Guide to Get the Best Performace from the GMA 500

[jbernardo]

One of the the things I saw yesterday in the PSB code is that all pixmaps should be 32-bit, and the option "ForceConvert24to32" seem to be gone from Xorg 1.7. Maybe we are having trouble with 24bit pixmaps ?

That would make sense. And would also mean we will have a huge problem getting this old driver to work with Xorg 1.7...

As for your previous question on using gdb with Xorg, I never got it to work. Only manage to examine a core dump. Running Xorg from gdb or attaching gdb to a running X would always hang with cpu at 100%.

[yvesdm3000]

There is something I don't understand about the PSB driver. Why is EXA duplicated in our driver?

And then we are using exa.h from our directory and not the one from xorg 1.7. Some structures have changed in the 1.7 version and will definitely not going to work. Possibly the ShadowFB doesn't stress EXA that much (hence, most stuff becomes internal to EXA that way). A small test here indicates that no .c files are used from the directory...

[jbernardo]

Well, exa should be built in our driver only for xorg < 1.4.99, at least according to configure.ac. I'll see if the driver builds without the old exa.h.

Edit: removed all exa stuff from xserver-xorg-video-psb, and updated svn and bzr. It makes no difference, as exa wasn't being built inside the driver anyway.

[yvesdm3000]

this made me thinking..

adding XAANoOffscreenPixmaps allows me to log in Gnome with a working 3D and without using Milone modified xserver... anyway icons are broken.

I don't see what WAANoOffscreenPixmaps would help. It should be the same as removing EXA_OFFSCREEN_PIXMAPS from the exa flags. When I do that, xorg doesnt even start...

-Yves

[bamarob]

I picked up a refurbished Asus Eee PC 1201HAB last week and promptly installed Lucid Netbook Edition. And, of course, discovered the issues with GMA 500. Actually, with the "out-of-the-box" Lucid install, performance wasn't bad, but video playback was almost usuable.

So, I ended up at: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardwareSupp...eoCardsPoulsbo and followed the instructions there for Lucid:

Open a terminal and type:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gma500/ppa && sudo apt-get update

this command will add 'GMA500 PPA' repository and update database

sudo apt-get install poulsbo-driver-2d poulsbo-driver-3d poulsbo-config

after your system will be installed with all needed packages, you must restart your netbook.

/!\ Use following notes for your models:

    * 3D still broken (shadowFB enabled, compiz will be removed)
    *

      On Asus and Sony Vaio add the following workarounds:

      sudo nano /etc/default/grub

      find correct line and update to below

      GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash mem=2000mb acpi_osi=Linux"

      Then update your grub config

      sudo update-grub

That didn't seem to help (actually resulted in the screen freezing at login). So, I saw where GMA 500 appeared to be fully supported in Karmic 9.10. So, I installed that. That's what I have now, but performance is not as good now as it was with Lucid.

So, I'm very confused as to what I need to do. This thread is so long (over 1000 posts!), it's difficult to decipher exactly what I need to do to get the best performance.

So, here I am seeking your help. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Robert

[Anfanglir]

Info on status of poulsbo-drivers on Meego:

http://mjg59.livejournal.com/123618.html

http://bugs.meego.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2205#c10

:shrugs / Anfanglir

[SlonUA]

I picked up a refurbished Asus Eee PC 1201HAB last week and promptly installed Lucid Netbook Edition. And, of course, discovered the issues with GMA 500. Actually, with the "out-of-the-box" Lucid install, performance wasn't bad, but video playback was almost usuable.

So, I ended up at: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardwareSupp...eoCardsPoulsbo and followed the instructions there for Lucid:

Open a terminal and type:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gma500/ppa && sudo apt-get update

this command will add 'GMA500 PPA' repository and update database

sudo apt-get install poulsbo-driver-2d poulsbo-driver-3d poulsbo-config

after your system will be installed with all needed packages, you must restart your netbook.

