HOWTO: Jaunty Intel Graphics Performance Guide

[Aris+]

In case anyone's wondering, here are the results I got following the guide.

$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/PM/GMS/910GML Express Processor to DRAM Controller (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller (rev 03)

So I failed to record any benchmarks before I followed this guide, but I have noticed a significant (about 80-90%) improvement in full screen flash video. Scrolling is much smoother, even on pages with an flv -- whereas it used to get super choppy and laggy as I scrolled down the page as it passed the flv. I suppose compiz animations are smoother (but I didn't install compiz till after applying these fixes)

I followed the Optimal route and here's what I got:

First I edited Xorg.conf:

Section "Device"
	Identifier	"Configured Video Device"
	Option		"AccelMethod"               "uxa"
	Option		"EXAOptimizeMigration"      "true"
	Option		"MigrationHeuristic"        "greedy"
	Option		"Tiling"                    "true"
EndSection

Originally I had tiling set to false but then decided to try true and it works fine this way. Still don't know what that means if anyone cares to clarify

On Part B Step 2 I neglected to see if any packages were to be removed because after adding the key a dialog popped up asking to update -- I don't think any packages were removed but then again I have no way of knowing (unless there are some logs I can look at?).


Then I downloaded and installed the fixmtrr script:

$ cat /proc/mtrr 
reg00: base=0x000000000 (    0MB), size= 2048MB, count=1: write-back
reg01: base=0x07f800000 ( 2040MB), size=    8MB, count=1: uncachable
reg02: base=0x0a0000000 ( 2560MB), size=  256MB, count=1: write-combining

Don't know if that's better, but the output before installing the mtrr script had only two of those lines.


Then I did everything in Part C but somewhere along the line it asked me if it could update my /boot/grub/menu.lst and I said no (I recently edited it and didn't want it to screw it up). So then a bunch of stuff popped up on the screen..some stuff about DKMS...then I went to go reboot. As expected, the grub menu was exactly the same and it booted into the old 2.6.28-11-generic kernel. So I figured nothing changed.

Then today I went into my /boot/ directory and saw that the 2.6.30-02063002 kernel files are there so I edited menu.lst to include an option to boot it.

$ uname -a
Linux Plato 2.6.30-02063002-generic #02063002 SMP Mon Jul 20 17:21:37 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux

So it looks like I'm running it? Not really sure. Qualitative experience seems the same since before I changed menu.lst today.

Final result: FLV video is very smooth and scrolling windows with it is smooth as well. Desktop/compiz animations are alright but then again they were never that great on 8.10 either -- I suppose they're about the same now. FLV playback is a heck of a lot smoother than on 8.10, however.

All in all, thanks for this guide, it really helped a lot!

[psyke83]

Then I did everything in Part C but somewhere along the line it asked me if it could update my /boot/grub/menu.lst and I said no (I recently edited it and didn't want it to screw it up). So then a bunch of stuff popped up on the screen..some stuff about DKMS...then I went to go reboot. As expected, the grub menu was exactly the same and it booted into the old 2.6.28-11-generic kernel. So I figured nothing changed.

It's always a good idea to let the menu.lst file get updated, otherwise kernels can go missing as you've observed.

In future, be sure to edit the file correctly (editing the entries near the top of the file and then invoking "sudo update-grub").

[psyke83]

Hi, I have a question about Intel GMA performance. Currently I'm running x64 Jaunty on a Intel DG45FC (with GMA X4500HD) with E5300 dual core processor. The system is intended as a HTPC (mainly running Boxee) but I have a bit of a problem with the "almost-non-existing" Intel drivers. Which of the config specs wrote in the first post of this thread do you recommend for clear 720 and 1080p playback? (at the moment with the latest xorg-intel drivers I have a strange playback which at some points lags on the screen and it's obviously frustrating. Besides that, I don't want Windows on my HTPC.

Thanks

Stick with the Safe configuration, or experiment with the Optimal (to see if the newer kernel yields better results). Most of the problems with HD playback is due to memory not being set to write-combining, so the fixmtrr.sh script should fix that issue.

[Browser_ice]

Can someone answer my question in the previous thread page ?

xorg.conf did not detect the intel 915G chipset. Because of this some applications like Blender are having refresh/drawing corruption problems.

I just want to know what to put in xorg.conf

[TSWMIN85]

Honestly, I have no idea what I did here... but I'll put in some input.

I came here trying to get Warzone 2100 not to render 3D in black, since I have an Acer Aspire 5315 with a s*** out of luck Intel Graphics Card. So...

I tried the safe method and no luck. I went ahead start to the bledding edge because I just don't care, and it fixed my issue, and probably others I'm yet to discover.

Hopefully they fix this in Karmic.

One question, if I run into problems, this is entirely reversible?

And what are the advantages and disadvantages of me doing this?

If someone so kindly cares to elaborate.



EDIT: BEFORE THIS ANY FULLSCREEN VIDEOS SUCKED VICIOUSLY (i.e. VLC, HULU, YOUTUBE, ETC.) I JUST WENT TO HULU AND BAMMMMM MY VIDEOS FULLSCREEN ARE SICKER THAN THE AVERAGE INTEL BOGGED DOWN VIDEO CARD...

ONLY IF I KNEW WHAT THE H*** I DID...

[om26er]

i have a problem my etc/X11/xorg.conf file does not have xorg.conf file and
sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xorg-xserver gives the following error

Package `xorg-xserver' is not installed and no info is available.
Use dpkg --info (= dpkg-deb --info) to examine archive files,
and dpkg --contents (= dpkg-deb --contents) to list their contents.
/usr/sbin/dpkg-reconfigure: xorg-xserver is not installed
but i have installed xorg and xserver-xorg

[j0hn00]

i have a problem my etc/X11/xorg.conf file does not have xorg.conf file and
sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xorg-xserver gives the following error

Package `xorg-xserver' is not installed and no info is available.
Use dpkg --info (= dpkg-deb --info) to examine archive files,
and dpkg --contents (= dpkg-deb --contents) to list their contents.
/usr/sbin/dpkg-reconfigure: xorg-xserver is not installed
but i have installed xorg and xserver-xorg

it's actually

sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

[psyke83]

Can someone answer my question in the previous thread page ?

xorg.conf did not detect the intel 915G chipset. Because of this some applications like Blender are having refresh/drawing corruption problems.

I just want to know what to put in xorg.conf

Your system is probably using the intel driver, but it's not giving you the performance you expect.

cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep intel

If you see lots of lines prefixed with "intel(0)", you're using the right driver. No need to paste any output here.

[Bogdan_C]

Stick with the Safe configuration, or experiment with the Optimal (to see if the newer kernel yields better results). Most of the problems with HD playback is due to memory not being set to write-combining, so the fixmtrr.sh script should fix that issue.

Thanks for your support, you've done a great job with this thread. I went for Optimal and it works like a charm.

[mabovo]

Your system is probably using the intel driver, but it's not giving you the performance you expect.

cat /var/log/Xorg.log | grep intel

If you see lots of lines prefixed with "intel(0)", you're using the right driver. No need to paste any output here.

Wouldn't be cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep intel ?