I've setup a newly purchased Gigabyte Brix GB-BKi3HA-7100, and I have installed Linux Mint 19 Cinnamon (version 3.8.8). The graphics card I have is an Intel HD Graphics 620.
I've connected the Gigabyte Brix to a 27" monitor via HDMI. When booting up, I need to use nomodeset to successfully boot into Linux Mint Cinnamon. After booting up, I am limited to an 800×600 display and hardware rendering is disabled. Obviously, I need to install the graphics card driver for the Intel HD Graphics 620.
If I boot without using nomodeset, I just get a blank "no signal" from the monitor.
My working assumption is I need to install a driver, but I'm confused about how exactly this is done. After reading some tutorials about Linux driver installation, it seems the general idea is that a modern Linux distro is supposed to come with all the drivers you need "out-of-the-box". Proprietary drivers, such as the Intel driver I need, should already exist on the system, and can be installed using the "Driver Manager" in the "Administration" menu.
However, when I go to the "Driver Manager", no drivers are listed at all. I've done an apt-get update along with an apt-get upgrade just in case, but I can't find this driver anywhere. Similarly, Googling for the Linux Intel HD Graphics 620 driver results in many dead-ends. The official Intel page claims (as noted above) that all relevant drivers should simply be pre-installed with the Linux distro.
When I look in System Info, I see that the system recognizes my graphics card. It lists it as "Graphics Card: Intel Corporation HD Graphics 620". However, since I am limited to 800×600 resolution with no hardware rendering, I assume the actual driver is not being utilized.
So, how can I go about finding/installing this driver? And in general, what is usually the process for installing a proprietary third party driver like this? Should I expect to find it already installed?
If the issue is not driver-related, is there an error log somewhere that may record what goes wrong when I boot without nomodeset? (Obviously, I'd need to reboot with nomodeset to even read the log.)
Best Answer
Linux Mint 19, and every other desktop distribution I am of that have been released in the last 10 or so years, have the Intel GPU drivers (kernel modules) pre-installed and active in the default kernel, and they auto detected on each boot. The issue here should not be related to Mint directly.
The most likely cause of the problem here is Linux Mint is not "seeing" your monitor correctly, either it is reporting itself incorrectly which is unlikely, but possible especially of the monitor is older. Or the other likely alternative is the cable is defective (or not of high enough quality) and communication is not working properly from the GPU to the monitor.