Videos stutter in Firefox and VLC [WORKED AROUND]

[KF5SDR]

I'm running Linux Mint 18 Mate. Videos stutter every few seconds in VLC and Firefox, but not in Chromium or xplayer ("Videos").

EDIT: It's not just videos that stutter in VLC and Firefox; every animated thing stutters for a few seconds or until I press a key or move the mouse. It's rather annoying.

[Hoser Rob]

The first thing I'd try is turning off all desktop compositing in system settings ... I haven't run Mate in a while but I think it's in Window Manager Tweaks.

Need a lot more info though. Copy/paste these into terminal:

inxi -Fxz

glxinfo | grep OpenGL

And copy/paste the text output here.

[KF5SDR]

This is the output of inxi -Fxz:

Code: Select all

System:    Host: melissa Kernel: 4.4.0-31-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.3.1)
           Desktop: MATE 1.14.1 (Gtk 2.24.30) Distro: Linux Mint 18 Sarah
Machine:   Mobo: Gigabyte model: GA-MA78GM-US2H v: x.x
           Bios: Award v: F1 date: 12/15/2008
CPU:       Quad core AMD Phenom 9750 (-MCP-) cache: 2048 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4a svm) bmips: 19241
           clock speeds: max: 2400 MHz 1: 1200 MHz 2: 1200 MHz 3: 1200 MHz
           4: 1200 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] RS780 [Radeon HD 3200]
           bus-ID: 01:05.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.3 drivers: ati,radeon (unloaded: fbdev)
           Resolution: 1280x1024@60.00hz
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on AMD RS780 (DRM 2.43.0, LLVM 3.8.0)
           GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 11.2.0 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card-1 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] RS780 HDMI Audio [Radeon (HD) 3000 Series]
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 01:05.1
           Card-2 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA)
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:14.2
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.4.0-31-generic
Network:   Card-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
           driver: r8169 v: 2.3LK-NAPI port: de00 bus-ID: 02:00.0
           IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Realtek RTL8188SU 802.11n WLAN Adapter usb-ID: 002-002
           IF: N/A state: N/A mac: N/A
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 500.1GB (17.5% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: WDC_WD5000YS size: 500.1GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 29G used: 22G (83%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
           ID-2: /home size: 421G used: 51G (13%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda5
           ID-3: swap-1 size: 10.24GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda1
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   None detected - is lm-sensors installed and configured?
Info:      Processes: 238 Uptime: 30 min Memory: 903.5/2502.0MB
           Init: Upstart runlevel: 2 Gcc sys: 5.4.0
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.421) inxi: 2.2.35 

And this is the output of glxinfo | grep OpenGL:

Code: Select all

OpenGL vendor string: X.Org
OpenGL renderer string: Gallium 0.4 on AMD RS780 (DRM 2.43.0, LLVM 3.8.0)
OpenGL core profile version string: 3.3 (Core Profile) Mesa 11.2.0
OpenGL core profile shading language version string: 3.30
OpenGL core profile context flags: (none)
OpenGL core profile profile mask: core profile
OpenGL core profile extensions:
OpenGL version string: 3.0 Mesa 11.2.0
OpenGL shading language version string: 1.30
OpenGL context flags: (none)
OpenGL extensions:
OpenGL ES profile version string: OpenGL ES 3.0 Mesa 11.2.0
OpenGL ES profile shading language version string: OpenGL ES GLSL ES 3.00
OpenGL ES profile extensions:

[KF5SDR]

17.2, 17.3, and LMDE 2 all have this problem as well.

[Hoser Rob]

That's a 3000 series AMD card and their Liinux support for older cards isn't the best unfortunately. 3D hardware acceleration in particular doesn't seem to work very well. This problem exists back to ubuntu 12.04.2/Mint 13 for 3xxx AMD cards AFAIK.

For Mint 18 or Ubuntu 16.04 there is no binary proprietary AMD video driver because AMD dropped support and its replacement isn't quite out yet in stable form. And I don't know if their legacy card support is any better. There is a new open source driver called amdgpu but it's written for newer AMD cards. I think the radeon driver is the right one.

Have a look at this, which also applies to Mint 18:

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2016/03/ubun ... iver-16-04

For Mint 17 the fglrx driver will probably appear in Driver Manager. Don't install it with a pre 5xxx series AMD card. Even though it comes up on the list it will break the video. This is a Ubuntu fault IMHO that also applies to Mint.

Definitely turn off all eye candy, turn off hardware acceleration in your browsers (this should be done in Linux anyway), and try a lighter faster video player like SMplayer with a nice big cache.

[KF5SDR]

I've worked around it by giving SMPlayer a very large cache (64 MiB), but it still stutters when it reaches the end of the cache.

The stuttering doesn't seem to occur in BunsenLabs. I'll give that a try.

[chris42]

Hi there,
I have a similar problem, but for me not only the video playback stutters, but the whole system. In all applications I get a stutter every few seconds.
Is this only limited to firefox at your system or similar to mine?

Regards
Chris

[KF5SDR]

It occurs everywhere; when I posted the thread, I only recognised it in Firefox and VLC. I think it's due to poor hardware support, as has been said upthread.

[chris42]

I am not sure about that graphic card support thingy. I do not have any fancy graphics card, also this problem only started after upgrading to Mint 18.
Also the stutter becomes worse and more often the longer I use the laptop. A restart then refreshes it, but after a while it is back. Whole system is affected, from video to email, etc.

Here my setup

Code: Select all

System:    Host: ThinkPad Kernel: 4.4.0-21-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.3.1)
           Desktop: Cinnamon 3.0.7 (Gtk 3.18.9-1ubuntu3.1) Distro: Linux Mint 18 Sarah
Machine:   System: LENOVO (portable) product: 20CD0001GE v: ThinkPad S1 Yoga
           Mobo: LENOVO model: 20CD0001GE v: SDK0E50512 Std Bios: LENOVO v: GQET44WW (1.24 ) date: 03/20/2015
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core i7-4500U (-HT-MCP-) cache: 4096 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 9577
           clock speeds: max: 3000 MHz 1: 1191 MHz 2: 1100 MHz 3: 1099 MHz 4: 1099 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Intel Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics Controller bus-ID: 00:02.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.3 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1920x1080@60.04hz
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Haswell Mobile GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 11.2.0 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card-1 Intel 8 Series HD Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
           Card-2 Intel Haswell-ULT HD Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:03.0
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.4.0-21-generic
Network:   Card: Intel Wireless 7260 driver: iwlwifi bus-ID: 04:00.0
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 256.1GB (35.0% used) ID-1: /dev/sda model: LITEONIT_LCS size: 256.1GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 227G used: 76G (36%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/dm-1
           ID-2: /boot size: 237M used: 146M (65%) fs: ext2 dev: /dev/sda2
           ID-3: swap-1 size: 8.50GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/dm-2
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 54.0C mobo: N/A
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: 0
Info:      Processes: 237 Uptime: 55 min Memory: 2247.3/7894.3MB Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 5.4.0
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.421) inxi: 2.2.35 

[Hoser Rob]

I am not sure about that graphic card support thingy. I do not have any fancy graphics card, also this problem only started after upgrading to Mint 18.

You don't have an AMD card. You have an Intel video card, and while Intel video may need some config they don't have the same problems AMD cards do.

Please start your own thread and/or search <ubuntu 16.04 intel haswell video>. I'm an ex Ubuntu user and frankly I still get almost all my Mint support info from their support sites. You just can't beat that user base.

Post user details and did you do a web upgrade to 18 or a reinstall?