Intel coffeelake-H UHD 630 GT2 driver fail to load (maybe not actually i915?)

Just got a new desktop. It has a single graphics adapter:

Graphics: Device-1: Intel CoffeeLake-H GT2 [UHD Graphics 630] driver: N/A Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 driver: loaded: fbdev unloaded: modesetting,vesa resolution: 3840x2160~88Hz OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 11.0.1 256 bits) v: 4.5 Mesa 21.0.1 

$ lspci -nnk | grep -EA3 "3D|VGA"
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation CoffeeLake-H GT2 [UHD Graphics 630] [8086:3e9b] DeviceName: Onboard - Video Subsystem: Intel Corporation UHD Graphics 630 (Mobile) [8086:2212] Kernel modules: i91

If I boot with kernel args i915.modeset=1 then there is no video output. If I boot with nomodeset or i915.modeset=0 then I get video but there are functions of the display that don't work like viewing in portrait mode.

 *-display UNCLAIMED description: VGA compatible controller product: CoffeeLake-H GT2 [UHD Graphics 630] vendor: Intel Corporation physical id: 2 bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0 version: 00 width: 64 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: pciexpress msi pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list configuration: latency=0 resources: memory:b0000000-b0ffffff memory:a0000000-afffffff ioport:4000(size=64) memory:c0000-dffff

kernel modules running:

snd_sof_intel_hda_common 94208 1 snd_sof_pci
snd_soc_hdac_hda 24576 1 snd_sof_intel_hda_common
snd_sof_intel_hda 20480 1 snd_sof_intel_hda_common
snd_sof_intel_byt 28672 1 snd_sof_pci
snd_sof_intel_ipc 20480 1 snd_sof_intel_byt
snd_sof 131072 4 snd_sof_pci,snd_sof_intel_hda_common,snd_sof_intel_byt,snd_sof_intel_ipc
snd_sof_xtensa_dsp 16384 2 snd_sof_intel_hda_common,snd_sof_intel_byt
snd_hda_ext_core 32768 3 snd_sof_intel_hda_common,snd_soc_hdac_hda,snd_sof_intel_hda
snd_soc_acpi_intel_match 49152 2 snd_sof_pci,snd_sof_intel_hda_common
snd_soc_acpi 16384 3 snd_soc_acpi_intel_match,snd_sof_intel_hda_common,snd_sof_intel_byt
snd_hda_intel 53248 3
snd_intel_dspcfg 28672 3 snd_hda_intel,snd_sof_pci,snd_sof_intel_hda_common
soundwire_intel 40960 2 snd_sof_intel_hda_common,snd_intel_dspcfg
soundwire_generic_allocation 16384 1 soundwire_intel
soundwire_cadence 32768 1 soundwire_intel
snd_hda_codec 147456 5 snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_soc_hdac_hda
snd_hda_core 94208 9 snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_ext_core,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_sof_intel_hda_common,snd_soc_hdac_hda,snd_sof_intel_hda
soundwire_bus 77824 3 soundwire_intel,soundwire_generic_allocation,soundwire_cadence
snd_soc_core 294912 4 soundwire_intel,snd_sof,snd_sof_intel_hda_common,snd_soc_hdac_hda
intel_rapl_msr 20480 0
intel_rapl_common 28672 1 intel_rapl_msr
snd_pcm 118784 11 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,soundwire_intel,snd_sof,snd_sof_intel_hda_common,snd_sof_intel_ipc,snd_compress,snd_soc_core,snd_hda_core,snd_pcm_dmaengine
intel_powerclamp 20480 0
kvm_intel 286720 0
btintel 28672 1 btusb
bluetooth 655360 33 btrtl,btintel,btbcm,bnep,btusb,rfcomm
kvm 835584 1 kvm_intel
ghash_clmulni_intel 16384 0
aesni_intel 372736 9
crypto_simd 16384 1 aesni_intel
cryptd 24576 3 crypto_simd,ghash_clmulni_intel
glue_helper 16384 1 aesni_intel
snd 94208 19 snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hwdep,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_timer,snd_compress,snd_soc_core,snd_pcm,snd_rawmidi
intel_cstate 20480 0
intel_pch_thermal 20480 0

kernel commandline:

BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-5.11.0-16-generic i915.modeset=0 root=UUID=fac9e736-93df-4bf4-8527-b1380611f233 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7

The driver is supposedly up to date for all Linux distros and it's supposedly i915 for the coffeelake chipset, but I'm suspicious that this is a newer version of the chipset and thus the driver is not up to date.

I uploaded my hw-probe: and even that shows that the card is detected, but I don't or can't figure out how to get the drivers to take affect.

1 Answer

It turns out that the drivers were never the problem. I was using a DP -> HDMI adapter, which was the problem. I purchased a different adapter which solved my problem entirely.