HOWTO: Get Debian 8 Jessie working on newer Intel machines

[stevepusser]

Since Jessie's kernel dates back to 2014, we can't expect it to have much support for Intel hardware or other devices, such as wifi, that have been introduced since then. This means Intel fifth-generation or better--i.e., Broadwell, Skylake, or Kaby Lake graphics and support hardware. The code numbers for your processor relate to the generation--so an i5-6500u is sixth-generation Skylake, and -7700 would be seventh-generation Kaby Lake. Symptoms can include no brightness control, wireless interface, touchpad, sound, 3D graphics, ability to suspend the machine, and so on. However, if you can get a wired connection going and at least a terminal interface, there are updated packages available in jessie-backports that should get your machine working well.

First, if you have one of these machines with integrated graphics, forget about using the default GNOME 3 desktop until the graphics are working--try a simpler desktop like xfce or LXDE if you really need a GUI, since these have a chance of working with the crippled graphics that is the best that the stock kernel can provide.

If you manage to have a wired connection, then add the jessie-backports repository*:

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sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list <<< "deb http://httpredir.debian.org/debian jessie-backports main contrib non-free"

*Do all the commands in a root terminal if you did not enable sudo.

Then update the apt package database so the backports will be added to it:

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sudo apt-get update

We're going to assume you are running 64-bit on your new hardware--there's little reason to use 32-bit on modern machines--so update the kernel and graphics stack from backports:

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sudo apt-get install --target-release jessie-backports linux-image-amd64 xserver-xorg-video-intel libegl1-mesa libgl1-mesa-glx libgl1-mesa-dri

Sixth and seventh generation Intel graphics require non-free firmware also be installed:

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sudo apt-get install --target-release jessie-backports firmware-misc-nonfree

The new kernel will be added to the GRUB menu and be the default, but the old one will still be available. If you need the 32-bit video packages for something like Wine or Steam, install them after you confirm that the new kernel and video is working after a reboot. This can be seen by installing "inxi" and checking the output of

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inxi -G

crippled output will mention gallium and llvmpipe, but a good one will have something similar to

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GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 520 (Skylake GT2) GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 13.0.3

Once you see that, the 32-bit packages can be installed if necessary:

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sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install --target-release jessie-backports  xserver-xorg-video-intel:i386 libegl1-mesa:i386 libgl1-mesa-glx:i386 libgl1-mesa-dri:i386

Most wifi hardware now requires non-free firmware. A newer kernel's internal wifi drivers often requires matching newer firmware packages from backports, so install what you need in the same command format. For example, Intel wireless chipsets would require

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sudo apt-get install --target-release jessie-backports firmware-iwlwifi

This guide was shamelessly cribbed from Head on a Stick's original at the BL forums.

[wirawan0]

Your post is quite new. Have you seen screen corruption on your graphics, with the newest xserver-xorg-video-intel = 2:2.99.917+git20161206-1~bpo8+1 ? Like the one I described here: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugrepo ... bug=851067 ?

[stevepusser]

Your post is quite new. Have you seen screen corruption on your graphics, with the newest xserver-xorg-video-intel = 2:2.99.917+git20161206-1~bpo8+1 ? Like the one I described here: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugrepo ... bug=851067 ?

Hmmm--I'm still on the 2:2.99.917+git20161105-1mx150+1 version that's in the MX 15 repo, and don't see anything like that at all. You could try installing that from the MX test repo to see if that helps, and pin it to keep it from updates--or else rebuild the package and bump the "2:" epoch in front of the version to a "3:" to make it appear higher than the jessie-backports version. You could probably also find the version that used to be in jessie-backports at snapshots.debian.org, install and pin that...

I see you have Broadwell hardware. We had a user of MX 16 with a Broadwell Lenovo that had nothing but frequent crashes/lockups with the Intel driver until he switched to the kernel modesetting driver instead. But Lenovo by then was sending him a Skylake replacement laptop, so he took that.

[zod]

This post helped me a lot, but I was still stuck with gallium software rendering after following the instructions above. In my particular case (i5-6500 running jessie with the latest backport kernel (4.9?)), I was finding this error in my syslog: "intel_init_bufmgr:1189 Error initializing buffer manager" followed by "(EE) AIGLX: reverting to software rendering." After pounding my head against the wall and trying every suggestion I could find, I stumbled across a couple of libraries in jessie backports that finally fixed the problem: libdrm-intel1 and libgbm1. Hopefully this helps somebody else!

[JeanLucJ]

Hello,

Followed the guide.
Worked like a charm.

I'm very grateful, I broke my system twice trying various things to get my Skylake on debian 8.
Motherboard : MSI Z170A GAMING PRO CARBON

[stevepusser]

I've also been able to get va-api video decoding working with my Skylake 520, so that I can play even 4K h.264 videos with negligible CPU use in some applications. I also see that ffmpeg in jessie-backports also supports vaapi transcoding for at least h.264 and HEVC (h.265), but haven't been able to get it working correctly. I had a plan to shrink all my h.264 movies to half their size with hevc, but it seems to be beyond me at the moment.