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Recently Intel released their opensource driver tool (https://01.org/linuxgraphics/downloads/2013/intel-linux-graphics-installer) which auto-selects the right drivers for your intel chipset (in my case, I was using the i915 driver). Because I started using Steam on Linux to play some older games I thought I would use the Intel 'official' drivers to ensure I get the best performance. Unfortunately, since installing the drivers, the computer fan is very loud and the battery doesn't last that long (it's cut battery life in half). On top of that, there's no noticeable difference when playing games on Steam.

My question is, how do I revert back to the original drivers?

If I run the Intel graphic driver installer I get the following output in the terminal (not in the GUI) so I assume I will somehow need to run apt-get with some type of downgrade flag (I'm not sure how to do that) against these packages.

install: [i915-3.4-3.2-dkms libdrm-nouveau2]
upgrade: [libcairo2 libcairo-gobject2 libcairo-script-interpreter2 libdrm2 libdrm-intel1 libkms1 libva1 libva-x11-1 libva-glx1 libva-tpi1 libva-egl1 vainfo libxatracker1 libgbm1 libegl1-mesa libegl1-mesa-drivers libopenvg1-mesa libgles1-mesa libgles2-mesa libglapi-mesa libgl1-mesa-glx libgl1-mesa-dri libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental libosmesa6 libglu1-mesa i965-va-driver libva-intel-vaapi-driver xserver-xorg-video-intel libwayland0]

When I look at the install logs though, it seems there's much more than that.

Any assistance on this would be most appreciated.

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Sorry... I forgot to mention I'm running Ubuntu 12.04 (with latest updates). –  ClarifyLinux Apr 12 '13 at 6:52
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3 Answers

In the end I found this to be too frustrating to wait for the right answer. In order to fix the situation, I upgraded to version 12.10. It completely wiped all traces of the Intel drivers and I now have a quiet and cooler laptop.

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Here is a possible solution to your problem http://theclonker.de/?p=89

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thanks a million! I'll try this later tonight. Hopefully I'll not destroy my system in the process :) –  ClarifyLinux Apr 12 '13 at 7:25
Hopefully your system will be ok :) I have tried those steps and it solves mine. Btw, I am using ubuntu 12.10 –  Asraf Apr 12 '13 at 7:32
I did a thorough review, it seems that this method will only replace the actual driver without uninstalling the MANY dependencies which were installed. –  ClarifyLinux Apr 12 '13 at 8:56
Welcome to Ask Ubuntu! Whilst this may theoretically answer the question, it would be preferable to include the essential parts of the answer here, and provide the link for reference. –  Kevin Bowen Apr 12 '13 at 9:12
Guys.. this question can be closed. I got fed-up with this issue and decided to do something a little drastic - I simply upgraded to 12.10. It's resolved my issue for now. –  ClarifyLinux Apr 12 '13 at 13:43
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sudo apt-get purge intel-linux-graphics-installer && sudo apt-get autoremove

A solution from http://www.liberiangeek.net/2013/04/how-to-add-intel-linux-graphics-driver-repository-in-ubuntu/

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