Problems with graphic acceleration in ASUS F50SL laptop

[Thuban]

Hi, everyone:

This is my first solo consultation and I'd try to be brief and concise.

I recently installed Linux Mint 18.1 Cinnamon ed. (64bit) in my ASUS F50SL laptop and I've not been able to solve the problem with graphical acceleration warned through a notification every time I log on the system.

Description of the system: (obtained vía inxi -Fxz)

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System:    Host: x-PC2 Kernel: 4.10.0-20-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
           Desktop: Cinnamon 3.2.7 (Gtk 3.18.9-1ubuntu3.3)
           Distro: Linux Mint 18.1 Serena
Machine:   System: ASUSTeK product: F50SL v: 1.0
           Mobo: PEGATRON model: F50SL v: 1.0
           Bios: American Megatrends v: 209 date: 11/12/2009
CPU:       Single core Intel Core2 Duo T6400 (-UP-) cache: 2048 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 ssse3) bmips: 4000 speed: 2000 MHz (max)
Graphics:  Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] RV710/M92 [Mobility Radeon HD 4530/4570/545v]
           bus-ID: 01:00.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: fbdev,ati (unloaded: vesa,radeon)
           Resolution: 1024x768@76.00hz
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 3.8, 128 bits)
           GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 11.2.0 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card-1 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] RV710/730 HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 4000 series]
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 01:00.1
           Card-2 Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] Azalia Audio Controller
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:0f.0
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.10.0-20-generic
Network:   Card-1: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 191 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
           driver: sis190 v: 1.4 port: cc00 bus-ID: 00:04.0
           IF: enp0s4 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Qualcomm Atheros AR928X Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express)
           driver: ath9k bus-ID: 02:00.0
           IF: wlp2s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 80.0GB (27.4% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: INTEL_SSDSA2M080 size: 80.0GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 33G used: 6.8G (22%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 5.12GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda5
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 66.0C mobo: N/A
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 145 Uptime: 1:15 Memory: 1156.8/3949.7MB
           Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 5.4.0
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.461) inxi: 2.2.35 

Last days I've been following tutorials and also the personalized help of Linuxmint-es IRC channel but nothing seems to work for me and I think I need refresh ideas and try to solve the problem by other ways.

The integrated graphic card on my laptop is a legacy AMD Ati Radeon HD 4570 (with 512Mb) and It's difficult to find the correct driver to this graphic card.


Symptoms that I notice when not having graphical acceleration:

• -The proccesor is having too much work and the heat-sink fan is working intensively.
  -The maximum resolution configured on the system does not fully match to the actual maximum of my monitor. Which is 1366x768

I've noticed other strange things such as my processor is only having 1 of 2 cores actually working, but I think this problem It's not related with this of graphic acceleration so I will open another different thread about it.

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Arquitectura:          x86_64
modo(s) de operación de las CPUs:32-bit, 64-bit
Orden de bytes:        Little Endian
CPU(s):                1
On-line CPU(s) list:   0
Hilo(s) de procesamiento por núcleo:1
Núcleo(s) por «socket»:1
Socket(s):             1
Modo(s) NUMA:          1
ID de fabricante:      GenuineIntel
Familia de CPU:        6
Modelo:                23
Model name:            Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU     T6400  @ 2.00GHz
Revisión:             10
CPU MHz:               2000.062
BogoMIPS:              4000.12
Caché L1d:            32K
Caché L1i:            32K
Caché L2:             2048K
NUMA node0 CPU(s):     0

Things I already have tried to solve this:

• - I have installed through the Synaptic package manager everything related to the graphics driver for amd fglrx
  - In the IRC Chat I was encouraged to update the Kernel to the last version and now I'm running the 4.10.0-20

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   uname -a
  Linux x-PC2 4.10.0-20-generic #22~16.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Thu Apr 20 17:43:29 UTC 2017 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

  -I also have tried to install AMD drivers downloaded directly from AMD website, but there is a problem with that.
  

