How To Fix Intel Graphics Driver Reporting as Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 0x300)

In the world of Linux, graphics drivers play a crucial role in the smooth operation of your system. However, sometimes, you might encounter an issue where your Intel graphics driver is reported as Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 0x300). This can affect the performance of your system and the display of your graphics. In this article, we will guide you through the process of fixing this issue.

Understanding the Issue

Before diving into the solution, let’s first understand what the problem is. The Gallium llvmpipe driver is a software rasterizer that uses LLVM to do runtime code generation. It’s generally used as a fallback driver when no hardware-accelerated driver is available. If your system is reporting this driver instead of the Intel one, it means that your system is not using the hardware acceleration provided by the Intel GPU, which can lead to lower performance.

Solution 1: Install the Intel Driver

The first solution is to install the Intel driver if it’s not already installed. Here’s how you can do it:

1. Open a terminal. You can do this by searching for “terminal” in your system’s application menu or by using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Alt + T.
2. Run the following command:

sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-intel

This command installs the xserver-xorg-video-intel package, which provides the driver for Intel integrated graphics chipsets.

3. After running the command, reboot your system to apply the changes.

Solution 2: Create a Configuration File

If the first solution doesn’t work, you can try creating a configuration file that forces your system to use the Intel driver. Here are the steps:

1. Open a terminal.
2. Run the following command to create a directory:

sudo mkdir /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d

This command creates a directory named xorg.conf.d in the /etc/X11 directory. The X11 directory is where the X Window System (the foundation for the graphical user interface in Linux) keeps its configuration files.

3. Run the following command to create a configuration file:

sudo bash -c 'cat >/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf <<EOH
Section "Device"
 Identifier "Intel Graphics"
 Driver "intel"
EndSection
EOH'

This command creates a file named 20-intel.conf in the xorg.conf.d directory. The file contains a section that specifies the device (the Intel Graphics) and the driver (intel) to be used.

4. Reboot your system or restart your Xsession to apply the changes.

Conclusion

By following these steps, you should be able to fix the issue of your Intel graphics driver being reported as Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 0x300). If you’re still encountering the problem, it might be due to other factors, such as conflicts with other repositories. In such cases, it might be helpful to remove any non-official repositories and try the solutions again.

Remember, these solutions are specific to Ubuntu 12.04 and may not work for other versions of Ubuntu or different Linux distributions. If you’re using a different version or distribution, we recommend checking the official documentation or the community forums for your specific version or distribution.