Ubuntu developers at Canonical are looking at including more Intel graphics driver packages as part of the hardware enablement "HWE" stacks shipped as part of Ubuntu Long Term Support (LTS) point releases. This would provide more comprehensive coverage of newer Intel driver components with future Ubuntu LTS point releases to benefit both the integrated and discrete graphics.

Ubuntu LTS HWE stacks already include updated versions of the Linux kernel and Mesa as the key components for the open-source graphics drivers from AMD Radeon, Intel, and others. But being expressed now are plans for including additional Intel driver packages around compute and video acceleration to also be part of these HWE stacks.

This proposal led by Canonical engineer Shane McKee would see packages like Intel's Level Zero (Compute Runtime and Intel Graphics Compiler), oneTBB Threaded Building Blocks, oneVPL, VA-API (libva) and the Intel Media Driver, Intel VC Intrinsics, and related packages be included as part of HWE stack updates.

Including these extra packages would be particularly beneficial for those using latest-generation Intel discrete or integrated graphics and wanting to make use of video acceleration and/or Intel oneAPI / Level Zero / OpenCL compute while sticking to Ubuntu LTS point releases. Even for older generations of Intel graphics hardware these updates can be beneficial for new features and performance optimizations.

All in [1]the proposal is a good idea and will hopefully be implemented moving forward for enhancing the Intel graphics experience on Ubuntu LTS releases.



[1] https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-release/2025-February/006315.html