How to install & upgrade my Video Driver

Question

One helpful folk during troubleshooting on VirtualBox told me that my graphic driver is too old.

00:00:02.714 OpenGL Info: Render SPU: GL_VENDOR:   Tungsten Graphics, Inc
00:00:02.714 OpenGL Info: Render SPU: GL_RENDERER: Mesa DRI Mobile Intel® GM45 Express Chipset x86/MMX/SSE2
00:00:02.714 OpenGL Info: Render SPU: GL_VERSION:  2.1 Mesa 8.0.2

Trying to solve the problem, I referred this link.

But now I don't know how to proceed and what to download and how to install the latest driver for my video card.

The graphic card was included in the purchase, so i think it is an integrated one.

For more info here is my pci Info generated by Hardinfo:

PCI Devices
Host bridge Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Memory Controller Hub (rev 07)
VGA compatible controller   Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 07) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Display controller  Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 07)
USB controller  Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
USB controller  Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
USB controller  Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6 (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
USB controller  Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 03) (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
Audio device    Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)
PCI bridge  Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
PCI bridge  Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
PCI bridge  Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
PCI bridge  Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 5 (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
PCI bridge  Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 6 (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
USB controller  Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
USB controller  Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
USB controller  Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
USB controller  Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 03) (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
PCI bridge  Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 93) (prog-if 01 [Subtractive decode])
ISA bridge  Intel Corporation ICH9M LPC Interface Controller (rev 03)
SATA controller Intel Corporation 82801IBM/IEM (ICH9M/ICH9M-E) 4 port SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 03) (prog-if 01 [AHCI 1.0])
SMBus   Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
Ethernet controller Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 03)
Network controller  Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)
SD Host controller  Ricoh Co Ltd MMC/SD Host Controller (rev 01)
System peripheral   Ricoh Co Ltd Memory Stick Host Controller (rev 01)
FireWire (IEEE 1394)    Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 PCIe IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 01) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])

Answer 1

You have the most current stable driver version - mesa 8.0 is part of the latest stable graphics stack, so probably your Intel driver version is 2.17. Upgrading the driver usually involves upgrading the entire stack, from the kernel to the X server. Driver-only upgrades are possible, but you don't get the full benefits of the upgrade since some improvements depend on changes to a different part of the stack.

First of all, I would discourage upgrading if there is no good reason to do so. Your driver version is current, so you may want to double-check with this person in the forum in case they made a mistake or meant something else. There are very good reasons why each Ubuntu release sticks to a given version of its packages instead of constantly releasing them in the archives, the relevant point being that you get a new well-tested software stack every 6 months, which in my opinion strikes excellent balance between stability and how long you have to wait for new software versions.

Now if you are absolutely sure you want to upgrade your graphics stack, visit:

1. This PPA which will upgrade your driver, bringing your Intel driver from the 2.17 version in precise to 2.19
2. The xorg-edgers PPA which will upgrade your entire graphics stack, including the 2.19 Intel driver, plus mesa 8.1, linux 3.5 and a large number of other packages

More importantly, be aware of the following:

1. PPAs can be uninstalled with ppa-purge
2. If your installation is 64-bit, bear in mind that ppa-purge does not get along well with precise's multiarch (see note at top of xorg-edgers PPA, which states the situation a bit more dramatically), and the uninstallation of a PPA may force you to uninstall a bunch of unrelated i386 packages