Cedar Trail platform , Intel GMA 3600 and Linux Mint 14

[RTPDr]

Can anybody predict how the new LM14 will be supporting Cedar Trail platform Intel GMA 3600 (as in ACER AOD270 Atom N2600). will it get installed without any problem, giving a low power consumption and 3d graphics ?

[AlbertP]

On Mint 13, there's "cedarview-graphics-drivers" in the repository, but that package has not been made available yet for 14.
You won't get very good 3D but apart from that your computer should be working: you'd better not run Cinnamon on it. Mint 13 Mate with the cedarview-graphics-drivers package should be OK.

[RTPDr]

Thanks albert. You saved a full day of mine !. Anyway of knowing when it appears on LM14 repos ?
The bluetooth drivers are not working with LM13, which appeared on 3.6.2 kernel which was removed as xorg failed to load. any solutuon ?

[AlbertP]

I think we have to wait for Intel to release a newer driver version that's compatible with 14, before it will appear in the repository.

[RTPDr]

Intel will never do that as it has outsourced the whole thing to powerVR. they are even discouraging cedartrail+linux.

[AlbertP]

The cedarview-graphics-drivers package on Mint 13, was made by Intel: influence from Imagination Technologies (PowerVR is their brand name, not a company) just means that it can't go open-source. I think they will continue maintaining this driver and eventually release a package for Mint 14.

[RTPDr]

LM14.1 Mate could not boot on ACER AOD270 !

[adriann]

Hi,

I'm trying to install Mint 14 with MATE on a Asus Eee PC with Intel GMA 3600, but I cannot get into graphical mode. Error is "No screens found". Are there any kernel/boot params that I can use to start the installation?

Thanks,
Adrian

[AlbertP]

For the moment I recommend using 13 Mate or 13 Xfce on these laptops with Intel GMA 3600, there you can install cedarview-graphics-drivers (on a fresh Mint 13 install, you first need to run the updater once, since the package did not yet exist by the time the ISOs where made).

You could boot by adding the xforcevesa boot argument in 14, but it will not work as well as 13 with cedarview driver. It won't have any hardware acceleration of the graphics, which can be quite noticeable on a slower CPU like Atom.

[adriann]

Thanks. Shouldn't the cedarview-graphics-drivers package from 13 also work in 14 if manually installed?

[AlbertP]

It appears to have no support for the newer kernel or X server used in Mint 14. Else it would probably have been added to the Mint 14 repository already.

Also, it is 32-bit only. Just like on Windows, using 64-bit this driver will not work. The CPUs support 64-bit in fact, but that is only really useful in computers which pair an Atom CPU with an AMD/NVIDIA graphics card, since those cards have working 64-bit drivers.

[adriann]

Okay, I think I'll try release 13 after all - but something is wrong here. I'm not yet familiar with the Linux Mint development process, but this issue has to be escalated. It shouldn't be normal that a part of the user base be forced to downgrade. MATE 1.4 in LM14 has significant improvements and bug fixes over the 1.2 version in LM13.

Also, this issue should be mentioned in the Known Issues section of the release notes.