Bug#1110239: release-notes: Hardware acceleration disabled for Intel GPU after upgrade to Trixie (fix available)

Package: release-notes
Severity: normal
X-Debbugs-Cc: [email protected]

Dear Maintainer,

I kindly ask you to include this issue in the section "Possible issues during
upgrade", maybe like this:
"If your system previously required the xserver-xorg-video-intel for GPU
hardware acceleration, you might suffer from an issue where hardware
acceleration is disabled after the upgrade. In this case, you can try
uninstalling the package xserver-xorg-video-intel" (or something similar)

Background:

My notebook, an older Apple MacBookAir 13" with Intel Core i7 an Intel HD
Graphics 5000, used to work fine before the upgrade to Trixie (Debian GNU/Linux
13). I have the same issue on another MacMini computer, that has an older Intel
GPU as well.

Now, after the upgrade, all rendering is done using the CPU instead of the GPU.
This is annoying and makes the machine feel slow.

The GPU is detected. But llvmpipe is used for all rendering instead.

System info:

#uname -a
Linux mymachine 6.12.38+deb13-amd64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Debian 6.12.38-1
(2025-07-16) x86_64 GNU/Linux

# ls -l /dev/dri
total 0
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root         80 Jul 28 01:32 by-path
crw-rw----+ 1 root video  226,   0 Jul 30 13:06 card0
crw-rw----+ 1 root render 226, 128 Jul 28 01:32 renderD128

# LANG=C inxi -Fxxxrzc0
(...)
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics vendor: Apple driver: i915
    v: kernel arch: Gen-7.5 ports: active: DP-1,eDP-1
    empty: DP-2,HDMI-A-1,HDMI-A-2 bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:0a26
    class-ID: 0300
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.16 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.6
    compositor: xfwm4 v: 4.20.0 driver: X: loaded: intel dri: swrast gpu: i915
    display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 3360x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 890x286mm (35.04x11.26")
    s-diag: 935mm (36.8")
  Monitor-1: DP-1 mapped: DP1 pos: right model: Dell P2214H serial: <filter>
    res: mode: 1920x1080 hz: 60 scale: 100% (1) dpi: 102
    size: 480x270mm (18.9x10.63") diag: 547mm (21.5") modes: max: 1920x1080
    min: 720x400
  Monitor-2: eDP-1 mapped: eDP1 pos: primary,left model: Apple Color LCD
    res: mode: 1440x900 hz: 60 scale: 100% (1) dpi: 126
    size: 290x180mm (11.42x7.09") diag: 341mm (13.4") modes: 1440x900
  API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: intel crocus platforms: device: 0 drv: crocus
    device: 1 drv: swrast gbm: drv: crocus surfaceless: drv: crocus x11:
    drv: swrast inactive: wayland
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: mesa v: 25.0.7-2 glx-v: 1.4
    direct-render: yes renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 19.1.7 256 bits)
    device-ID: ffffffff:ffffffff
  Info: Tools: api: eglinfo,glxinfo de: xfce4-display-settings gpu: gputop,
    intel_gpu_top, lsgpu wl: wayland-info x11: xdriinfo, xdpyinfo, xprop,
    xrandr
(...)

# grep -e WW -e EE /var/log/Xorg.0.log
[     8.834] Current Operating System: Linux MBAirFronczek 6.12.38+deb13-amd64
#1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Debian 6.12.38-1 (2025-07-16) x86_64
    (WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
[     8.905] (II) Initializing extension MIT-SCREEN-SAVER
[     8.907] (EE) AIGLX error: dlopen of /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-
gnu/dri/i965_dri.so failed (/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/i965_dri.so: cannot
open shared object file: No such file or directory)
[     8.907] (EE) AIGLX error: unable to load driver i965
[    10.905] (WW) intel(0): Output eDP1: Strange aspect ratio (30/179),
consider adding a quirk
[ 27719.291] (EE) event1  - Power Button: client bug: event processing lagging
behind by 454ms, your system is too slow
[ 27719.291] (EE) event3  - Power Button: client bug: event processing lagging
behind by 454ms, your system is too slow
[ 27719.291] (EE) event4  - Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad:
client bug: event processing lagging behind by 382ms, your system is too slow
[ 41075.009] (EE) event1  - Power Button: client bug: event processing lagging
behind by 1040ms, your system is too slow
[ 41075.009] (EE) event3  - Power Button: client bug: event processing lagging
behind by 1040ms, your system is too slow


- - - - - - - - - F I X - - - - - - - - -

The solution was, to uninstall the Intel device driver package:
apt remove xserver-xorg-video-intel

Reboot. Problem fixed.

Explanation (might be wrong, though):
Without this package the built-in kernel driver is used. It works like a charm.
See also:
https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/798390/debian-stopped-using-my-
intel-i915-gpu-after-upgrade-to-trixie-how-to-fix/798437
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=291530