Setup UHD 750 GPU on Intel Rocket Lake processors on Linux

Linux-RocketLake-UHD-750.md

Description

Linux distros don't support newest (May 2021) Rocket Lake GPUs by default. Tested on:

• Fedora 34
• Ubuntu 20.04.2.0
• Ubuntu 21.04

Even if i915 module is loaded (lsmod | grep i915), the graphics is still running in software mode. This issue can be checked in the following ways:

1. Only X11 could be started as Wayland requires hardware acceleration
2. Check "About system" page in Gnome setup (Fedora&newest Ubuntu have Gnome by-default). "Graphics" line will display something like llvmpipe... instead of GPU model.
3. Run glxinfo | grep -i opengl and llvmpipe ... string is shown for "Renderer" instead of GPU name.
4. dmesg will display error message of the i915 driver

$ dmesg | grep i915 -A4
[  636.077251] i915 0000:00:02.0: Your graphics device 4c8a is not properly supported by the driver in this
               kernel version. To force driver probe anyway, use i915.force_probe=4c8a
               module parameter or CONFIG_DRM_I915_FORCE_PROBE=4c8a configuration option,
               or (recommended) check for kernel updates. 

Solution

As it is specified in the error message, a device with PID=4c8a should be added to module parameters.

Open /etc/default/grub and add the parameter to the kernel command line:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="... quiet i915.force_probe=4c8a"

Then updat grub (legacy BIOS output file is different):

sudo grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/efi/EFI/fedora/grub.cfg

Links

• Apparently, Intel devs are not happy about this option: intel/media-driver#980
• UHD 750 - Rocket Lake IGP support – https://forums.unraid.net/topic/105034-uhd-750-rocket-lake-igp-support/
• Intel Core i5 11600K + Core i9 11900K Linux Performance Across ~400 Benchmarks – https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=intel-rkl-linux&num=2

Thank you very much @brainbow1 ! It shows that it should work fine!

Can confirm it's working with Debian 11, kernel 5.10.0-13-amd64.
If you use GRUB2, it's important to update with sudo update-grub after editing the grub configuration file.

Actually, I had to backport libva2, intel-media-va-driver-non-free and other dependencies from Testing to Bullseye to make HW video decoding actually work...

Simply launched cowbuilder-based Bullseye chroot, set up apt sources from Testing, fetched build-deps, and built packages, dealing with -dev package dependencies first, when finally building required packages. Installed into Bullseye and GStreamer started showing video!

Running Fedora 36 Beta.

[clayton@fedora ~]$ sudo lshw -c video
[sudo] password for clayton: 
  *-display                 
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: RocketLake-S GT1 [UHD Graphics 750]
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 2
       bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
       version: 04
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pciexpress msi pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=i915 latency=0
       resources: irq:151 memory:50000000-50ffffff memory:40000000-4fffffff ioport:4000(size=64) memory:c0000-dffff

[clayton@fedora ~]$ lspci -k | grep -EA3 'VGA|3D|Display'
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation RocketLake-S GT1 [UHD Graphics 750] (rev 04)
	DeviceName: Onboard - Video
	Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd Device d000
	Kernel driver in use: i915

Settings>About>Graphics: Mesa Intel® Graphics (RKL GT1)

Appears to be working, no?