Poor video performance in ubuntu 10.04

[tatsujin79]

I just installed ubuntu 10.04 on my IBM T41 laptop, it houses an ati mobility radeon 7500 video card (m7 chip i think) and noticed pretty poor video performance. In openSUSE it runs fine even with compiz enabled but in ubuntu not so much. I have run a modprobe and can confirm that i am infact using the radeon driver which works best (to my knowledge) with my chipset. Its not so much the 2d performance but the 3d and opengl performance that is lacking. For example zuma under wine works fine but world of goo demo under linux is very slow, compiz works but its pretty slow as well when it comes to cube and other 3d effects. I have followed advice from some other posts/forums but they all deal with 9.10 and under and was wondering if anything else has changed that i need to know/try to help remedy this. If I need to attach anything for someone to help just let me know and i'll gladly add it. Thanks for your time and support, oh great and wise linux community.

[ajgreeny]

This is a general problem of the old ati cards that are no longer well supported in the new versions of xorg used by ubuntu. I have no idea about Suse.

I have an ati 9200SE in my desktop and it was great until 9.10, when everything went pear shaped when running compiz. 16 bit colour solved that. Now with 10.04 the refresh rates are terrible compared to previous versions, and I have not been able to find a very good way to get things better.

I just hope for better things in 10.10. Well, you can always hope, can't you!

The best I can do is with the following xorg.conf.

# xorg.conf (X.Org X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# Note that some configuration settings that could be done previously
# in this file, now are automatically configured by the server and settings
# here are ignored.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
# sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "Device"
Option "EnableDepthMoves" "True"
Option "EnablePageFlip" "True"
Option "DMAForXv" "True"
Option "AccelDFS" "True"
Option "ColorTiling" "True"
Option "RenderAccel" "True"
Option "VGAAccess" "True"
Option "AccelMethod" "EXA"
Option "DRI" "True"
Option "MigrationHeuristics" "greedy"
Option "TripleBuffer" "True"
Option "EXAOptimizeMigration" "true"
Option "EXANoComposite" "No"
Option "BackingStore" "true"
Option "AGPMode" "8"
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "radeon"
VendorName "ATI Technologies Inc"
BoardName "RV280 AP [Radeon 9200 PRO]"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
HorizSync 30-80
VertRefresh 50-75
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "dri2"
Load "dri"
Load "dbe"
Load "extmod"
Load "glx"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
Device "Configured Video Device"
DefaultDepth 16
SubSection "Display"
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
Option "RENDER" "Enable"
Option "Composite" "True"
Option "XVideo" "Enable"
Option "XINERAMA" "False"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection

[tatsujin79]

ok so how would I implament this? 10.04 doesn't use xorg.conf correct?

[cunneen]

tajusin, I have a similar laptop (thinkpad T42) with the same card as you (Radeon mobility 7500) on 10.04, the difference is that I'm using mythbuntu with a lightweight window manager so I haven't really tested out compiz etc.

X *will* use the /etc/X11/xorg.conf if it exists, otherwise everything gets dynamically configured.

Here is my xorg.conf file, for what it's worth. With it I'm able to get full-screen youtube videos. The file is a combination from various forum posts, noted in the comments.



Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "X.org Configured"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
Option "AIGLX" "true"
EndSection
Section "Module"
Load "extmod"
Load "dri2"
Load "dri"
Load "record"
Load "dbe"
Load "glx"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "Monitor Model"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "radeon"
VendorName "ATI Technologies Inc"
BoardName "Radeon Mobility M7 LW [Radeon Mobility 7500]"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
# Settings from http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1051571
Option "AGPMode" "4" # <i>
Option "AGPFastWrite" "true" # [<bool>]
#Option "AGPSize" "64" # <i> Mine is a 32MB card
Option "RingSize" "8" # <i>
Option "BufferSize" "2" # <i>
Option "EnablePageFlip" "true" # [<bool>]
Option "EnableDepthMoves" "true" # <bool>]
# Eyecandy stuff from http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1051571
Option "RenderAccel" "true" # [<bool>]
Option "DDCMode"
Option "SubPixelOrder" "NONE" # [<str>]
Option "ColorTiling" "false" # [<bool>]
# Additional tweaks from http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1147352
# and http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=361136
#Option "AccelMethod" "XAA"
Option "AccelMethod" "EXA"
Option "XAANoOffscreenPixmaps"
Option "DRI" "true"
Option "MigrationHeuristic" "greedy"
Option "AGPSize" "32" # <i>
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Card0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 1
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 4
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 8
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 15
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 16
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection
Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection

[AltomineUK]

I would have to agree with ajgreeny. ATi support is a bit shady even with the latest Catalyst drivers released by ATi. NVidia is a bit better, which is why I have chosen Intel.