I've tried all that things but the problem with graphical acceleration persist and I don't know what more may I do to solve this.

Any ideas?

Thank you everyone for taking time of reading me, and help me.

[Pjotr]

In Mint 18.x, there's no better option than the default open source AMD drivers in the Linux kernel. So I advise the following:

1. Step back to the latest kernel from the 4.4 series;

2. Disable all visual effects in Cinnamon:
https://sites.google.com/site/easylinux ... n-Cinnamon
(item 6.1, right column)

3. Consider switching to the lightweight Xfce desktop, by means of a clean installation of Linux Mint 18.1 Xfce.

[Thuban]

In Mint 18.x, there's no better option than the default open source AMD drivers in the Linux kernel. So I advise the following:

1. Step back to the latest kernel from the 4.4 series;

2. Disable all visual effects in Cinnamon:
https://sites.google.com/site/easylinux ... n-Cinnamon
(item 6.1, right column)

3. Consider switching to the lightweight Xfce desktop, by means of a clean installation of Linux Mint 18.1 Xfce.

Step 1: Done. I just downgrade to the 4.4.0-77 versión

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Linux x-PC2 4.4.0-77-generic #98-Ubuntu SMP Wed Apr 26 08:34:02 UTC 2017 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Results:

I've noticed some improvements:
Now I can select the brightness on the screen. Before I wasn't able to see nothing about energy or brightness in the taskbar.

I also noticed any problems:

Sometimes when I try to change of windows they become transparent or semi transparent and I can do nothing to recover a normal window view. I only can force a system shutdown.

And every time I come back and Log on the system I still having the same warning notification



Step 2: Done, too

I have noticed a slightly improvement on the speed of the heat-sink fan. It's ok!! (by the way, nice blog. I bookmarked it)


3: step 3: Not done yet.

Someone in Linux Mint IRC help channel told me the same. But I think my problems with graphical acceleration and other issues such that with having only once of the two processor cores working should be related with any kind of configuration.

I mean, to install 18.1 version and others, I'm always forced to set several non-permanent modifications in the GRUB lines by editing the GRUB by pressing <<e>> when It appears in the system boot. So, when the system is fully installed, in order to not to have writing those GRUB modifications every time I turn on the computer, I established them permanently by editing with a text editor (xed in this case) the GRUB here in my hard disk in the path>> /etc/default/grub.cfg

I'm a newbie and those codes or modifications were copy/pasted from any forum... So I don't know if they're are correct or not. I guess not. The tenth line is which I've edited randomly could be said.

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# If you change this file, run 'update-grub' afterwards to update
# /boot/grub/grub.cfg.
# For full documentation of the options in this file, see:
#   info -f grub -n 'Simple configuration'

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nomodeset_$vt_handoff nolapic acpi_osi=Linux"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

I don't know If those modifications have something to do with my problems in general, with those related to graphical acceleration, but I think I could help. I must say, the previous version of linux mint that I had installed was KDE 17.3 And I had no problems of any kind, no graphics or anything. Except that ram memory consumption was somewhat higher. (And that's why I switched) But the graphical acceleration worked.

Why not now?

My other computer with (512Mb of RAM) have an XFCE environment and that's because I choose Cinnamon, I wanted something modern. I'm not going to get it :'(

Thank you, so much for your time, and your advices.

[Thuban]

I have not been able to solve the problem with the graphics card.

I have tried to look for tutorials related to Ubuntu or similar systems trying to find similarities or modifiers that help me to configure GRUB in the most perfect way possible.

And I didn't know how to do it. I don't even know what I'm doing.

At least I have been able to verify that the other problem of overheating could be linked and accentuated because only Run one of two cores with which my processor counts. I have not been able to solve this either.

In Parted Magic, both CPU cores work perfectly and I get both thermal readings and other data from them.


