, any new updates issued by Intel will be automatically found by the normal software update process.

If you have any questions about the Intel Graphics Installer for Linux, please ask them in the comments and we will see if we can help.

Gary has been a technical writer, author and blogger since 2003. He is an expert in open source systems (including Linux), system administration, system security and networking protocols. He also knows several programming languages, as he was previously a software engineer for 10 years. He has a Bachelor of Science in business information systems from a UK University.

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