The Intel GMA uses the open source driver provided with Ubuntu (and Linux in general...) to the fullest and provides all the 3D acceleration you could ever want.

I use a not-so-great Intel 945 GME express and I find compiz is a walk in the park......

I think Ubuntu 10.04 does use Xorg.conf but I can't remember where its exact location is =(

Isn't OpenSUSE sponsored by Novell, who is partially owned by Microsoft?

[Aikimox]

I'm in the same boat, guys. (ThinkPad R40, MR 7500)
The funny thing that 3D worked great for me in 9.10,
but after switching to Lucid Lynx - no deal. I even started thinking
that it must be the faulty GPU, but seeing this thread gives me a relief.
Still, 10.04 is much lighter than previous versions.

So, could we just install 9.10 or any earlier version and grab
the Xorg.conf for Lucid?

Anyway, if you happen to find the solution -
please post it here. ;)

[tatsujin79]

IM seriously thinking of downgrading to 9.10 if the card works fine with that one, or go back to crunchbang and yes suse is by novell (booo hiss hiss)

[Aikimox]

SUSE is heavier, but I might give the Chameleon another try after upgrading RAM and CPU :)

With Lynx I can at least normally watch full screen videos, BTW.

[tatsujin79]

ok after fiddling with it here is what i came up with, i used ajgreeny (http://ubuntuforums.org/member.php?u=27747)'s xorg.conf and set the default depth from 24 to 16, this has given me a 1000+ frame increase using glxgears (i know not a benchmark but still pretty good) and using gtkperf went from 70+ seconds to 48 seconds. world of goo still runs like crap but oh well. Oh and my ram usage is lower (i assume from the decrease in color) i went from 260MB at idle to about 175MB

[Aikimox]

That's not exactly a solution.

I tried reverting from 10.04 to 9.10 and 3D worked fine!
glxgears went from 800 to 3500 FPS.
Just to remind my specs: Pentium M 1.5ghz (Banias) and mobility radeon 7500 with 32MB.
All 3D games are working as advertised. I'm still testing. Maybe we could somehow force the same driver into 10.04? Any suggestions?

[Aikimox]

Some good news, -
I upgraded from 9.10 to 10.04 and got most of the 3d working.
It's not perfect but not slow and glxgears is ~ 2.1k now.
3D games run fast but somewhat glitchy, I'll check more games to see if it's consistent.

[Shinzonqc]

Hi guys,
Same problem here, i have a T41 with mobility 7500 (R100) RV200 4c57 NO-TCL DRI2 (Tungsten Graphics, Inc.) on Lynx 10.04 LTS and i get very poor perfs. With glxgear about 70fps!!!
I created a xorg.conf in X11 folder but still the same (and had to tweak a lot before having video working).
It seems that DRI drivers had installed by default during the Ubuntu installation process. Of course i am not a geek in Linux... If somebody can guide me if they could see at our (my) problems I'll be very pleased.
It's been 3 days now and i red all the posts on every websites and nothing worked so far. Still at 70fps even if when i ask for rendering 3d it says : yes

I was exhausted by my crappy win XP witch i had to reinstall every 2 months but as i essentially want to use this computer for relaying videos from my wndr3700 hard disk with xbmc or so (tried Boxee too) it is not viable. I can't even use xbmc and about boxee when i move my mouse, it jump a quarter of a screen before showing the cursor again...
I've tried to access (SMB) my disks directly and play my movies with VLC but i barely have 12 to 15 fps into it...
I am disappointed cause i sure hoped so that Linux Ubuntu system like could be even faster (don't talk about stability of course) than wincrap. Well at least i have my Macbook witch is working perfectly! Too bad that i can't install it on my T41 (yes I've tried the hack).

Anybody (Ubuntu Geek Masters) outhere for helping a poor noob like me ?
The fast is that i really like Ubuntu and i really wanted to keep it...

Thanks.