My workaround has been to install Linux Mint mate, which by not needing graphic acceleration creates the illusion that I have improved on something.

If someone ever finds a solution to those problems, please write to me and tell me which have been your solution.

[Hoser Rob]

... My workaround has been to install Linux Mint mate, which by not needing graphic acceleration creates the illusion that I have improved on something....

Did you do a clean reinstall or just install Mate? I hope it's the former because multiple DEs tend to break things. And did you turn off all desktop compositing in Mate?

Your basic problem can be seen in your first inxi output. First, your card is AMD legacy. There are no binary drivers for it so there'd be no point in reinstalling an older release.

The 2nd problem can be seen in the line ...

GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe

... which says that you have no 3D hardware accelerated video at all.

If you look at the Ubuntu radeon manpage it says that your card has it but that isn't necessarily up to date info, and AMD legacy support isn't the best. According to the 1st answer here (by a highly ranked user) ...

https://askubuntu.com/questions/785788/ ... eon-driver

.... llvmpipe is what to expect. Unfortunately I think he's probably right.

The only grub config I can find that could make a difference would be one for power management ... try adding "radeon.dpm=1" at the end of the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=" line in grub. There aren't any magic grub parameters that will give you 3D accel though.

In these sort of cases ... my netbook has the same issue ... all I can say is to do a clean reinstall of a lght DE like Mate or Xfce, turn off ALL the desktop compositing/eye candy, and I just hope you weren't planning to watch a lot of HD video on that machine.

[Thuban]

Hi!! Hoser Rob:

First of all thank you so much for taking time to answer in such detail my question.

I'm not very versed in Linux Mint yet and the most of time I use inaccurate or confusing terms. When I say re-install Is one of those times. haha I meant to have installed different versions of Linux mint one after another. I used to format and then install and also creating the corresponding root partition (/) .

I was advised to install Linux Mint 18.1 Mate and it seems that I have managed to get rid of the warnings about not having graphical acceleration. But I do not know if it's because it works now or because the message just does not come out anymore in this Mate version. haha

Regarding those parameters needed to be entered into the GRUB Line: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=

nomodeset
radeon.modeset=0

Result: System boot perfectly. Processor problems persist but It's not related. I think.


radeon.modeset=1
radeon
radeon.dpm=1


Result: Gives some error messages mentioning radeon, that I don't time to read. It shrinks the Linux Mint logo and is blocked when three of the 5 points under the logo are changed to green.

I don't know how to pause those messages but I think there could be any clues in them.

I'm very worried thermal stress of my processor and the fact that only one of the two available cores works, increases the effort of that single core. I'll open a new thread. Although I don't want to be tiresome either.

I think everything is related to something in the BIOS and that ASUS fix " in the sense of geld" some of the advanced BIOS acpi, apic options creating problems and unnecessary difficulties.

How do you solved the issue in your case?
Which linux mint version did you install finally?
Have you experienced any kind of problems with processor? Do all processor cores work fine? haha
Have you tried any particular kernel?

Too much questions for today. haha

Once again, thanks for your so complete answer and your help.

[khf]

The release 4.9 and 4.10 of the kernel address the problems with the new Intel architecture - ACPI and the special use of the PCI with timing (Two devices can transfer at the same time). The problem is that Linux establish the peripherals during boot and without these fixes, only one PCI bus / bridge will be "seen". The fix is to stall at boot and sense the bus again.
Windows can install drivers as long as the OS "knows" they exist, and the Windows drivers will contain code to get it right. The core problem is the time the Intel instruction set use multiple time slots to present an address and obtain the content, and Intel must resolve this for this architecture to have a future. You cannot get the light to travel faster. 3GHz is 10 cm and the opening is just as many cores for the CPU, many peripherals simultaneously. Then the OS has to manage the memory and arbitrate the use of buffers. You can read the full documentation of the changes in Linux at Github: https://github.com/torvalds/linux