Choosing an Installation Path

This document explains how to choose the appropriate installation procedure for Intel GPU drivers, performance libraries, compilers, and utilities based on your GPU and intended use case. The following installation paths are available:

  • Installing Packages from Ubuntu PPA: Use this path for all supported Intel GPUs except Intel Max and Flex Series when you intentionally need newer package versions or early access to new features. Do not use this path on systems that rely on Intel® Open Middleware Xe (Intel® OMIX), because PPA packages may conflict with Intel OMIX pinned versions.

  • Installing Intel® Open Middleware Xe: Use this path for Intel® Arc™ Pro B-Series Graphics when you need a validated, pinned Intel GPU software stack with additional compute components optimized for AI and HPC workloads. It is supported only on Intel® Arc™ Pro B50 Graphics, Intel® Arc™ Pro B60 Graphics, Intel® Arc™ Pro B65 Graphics, and Intel® Arc™ Pro B70 Graphics.

  • Installing Packages on Intel Max and Flex Series: Use this path for Intel® Data Center GPU Max Series and Intel® Data Center GPU Flex Series systems. It does not apply to any other GPUs.

Before you begin

Before proceeding with installation, ensure that your operating system version supports your GPU and that your system can detect the GPU.

Determining Ubuntu version compatibility

Intel actively collaborates with upstream projects to enable the best possible experience with the software and drivers provided by Linux distributions. For optimal support of Intel graphics products on Linux, we recommend using the kernel, drivers, and packages supplied by your operating system vendor. As new hardware platforms enter the market, updating to the latest Ubuntu version may be necessary. For Panther Lake, Battlemage, and Lunar Lake, Ubuntu 26.04 and later provide full support out of the box.

To determine the minimum supported Ubuntu version for your specific GPU:

  1. Refer to the Supported Hardware and locate your PCI device ID.

  2. Identify the minimum kernel version required for your GPU.

  3. Use the following recommendations to select the appropriate Ubuntu version:

    • Kernel 6.17 or later required: Use Ubuntu 26.04 or later

    • Kernel 6.8 or later required: Use Ubuntu 24.04 or later

For more information on kernel versions provided by each Ubuntu release, refer to Ubuntu Kernel Lifecycle.

Verifying GPU detection

Before installation, verify that your operating system can detect the GPU and that the required kernel interfaces are available:

  1. List GPUs detected by the operating system.

    lspci -nn | grep -Ei 'VGA|DISPLAY'

    Verify that the reported PCI device ID matches your GPU. For example, the following output shows devices with the e211 PCI device ID, which corresponds to Intel® Arc™ Pro B60 Graphics:

    0000:18:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Battlemage G31 [Intel Graphics] [8086:e211]
0000:ae:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Battlemage G31 [Intel Graphics] [8086:e211]

  2. Check your kernel version.

    uname -r

  3. Verify that DRI render nodes are available by looking for entries named renderD*, such as renderD128.

    ls /dev/dri