Should I give up on watching DVD's on Imac with Ubuntu?

[fetasushi]

So I have tried EVERYTHING that most of the forum posts suggest to try and get DVD playback to be smooth, but nothing has worked. It continues to be choppy.

I have a G3 iMac (400MHz, 10gb, 192mb, ATI Rage 128VR) and have tried installing Ubuntu and Xubuntu but the problem has been there with both. DMA has been 'on', all codecs installed, screen resolutions adjusted...I don't know what else to do!

I want it to work out because I really like Ubuntu. Have I overlooked something that hasn't been in the forum posts? Or is it just not possible because of the ppc architecture on G3's (or on my specific G3)?

I even tried out Yellow Dog Linux, but gave up trying to figure it out...not user friendly at all and no clear instructions. Blah!

Anyone out there who can shed some light once and for all. I just know there's gotta be a way since everything else works so well.

I believe in Ubuntu...I do...I do!!

[fetasushi]

I should have also added that I was using Feisty. I thought that maybe it would be too 'heavy' for the iMac, so tried Xubuntu which is meant to be 'lighter'. Problem still there. Should I try an earlier version of Ubuntu...say Dapper? I tried Edgy...same problem! :(

[aantn]

Sorry, I really don't know of anything that could be of assistance. Have you though of trying Gentoo?

[tcrroadie]

Hi fetasushi,

A few questions for you.

What media player are you playing dvd movies with?

Could you please post the contents of your X11 xorg.conf file? Open a terminal and run

less /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Also while you are watching a dvd video, could you post the output of a termial command called "top". Top will list cpu usage for each system process, from heaviest near the top of the list, to least at the bottom. In your terminal again, run

top
Press Q on your keyboard to exit top.

To answer your question of what version of Ubuntu to run on your G3 iMac, I would recommend sticking with Feisty. Feisty has many improvements over earlier versions of Ubuntu and will run much better on any Mac.

Also you can help free up some additional system ram simply by disabling some unwanted services (daemons). You can easily disable these services through the Gnome panel menu.

System -> Administration -> Services

Uncheck any services you may not need such as cron, anacron and bluetooth. Though your framerate problem is due to cpu cycles, not system memory. You are asking alot from that 400mhz processor, but we will see what we can do. We should be able to improve your playback performance by making some very simple changes to your X11 xorg.conf file.

Oh, and one more thing. Many people do not realize that you can make Ubuntu, using the Gnome desktop, just as light and fast as Xubuntu using the XFCE destop.

[stmiller]

Try using VLC

$ sudo apt-get install VLC

you'll also have to have libdvdcss2 installed.

[fetasushi]

Thanks. Will give those suggestions a try and report back. I'm sure I tried VLC but will give it another go with the codec advice. Will reboot with Feisty to make sure it's a clean install. :D

[fetasushi]

Ok Here are the posts. sorry for delay...couldn't get X-server to work.

# /etc/X11/xorg.conf (xorg 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(5) 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.
#
# 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 "Files"
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"
# path to defoma fonts
FontPath "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "bitmap"
Load "ddc"
Load "dri"
Load "extmod"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
Load "int10"
Load "vbe"
EndSection

And this one is when I am watching DVD on VLC:

top - 11:28:12 up 18 min, 2 users, load average: 1.90, 2.48, 1.55
Tasks: 81 total, 1 running, 80 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu(s): 96.0%us, 3.6%sy, 0.0%ni, 0.0%id, 0.0%wa, 0.3%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 190676k total, 188316k used, 2360k free, 30792k buffers
Swap: 444224k total, 48984k used, 395240k free, 45448k cached

PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
4825 thomas 15 0 163m 41m 15m S 57.6 22.4 1:57.52 wxvlc
4144 root 15 0 40916 16m 9728 S 33.3 9.0 2:04.21 Xorg
5056 thomas 15 0 68620 18m 12m S 4.0 10.1 0:04.58 gnome-terminal
4458 thomas 15 0 22800 10m 8856 S 2.0 5.7 0:14.46 metacity
4461 thomas 15 0 57336 17m 13m S 1.3 9.1 0:11.11 gnome-panel
4049 root 15 0 6556 1112 964 S 1.0 0.6 0:04.28 pbbuttonsd
5087 thomas 15 0 2984 1328 1064 R 1.0 0.7 0:01.21 top
4476 thomas 18 0 45164 12m 10m S 0.3 6.7 0:00.78 update-notifier
4522 thomas 15 0 46260 11m 10m S 0.3 6.3 0:00.98 mixer_applet2
4544 thomas 15 0 23096 2240 1704 S 0.3 1.2 0:03.28 gnome-screensav
1 root 15 0 3056 628 572 S 0.0 0.3 0:02.85 init
2 root 34 19 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 ksoftirqd/0
3 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 watchdog/0
4 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.04 events/0
5 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.03 khelper
6 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 kthread
49 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 kblockd/0
51 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 kseriod
65 root 15 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 pdflush
66 root 15 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.01 pdflush
67 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.42 kswapd0
68 root 11 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 aio/0
1930 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 khpsbpkt
1941 root 11 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 knodemgrd_0
1943 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 ksuspend_usbd
1952 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 khubd
2194 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.10 kjournald
2379 root 13 -4 3536 380 360 S 0.0 0.2 0:01.51 udevd
3767 root 18 0 1772 520 520 S 0.0 0.3 0:00.00 getty
3768 root 18 0 1772 520 520 S 0.0 0.3 0:00.00 getty
3770 root 18 0 1772 520 520 S 0.0 0.3 0:00.00 getty
3771 root 18 0 1772 520 520 S 0.0 0.3 0:00.00 getty
thomas@dhcppc1:~$


It plays slighlty smoother than before for some reason. But still annoying. Any advice?

[tcrroadie]

Hi fetasushi,

Thanks for getting back. Could you please post your complete xorg.conf file. We are only seeing the top 1/4th of the file. You can use gedit if you like to open and view the file. Copy and past the contents here as you did before.

gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

There is an option that we may be able to add to the "Device" section of your xorg.conf that is specific to your ATI Rage video card.

We can see from the output that you posted from "top" that we have a cpu cycles problem. You can see from the items that I have marked in red, that vlc and the xserver are maxing out your system processor.

top - 11:28:12 up 18 min, 2 users, load average: 1.90, 2.48, 1.55
Tasks: 81 total, 1 running, 80 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu(s): 96.0%us, 3.6%sy, 0.0%ni, 0.0%id, 0.0%wa, 0.3%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 190676k total, 188316k used, 2360k free, 30792k buffers
Swap: 444224k total, 48984k used, 395240k free, 45448k cached

PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
4825 thomas 15 0 163m 41m 15m S 57.6 22.4 1:57.52 wxvlc
4144 root 15 0 40916 16m 9728 S 33.3 9.0 2:04.21 Xorg

Please post your xorg.conf, and we will see what we can do. :)

[ssam]

I dont think you will have much luck

a G3 400mhz is not really meaty enough to play a dvd.

under mac os, the mpeg decoding is done on the graphics card, but the opensource drivers can't do this.

[fetasushi]

Sorry about the other post. Here it is again properly:


# /etc/X11/xorg.conf (xorg 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(5) 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.
#
# 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 "Files"
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"
# path to defoma fonts
FontPath "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "bitmap"
Load "ddc"
#Load "dri"
Load "extmod"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
Load "int10"
Load "vbe"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "kbd"
Option "CoreKeyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
Option "XkbOptions" "lv3:lwin_switch"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "stylus"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "stylus"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "eraser"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "eraser"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "cursor"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "cursor"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "ATI RAGE 128VR"
Driver "r128"
Option "UseFBDev" "true"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Generic Monitor"
Option "DPMS"
HorizSync 58-62
VertRefresh 75-117
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "ATI RAGE 128VR"
Monitor "Generic Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 1
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 4
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Default Screen"
InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
InputDevice "Configured Mouse"
InputDevice "stylus" "SendCoreEvents"
InputDevice "cursor" "SendCoreEvents"
InputDevice "eraser" "SendCoreEvents"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection


Thanks tcrroadie for checking it out, but perhaps ssam has a point, and it just won't work out on the G3 iMac. Unless someone out there has had sucess already.

[tcrroadie]

I have noticed that you have "dri" disabled on your machine. In most cases disabling 3D acceleration will not make a difference when playing back large video files. At least this was the case for me.

You should be able to leave "dri" uncommented.


