Prior to the DG2/Alchemist discrete GPUs from Intel there was the DG1 graphics processor that served primarily as the initial developer vehicle for facilitating Intel’s modern discrete GPU push. DG1 ended up being in the Intel Xe MAX GPU for a small number of laptops and then there’s also been a select number of DG1 graphics cards surfacing on eBay in the years since. Only now in 2025 is the upstream Linux kernel driver set to enable Intel DG1 graphics out-of-the-box for modern Linux distributions.
Intel has worked on DG1 Linux support now for a half-decade and obviously went ahead with their great Alchemist and Battlemage support and already working on Xe3 graphics support too initially for Panther Lake. DG1 is an after-thought now but mistakenly or simply having not too much concern given the very limited market presence of DG1, it was never enabled by default under Linux. Using an Intel DG1 GPU with Linux requires using the “force_probe” module option with the PCI device ID to force enabling the DG1 graphics card with the Linux driver stack.
That force_probe option is namely reserved for experimental/pre-production enabling of new Intel graphics targets but with the upcoming Linux 6.17 kernel that gate is being removed for DG1. As written about back in April, the Linux driver is dropping the force probe for DG1. There haven’t been any known problems with DG1 on Linux in years since but likely just an oversight that the “force_probe” requirement was left in place.
Sent out today was the first drm-intel-gt-next pull request of material slated for Linux 6.17. That pull request has the patch for dropping force probe on DG1. Plus fixes to the GuC back-end to address scheduling stalls, error handling improvements, and a variety of other fixes. Most notable for end-users though is the DG1 force probe removal so that it’s finally enabled out-of-the-box.
Thus good news for anyone having a Xe MAX GPU laptop or happen to have a DG1 graphics card or buying one on the likes of eBay — but DG1 is rather old at this point and users far better off going for Battlemage, Alchemist, or other open-source friendly Linux GPUs.
