HOWTO: Jaunty Intel Graphics Performance Guide

**sketec** · May 27th, 2009

Originally Posted by draggy

Nice guide, I just wish it would work for me.

I have a eee 900HA using NBR, with an Intel 945GME

I've followed the safe method and after rebooting performance was faaaaarr worse then when using the exa acceleration. I checked the fixmtrr.sh and it said that it was already applied.

I started reading through the massive amounts of threads here, and found a post that said I needed to upgrade to kernel 2.6.28-11.43 because of the bug mentioned here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/linux/+bug/349314
I applied the kernel mentioned at the bottom, and rebooted.

I made sure the new kernel was running, and I checked the xorg log for errors but there were none. According to the log, uxa loaded and was running with no errors, but the performance is so bad I can barely navigate the menu on NBR. Switching back to exa puts the performance back to the way it was. I have also tried it with tiling enabled and disabled, but it makes no difference. According to the log, Tiling is enabled without problems.

I seem to be out of ideas, does anyone have suggestions?

My computer also uses the i945GME. I just got my Dell Vostro A90 (mini 9 clone) and immediately installed the latest Ubuntu 9.04 Netbook Remix. To my disappointment, with or without compiz, some graphics performance is awful. I tried everything mentioned in the Ubuntu Forums, Launchpad, Blogs, etc. Nothing helps. I even tried installing Ubuntu 9.10 because it includes the new kernel that suposily fixes the problems, it didn't help, and I lost wireless (Broadcom). Currently I'm using this PPA http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates/ubuntu which installs version 2:2.7.1-0ubuntu1~xup~1 with Option "AccelMethod" "exa", Option "EXAOptimizeMigration" "true", Option "MigrationHeuristic" "greedy", and Option "Tiling" "true". I tried UXA too, but every 30-60 seconds my screen would glitch, so I switched to EXA (which doesn't it default to that). The delayed scrolling in Firefox is the main graphics issue I'm having and it is slightly worse with compiz. I use Flashblock, so it can't be that. The animations in compiz are fine though, no glitches, and very smooth. I don't have smooth scrolling enabled either. Any clues for us i945GME users?

**Venter127** · May 28th, 2009

Originally Posted by scarf

hi. your xorg.conf should be there. make sure you are copying the command exactly as it is written in the guide. don't copy the dollar signs, as those just indicate the prompt.

my guess is you typed x11 instead of X11, and case matters in linux.

Ah! Thank you. It WAS a syntax error (thought the "1" was an "l"), so I got it to work, and This helps alot, thank you very much! My 3d programs run alot faster now, though A few of them still crash on me (in some wierd way that ignores force quit and all other commands, making the only way to exit them manually turning off the computer), and they still dont quite run as fast as they should, but it took me over a week to figure this one out, so I think Ill take a break before tackling any other problems.

Thanks again.

**SomeOne77** · May 28th, 2009

Hi,
I have done the Optimal config on my Acer Aspire One and now the hibernate does not work anymore.

When it restore from hibernate it goes back to the login screen as if it did a full reboot

I have the Intel 945GM Graphic controller

Does anyone have ideas ?

**theromanone** · May 28th, 2009

Hi there, I have the Broadcom STA Wireless Driver, and my wireless wouldn't work anymore after doing the "Optimal" section. I just finished reintalling Jaunty, and have no problem viewing anything after finishing the "Safe" part.. is there any fix to the Broadcom driver issue? I'd really appreciate it!

-Also, if I go ahead and try again with the "optimal" part, any suggestions as to what I can do to go back to my current settings incase the wireless goes out?

**AlphaMack** · May 28th, 2009

Originally Posted by reverend_nerd

Hello,

I followed the instructions to Optimal config, but I got a set back.
I'm using Linux Mint 7, a distro that is heavily based in Ubuntu and inherits it's design and code benefits and flaws.
Along with the ride came the problem with the slow performance in Intel Graphics. I found this post with the instructions I followed through the letter.

The graphic performance is quite all right, however, I've been recently facing problems with font characters and icons in certain apps.

Describing the problem is somewhat funny, I guess it's the X, that is printing the wrong fonts in the screen and them messes up everything. For example, the letter "X" itself right now is deformed, like the part of a bigger X.

Has anyone faced a similar bug? should I revert the config and try again? or is there a fix? like, downgrading my fonts?

Cheers!
Felipe Sentelhas

Restart X.

**Janma** · May 28th, 2009

worked for me.. thanks a lot

**VCSkier** · May 29th, 2009

The "optimal" configuration certainly helped 3D performance on my system (Intel 855GM) quite a bit, but font/character/image corruption was quite problematic. So, I reverted to the stock Jaunty kernel, resulting in the "safe" configuration, and performance is still significantly improved as compared to prior to the workaround, and the corruption is gone! Hopefully the bug in kernel 2.6.29 will be fixed soon, and I can upgrade back to that. In the meantime, 2.6.28 will do.

Thanks psyke83!

**Craig73** · May 29th, 2009

Originally Posted by VCSkier

The "optimal" configuration certainly helped 3D performance on my system (Intel 855GM) quite a bit, but font/character/image corruption was quite problematic. So, I reverted to the stock Jaunty kernel, resulting in the "safe" configuration, and performance is still significantly improved as compared to prior to the workaround, and the corruption is gone! Hopefully the bug in kernel 2.6.29 will be fixed soon, and I can upgrade back to that. In the meantime, 2.6.28 will do.

Thanks psyke83!

If you check out the phoronix forums and their intel driver testing thread, there is someone offering a patched 2.6.30rc7 kernel that addresses the font corruption.

http://phoronix.com/forums/showthrea...6563#post76563

Haven't tried it myself as it hasn't gotten annoying enough yet for me...