/!\ Use following notes for your models:

    * 3D still broken (shadowFB enabled, compiz will be removed)
    *

      On Asus and Sony Vaio add the following workarounds:

      sudo nano /etc/default/grub

      find correct line and update to below

      GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash mem=2000mb acpi_osi=Linux"

      Then update your grub config

      sudo update-grub

That didn't seem to help (actually resulted in the screen freezing at login). So, I saw where GMA 500 appeared to be fully supported in Karmic 9.10. So, I installed that. That's what I have now, but performance is not as good now as it was with Lucid.

So, I'm very confused as to what I need to do. This thread is so long (over 1000 posts!), it's difficult to decipher exactly what I need to do to get the best performance.

So, here I am seeking your help. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Robert

could u provide ur xorg.conf OR just compare with this one.

$ cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Section "Device"
Identifier "gma500"
Driver "psb"
Option "ShadowFB" "true"
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection

[SlonUA]

I picked up a refurbished Asus Eee PC 1201HAB last week and promptly installed Lucid Netbook Edition. And, of course, discovered the issues with GMA 500. Actually, with the "out-of-the-box" Lucid install, performance wasn't bad, but video playback was almost usuable.

So, I ended up at: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardwareSupp...eoCardsPoulsbo and followed the instructions there for Lucid:

Open a terminal and type:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gma500/ppa && sudo apt-get update

this command will add 'GMA500 PPA' repository and update database

sudo apt-get install poulsbo-driver-2d poulsbo-driver-3d poulsbo-config

after your system will be installed with all needed packages, you must restart your netbook.

/!\ Use following notes for your models:

    * 3D still broken (shadowFB enabled, compiz will be removed)
    *

      On Asus and Sony Vaio add the following workarounds:

      sudo nano /etc/default/grub

      find correct line and update to below

      GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash mem=2000mb acpi_osi=Linux"

      Then update your grub config

      sudo update-grub

That didn't seem to help (actually resulted in the screen freezing at login). So, I saw where GMA 500 appeared to be fully supported in Karmic 9.10. So, I installed that. That's what I have now, but performance is not as good now as it was with Lucid.

So, I'm very confused as to what I need to do. This thread is so long (over 1000 posts!), it's difficult to decipher exactly what I need to do to get the best performance.

So, here I am seeking your help. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Robert

could u provide ur xorg.conf OR just compare with this one.

$ cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Section "Device"
	Identifier 	"gma500"
	Driver 		"psb"
	Option 		"ShadowFB"	"true"
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
	Option 		"Composite" 	"Enable"
EndSection

[ubartu]

I am trying to get my widescreen 1366x768 supported under 10.04. Dell INspiron Mini 10. After browsing this thread, to the extent I understand it, decided to install the poulsbo 2d & 3d drivers, which caused a strange white screen hang condition.

Couldn't find any way to recover from this, did a clean reinstall, and this time more cautious. There was no xorg.config file, so I added a simple one from somewhere in this thread. Still the monitor configuration just "sees" and unknown monitor of 1024x768. Aspect ratio is closer to ok -- but still a little off. Any suggestions? If I add a section in the xorg.config file that specifies widescreen characteristics (using cvt command?) is this likely to help. If so -- what do I call the section and the identifier - -or does it matter.

Thanks

[yvesdm3000]

I am trying to get my widescreen 1366x768 supported under 10.04. Dell INspiron Mini 10. After browsing this thread, to the extent I understand it, decided to install the poulsbo 2d & 3d drivers, which caused a strange white screen hang condition.

Couldn't find any way to recover from this, did a clean reinstall, and this time more cautious. There was no xorg.config file, so I added a simple one from somewhere in this thread. Still the monitor configuration just "sees" and unknown monitor of 1024x768. Aspect ratio is closer to ok -- but still a little off. Any suggestions? If I add a section in the xorg.config file that specifies widescreen characteristics (using cvt command?) is this likely to help. If so -- what do I call the section and the identifier - -or does it matter.

Thanks

Make sure you are not using any opengl windowmanager or stuff like that. OpenGL is currently broken on 10.04, but still you will have to install it.

Please post your xorg.conf so we can see what is wrong.

-Yves