I have switchable graphics, but I'm having issues with my discrete graphics card, so I switched to the integrated card and attempted to play minecraft. I got a crash report just after logging in:
--- BEGIN ERROR REPORT 3b497451 --------
Generated 10/30/12 5:35 PM
- Minecraft Version: 1.4.2
- Operating System: Linux (i386) version 3.2.0-32-generic
- Java Version: 1.6.0_24, Sun Microsystems Inc.
- Java VM Version: OpenJDK Server VM (mixed mode), Sun Microsystems Inc.
- Memory: 406213360 bytes (387 MB) / 514523136 bytes (490 MB) up to 954466304 bytes (910 MB)
- JVM Flags: 2 total; -Xmx1024M -Xms512M
- AABB Pool Size: 0 (0 bytes; 0 MB) allocated, 0 (0 bytes; 0 MB) used
- LWJGL: 2.8.4
- OpenGL: ~ERROR~ NullPointerException: null
- Is Modded: Probably not
- Type: Client
- Texture Pack: ~ERROR~ NullPointerException: null
- Profiler Position: N/A (disabled)
- Vec3 Pool Size: ~ERROR~ NullPointerException: null[failed to get system properties (java.lang.NullPointerException)]
org.lwjgl.LWJGLException: X Error - disp: 0x6c075550 serial: 31 error: BadRequest (invalid request code or no such operation) request_code: 153 minor_code: 14
at org.lwjgl.opengl.LinuxDisplay.globalErrorHandler(LinuxDisplay.java:318)
at org.lwjgl.opengl.LinuxDisplayPeerInfo.initDefaultPeerInfo(Native Method)
at org.lwjgl.opengl.LinuxDisplayPeerInfo.<init>(LinuxDisplayPeerInfo.java:61)
at org.lwjgl.opengl.LinuxDisplay.createPeerInfo(LinuxDisplay.java:788)
at org.lwjgl.opengl.DrawableGL.setPixelFormat(DrawableGL.java:61)
at org.lwjgl.opengl.Display.create(Display.java:843)
at org.lwjgl.opengl.Display.create(Display.java:754)
at org.lwjgl.opengl.Display.create(Display.java:736)
at net.minecraft.client.Minecraft.a(SourceFile:232)
at net.minecraft.client.Minecraft.run(SourceFile:515)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:679)
--- END ERROR REPORT 2dffadb7 ----------Environment
ubuntu 12.04, OpenJDK
Unfortunately it doesn't appear that your graphics card supports Minecraft. I'm sorry but there's nothing I can recommend at this point. Maybe check for any better drivers for it?