[Aikimox]

I'm not a master but try installing 9.10 first and then upgrading to 10.04.
I did it a few times already and can confirm that I get above 2300FPS in glxgears in Lucid. Plus the 3D is working better than before.

In 9.10 I get a 3500FPS and a very decent 3D with Compiz and cube. I might even downgrade back to it later on. But so far everything is fine.

[Shinzonqc]

Hi,

Thanks for your response.

Ya that was my deduction too. I'm actually downloading 9.10.
I'll tell you if it went fine.

bye.

[Shinzonqc]

Hi guys,

I'm back with some good news!

I'm actually on my T41 with ubuntu 10.04 and ... 3542 fps in glxgears! Here is what i did:

1-Start with a fresh install of 9.10 (download it and burn a CD)
Results : 3478 fps (yesssss)

2- update to 10.04 (following this : https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LucidUpgrades)
Results : 372 fps (Hum... better than my 72 fps from starting directly with 10.04 but not enough...)

3 - searching (a lot) about xorg.conf, tryed absolutly anything about all the posts in forums but nothing worked except for downscaling from 24 to 16 bits color depth (not satisfying for me cause neither Boxee or xbmc is working on 16 bits depth...)

4 - make my own xorg.conf and ... tadaaaaa ... 3542 fps steady in 24 bits depth (yahooooo)

here it is :

# xorg.conf (X.Org X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# Note that some configuration settings that could be done previously
# in this file, now are automatically configured by the server and settings
# here are ignored.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
# sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
Boardname "ATI Radeon"
Busid "PCI:1:0:0"
Driver "radeon"
Screen 0
Vendorname "ATI"
Option "MergedFB" "off"
Option "AccelMethod" "XAA"
Option "EXANoComposite" "false"
# Option "AGPFastWrite" "On"
Option "FBTexPercent" "50"
Option "MigrationHeuristic" "greedy"
Option "DRI" "true"
Option "GARTSize" "256"
Option "AGPMode" "4"
Option "Colortiling" "On"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
HorizSync 30-80
VertRefresh 50-75
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "i2c"
Load "bitmap"
Load "ddc"
Load "dri2"
Load "dri"
Load "dbe"
Load "extmod"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
Load "int10"
Load "type1"
Load "vbe"

EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
Device "Configured Video Device"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
Option "RENDER" "Enable"
Option "Composite" "True"
Option "XVideo" "Enable"
Option "XINERAMA" "False"
EndSection


As you notice, i used XAA accelmethod who is working much better than the other one for this card.

Subsequently, i also cut the DRI section part
Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection
and replaced it by creating a file named ''45-dev-dri-permissions.rules'' in /etc/udev/rules.d

then put this line into this file :
KERNEL=="card[0-9]", MODE="0666"

I did that accordingly to this bug report : https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/hal/+bug/306014

Finally i installed the DRIpref panel and set the first option to : ''Use the TCL material for the first level of pipeline''.

Then that's it! 3542 fps! Compiz working perfectly, as Boxee and XBMC. Perfect video streaming without lag even in HD and in wireless (5 Ghz) with my wndr3700 (dd-wrt).
In plus, i use a 21" external LCD flat monitor and works great too!

Well now i can say: ''no more windose crap in my house!"

I hope this will help others.

Enjoy! :popcorn:

[tatsujin79]

Hi guys,

I'm back with some good news!

I'm actually on my T41 with ubuntu 10.04 and ... 3542 fps in glxgears! Here is what i did:

1-Start with a fresh install of 9.10 (download it and burn a CD)
Results : 3478 fps (yesssss)

2- update to 10.04 (following this : https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LucidUpgrades)
Results : 372 fps (Hum... better than my 72 fps from starting directly with 10.04 but not enough...)

3 - searching (a lot) about xorg.conf, tryed absolutly anything about all the posts in forums but nothing worked except for downscaling from 24 to 16 bits color depth (not satisfying for me cause neither Boxee or xbmc is working on 16 bits depth...)

