Intel - hxrmonlka/alice GitHub Wiki

Intel

Alice has one generic Intel module and one preset.

Item	Name	File
Module	`self.custom.hardwareModules.hardwareIntel`	`modules/hardware/drivers/intel.nix`
Preset	`self.custom.hardwareModules.intelSettings`	`modules/hardware/settings/intel.nix`

The module declares options in hardware.alice.intel. Serpentine uses the preset.

GPU generations

Set gpu.generation to the tier of your GPU.

Value	GPUs	VA-API drivers
`pre-broadwell`	Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge, Haswell (1st to 4th gen)	`i965` only
`legacy`	Broadwell to Comet Lake (5th to 10th gen), including Coffee Lake UHD 620/630	`iHD` (primary) and `i965` (fallback)
`xe`	Iris Xe, Arc, 12th gen and newer	`iHD` and `vpl-gpu-rt` (QSV)

The default is xe. The legacy tier keeps i965 because it works better in some browsers.

Options

Option	Default	Effect
`gpu.enable`	`false`	Turns on the Intel GPU module.
`gpu.generation`	`"xe"`	Picks the driver tier. See above.
`gpu.earlyKms`	`true`	Loads `i915` in the initrd.
`gpu.enableGuC`	`true` on `xe`, else `false`	Adds `i915.enable_guc=3` to the kernel parameters.
`gpu.hybridCodec`	`false`	Builds `intel-vaapi-driver` with hybrid codec support. Needs `legacy`.
`gpu.openclNeo`	`false`	Adds the Intel NEO OpenCL and Level Zero runtime. Needs `xe`.
`gpu.openclLegacy`	`false`	Adds `intel-compute-runtime-legacy1` for OpenCL. Needs `legacy`.
`cpu.enable`	`false`	Turns on the Intel CPU module and CPU microcode updates.
`cpu.pstate`	`true`	Adds `intel_pstate=active` to the kernel parameters.

What the module sets

services.xserver.videoDrivers is ["modesetting"].
hardware.graphics gets 64-bit and 32-bit packages for your tier. Steam and Wine use the 32-bit packages.
LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME is i965 on pre-broadwell and iHD on the other tiers. If a browser has video problems, set it to i965 for the session.
hardware.enableRedistributableFirmware is true (as a default).
Vulkan on Intel uses ANV from Mesa. It needs no extra package. See hardware.alice.vulkan in Design.

Assertions

The build stops with a message when you combine options in the wrong way:

openclNeo needs generation = "xe".
openclLegacy needs generation = "legacy".
hybridCodec needs generation = "legacy".

The preset

intelSettings imports hardwareIntel and vulkan, and sets these values:

hardware.alice.intel = {
  gpu = {
    enable = true;
    generation = "legacy";
    openclLegacy = true;
  };
  cpu.enable = true;
};
hardware.alice.vulkan = {
  enable = true;
  tools = true;
};

Use the module on a newer machine

Import the module in your host and set the options. This example fits a 12th gen CPU:

{
  imports = [self.custom.hardwareModules.hardwareIntel];
  hardware.alice.intel = {
    gpu = {
      enable = true;
      generation = "xe";
      openclNeo = true;
    };
    cpu.enable = true;
  };
}

If more than one host needs the same values, make a preset in modules/hardware/settings/. See Design.