Section "Module"
Load "bitmap"
Load "ddc"
Load "dri"
Load "extmod"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
Load "int10"
Load "vbe"
EndSection

Now for the important part. There is a driver option specific to the driver used by your Mac, that is suppose to help reduce cpu usage when playing back large video files such as DVD's. I took this from the r128 driver manual.

Option "DMAForXv" "boolean"
Try or don’t try to use DMA for Xv image transfers. This will
reduce CPU usage when playing big videos like DVDs, but may
cause instabilities. Default: off.

So lets add this option to the "Device" section of your xorg.conf file and see what happens. Make the "Device section of your xorg.conf file look like this.

Section "Device"
Identifier "ATI RAGE 128VR"
Driver "r128"
Option "UseFBDev" "true"
Option "DMAForXv" "true"
EndSection

Now restart your xserver by running this command in your terminal or restarting your machine.

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart

Now run some test by playing a DVD movie using VLC and monitoring cpu usage using the terminal command "top" as you did before. Compare your results.

You may also try disabling the driver option "UseFBDev". This will greatly improve 3D performance on your machine and may also help your DVD movie playback performance. Please note though, that some users have posted that disabling FBDev causes the xserver to fail. I would suggest giving it a try. I have FBDev disabled on my iBook G4 and the xserver works great for me.

Just change "true" to "false". Make your "Device" section look like this to disable FBDev.

Section "Device"
Identifier "ATI RAGE 128VR"
Driver "r128"
Option "UseFBDev" "false"
Option "DMAForXv" "true"
EndSection

Restart your xserver as you did before and retest. Please post back with your results. If this information helps your DVD movie playback performance, I will add it to the PowerPC FAQ wiki.

[fetasushi]

Tried all the suggestions, but no real improvement unfortunately. here's the post whilst playing DVD with VLC:

Tasks: 79 total, 1 running, 78 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu(s): 97.7%us, 2.0%sy, 0.0%ni, 0.0%id, 0.0%wa, 0.3%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 190676k total, 187900k used, 2776k free, 51156k buffers
Swap: 444224k total, 21684k used, 422540k free, 49736k cached

PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
4648 thomas 15 0 144m 21m 14m S 74.1 11.7 4:03.80 wxvlc
4210 root 15 0 37632 12m 8876 S 18.2 6.9 1:27.48 Xorg
4705 thomas 15 0 68400 16m 10m S 6.6 8.6 0:07.59 gnome-terminal
4734 thomas 15 0 2984 1316 1052 R 0.7 0.7 0:03.47 top
4114 root 15 0 6556 1092 952 S 0.3 0.6 0:00.56 pbbuttonsd
1 root 15 0 3056 1924 604 S 0.0 1.0 0:02.85 init
2 root 34 19 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 ksoftirqd/0
3 root RT 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 watchdog/0
4 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.03 events/0
5 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.05 khelper
6 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 kthread
49 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 kblockd/0
51 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 kseriod
65 root 15 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 pdflush
66 root 15 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 pdflush
67 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.20 kswapd0
68 root 11 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 aio/0
1927 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 khpsbpkt
1939 root 11 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 knodemgrd_0
1940 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 ksuspend_usbd
1958 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 khubd
2162 root 10 -5 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.08 kjournald
2347 root 11 -4 3536 520 400 S 0.0 0.3 0:01.50 udevd
3831 root 18 0 1772 608 544 S 0.0 0.3 0:00.00 getty
3832 root 18 0 1772 608 544 S 0.0 0.3 0:00.00 getty
3834 root 18 0 1772 608 544 S 0.0 0.3 0:00.00 getty
3842 root 18 0 1772 608 544 S 0.0 0.3 0:00.00 getty
3845 root 18 0 1772 608 544 S 0.0 0.3 0:00.00 getty
3846 root 18 0 1772 608 544 S 0.0 0.3 0:00.00 getty
3916 root 15 0 1892 696 588 S 0.0 0.4 0:00.08 syslogd
3945 root 15 0 2060 612 520 S 0.0 0.3 0:00.05 dd
3947 klog 18 0 2568 1320 428 S 0.0 0.7 0:00.27 klogd

Hmmm...do we give up? Well at least we can say we tried. Thanks heaps tcrroadie. You're a champ. :D

[tcrroadie]

Well, looks like your machine just doesn't have enough muscle. At least you gave it a good go. Thanks for hanging in there.

Maybe this gives you a good enough excuse to upgrade to a newer machine. :)