How is my Intel gpu running without its driver installed?

Question

When I boot my Xubuntu 17.04 PC with the integrated Intel gpu, it runs fine (with screen tearing) at full native resolution without the xserver-xorg-video-intel package installed. But, lshw -c video lists the driver in use as driver=i915. How is this possible?

Answer 1

This information means that your graphic card uses the kernel driver named i915. This driver handle console display, can handle resolution changes, and provides the low-level infrastructure to the other drivers.

xserver-xorg-video-intel is the legacy driver used by Xorg, and provides resolution changes and 2d drawing.

If you don't install xserver-xorg-video-intel, Xorg will use the modesetting driver, provided by the xserver-xorg-core package.

Answer 2

i915 is the driver for intel gpus since kernel version2.6.9 and still in use. Wide number of intel gpu's are supported by this driver. Supported products are followings: Intel GMA 830M, 845G, 852GM, 855GM, 865G, 915G, 945G, 965G, G35, G41, G43, G45 chipsets. Intel HD and Iris Graphics HD Graphics 2000/3000/2500/4000/4200/4400/4600/P4600/P4700/5000, Iris Graphics 5100, Iris Pro Graphics 5200 integrated GPUs. Check following Wikipedia page

Check following output:

arifur@arifur:~$ dpkg -L linux-headers-4.13.0-16-generic|grep i915
/usr/src/linux-headers-4.13.0-16-generic/include/config/drm/i915
/usr/src/linux-headers-4.13.0-16-generic/include/config/drm/i915/capture
/usr/src/linux-headers-4.13.0-16-generic/include/config/drm/i915/capture/error.h
/usr/src/linux-headers-4.13.0-16-generic/include/config/drm/i915/compress
/usr/src/linux-headers-4.13.0-16-generic/include/config/drm/i915/compress/error.h
/usr/src/linux-headers-4.13.0-16-generic/include/config/drm/i915/gvt
/usr/src/linux-headers-4.13.0-16-generic/include/config/drm/i915/gvt/kvmgt.h
/usr/src/linux-headers-4.13.0-16-generic/include/config/drm/i915/gvt.h
/usr/src/linux-headers-4.13.0-16-generic/include/config/drm/i915/userptr.h
/usr/src/linux-headers-4.13.0-16-generic/include/config/drm/i915.h
/usr/src/linux-headers-4.13.0-16-generic/include/config/snd/hda/i915.h
arifur@arifur:~$ dpkg -L linux-firmware|grep i915
/lib/firmware/i915
/lib/firmware/i915/bxt_dmc_ver1_07.bin
/lib/firmware/i915/bxt_guc_ver8_7.bin
/lib/firmware/i915/bxt_huc_ver01_07_1398.bin
/lib/firmware/i915/kbl_dmc_ver1_01.bin
/lib/firmware/i915/kbl_guc_ver9_14.bin
/lib/firmware/i915/kbl_huc_ver02_00_1810.bin
/lib/firmware/i915/skl_dmc_ver1_23.bin
/lib/firmware/i915/skl_dmc_ver1_26.bin
/lib/firmware/i915/skl_guc_ver1.bin
/lib/firmware/i915/skl_guc_ver4.bin
/lib/firmware/i915/skl_guc_ver6_1.bin
/lib/firmware/i915/skl_huc_ver01_07_1398.bin
/usr/share/doc/linux-firmware/licenses/LICENSE.i915
/lib/firmware/i915/bxt_dmc_ver1.bin
/lib/firmware/i915/kbl_dmc_ver1.bin
/lib/firmware/i915/skl_dmc_ver1.bin
/lib/firmware/i915/skl_guc_ver6.bin

arifur@arifur:~$ dpkg -L libgl1-mesa-dri
/.
/etc
/etc/drirc
/usr
/usr/lib
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/i915_dri.so
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/i965_dri.so
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/kms_swrast_dri.so
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/nouveau_dri.so
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/nouveau_vieux_dri.so
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/r200_dri.so
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/r300_dri.so
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/r600_dri.so
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/radeon_dri.so
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/radeonsi_dri.so
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/swrast_dri.so
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/virtio_gpu_dri.so
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/vmwgfx_dri.so
/usr/share
/usr/share/bug
/usr/share/bug/libgl1-mesa-dri
/usr/share/bug/libgl1-mesa-dri/control
/usr/share/bug/libgl1-mesa-dri/script
/usr/share/doc
/usr/share/doc/libgl1-mesa-dri
/usr/share/doc/libgl1-mesa-dri/copyright
/usr/share/doc/libgl1-mesa-dri/changelog.Debian.gz