4 - make my own xorg.conf and ... tadaaaaa ... 3542 fps steady in 24 bits depth (yahooooo)

here it is :

# xorg.conf (X.Org X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# Note that some configuration settings that could be done previously
# in this file, now are automatically configured by the server and settings
# here are ignored.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
# sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
Boardname "ATI Radeon"
Busid "PCI:1:0:0"
Driver "radeon"
Screen 0
Vendorname "ATI"
Option "MergedFB" "off"
Option "AccelMethod" "XAA"
Option "EXANoComposite" "false"
# Option "AGPFastWrite" "On"
Option "FBTexPercent" "50"
Option "MigrationHeuristic" "greedy"
Option "DRI" "true"
Option "GARTSize" "256"
Option "AGPMode" "4"
Option "Colortiling" "On"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
HorizSync 30-80
VertRefresh 50-75
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "i2c"
Load "bitmap"
Load "ddc"
Load "dri2"
Load "dri"
Load "dbe"
Load "extmod"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
Load "int10"
Load "type1"
Load "vbe"

EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
Device "Configured Video Device"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Modes "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
Option "RENDER" "Enable"
Option "Composite" "True"
Option "XVideo" "Enable"
Option "XINERAMA" "False"
EndSection


As you notice, i used XAA accelmethod who is working much better than the other one for this card.

Subsequently, i also cut the DRI section part
Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection
and replaced it by creating a file named ''45-dev-dri-permissions.rules'' in /etc/udev/rules.d

then put this line into this file :
KERNEL=="card[0-9]", MODE="0666"

I did that accordingly to this bug report : https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/hal/+bug/306014

Finally i installed the DRIpref panel and set the first option to : ''Use the TCL material for the first level of pipeline''.

Then that's it! 3542 fps! Compiz working perfectly, as Boxee and XBMC. Perfect video streaming without lag even in HD and in wireless (5 Ghz) with my wndr3700 (dd-wrt).
In plus, i use a 21" external LCD flat monitor and works great too!

Well now i can say: ''no more windose crap in my house!"

I hope this will help others.

Enjoy! :popcorn:


Thank you for this, ive been distro hopping for a little bit and came back to ubuntu (my first linux love) and tried this, except i tried it from a fresh 10.04 install. I can confirm that you dont need to upgrade from 9.10 this works on a fresh install of 10.04, im now getting 2900+ fps in glxgears and all my games work
fine.

EDIT:
it only works until i log into the internet, as soon as i connect to a signal it drops again to 300 fps :|

[WorLord]

Here's my T42p xorg.conf. A few words:

- File was generated with
sudo Xorg -configure and then modified.

- The Thinkpad T42p contains a FireGL Mobility T2 video card - which I believe is a Radeon 6xxx series base.

- I now get ~6500-7500 fps in GLXGears.

- HD flash plays acceptably, but even lo-res flash does rather poorly in fullscreen (CPU gets up to OMG %, and choppy, but the laptop is five years old, so... probably can't handle it well in Windows, either.)

- REGULAR videos and DVD's play very well. Don't have a Blu-ray, so can't test it, but large resolution videos have the occasional chop.

- Scrolling in a web page (I use Chromium) uses about 20% of the processor as opposed to almost all of it. Much smoother, obviously.

- Compiz looks and acts great (I use window wobble, too, so I'd know)

- In Lucid (10.04), XAA is no longer a valid acceleration method. If you specify it it gets ignored and uses EXA anyway.

- A lot of the values in the other Xorg.conf's were depricated and not used. I've removed the ones that are no longer valid or are loaded by default (this goes for Driver "Option" lines, Extensions, and Modules).

- I'm using the UXA accel method. It seems about as fast as EXA with migration heuristic hacks, but EXA has black-screened me before... so far, UXA has not.

I think this is as good as it gets on this hardware, so without further ado: The cleaned-up xorg.conf.


Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "X.org Configured"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"
ModulePath "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi"
FontPath "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
FontPath "built-ins"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "bitmap"
Load "int10"
Load "vbe"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "Monitor Model"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Option "AccelMethod" "UXA"
Option "RenderAccel" "True"
Option "DRI" "True"
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "radeon"
VendorName "ATI Technologies Inc"
BoardName "M10 NT [FireGL Mobility T2]"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Card0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 1
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 4
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 8
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 15
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 16
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
Option "XVideo" "Enable"
EndSection

[WorLord]

Actually, I take it back. My little freezes were due to the blasted ath5k module, not my xorg.conf.

I can post the EXA-based xorg.conf if anyone wants it. :p

[muranyia]

Actually, I take it back. My little freezes were due to the blasted ath5k module, not my xorg.conf.

I can post the EXA-based xorg.conf if anyone wants it. :p
Please do!