Brand new build, same old problem (video)

[cpu-whisper1]

Maybe someone here can help or tell me where I went wrong. From the famous inxi -F command -

xxxxxx@Knit1 ~ $ inxi -F
System: Host: Knit1 Kernel: 4.10.0-38-generic x86_64 (64 bit) Desktop: Cinnamon 3.6.7
Distro: Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia
Machine: Mobo: ASUSTeK model: PRIME Z370-A v: Rev X.0x Bios: American Megatrends v: 0430 date: 11/01/2017
CPU: Hexa core Intel Core i5-8400 (-MCP-) cache: 9216 KB
clock speeds: max: 4000 MHz 1: 3924 MHz 2: 3835 MHz 3: 3899 MHz 4: 3899 MHz 5: 3899 MHz 6: 3884 MHz
Graphics: Card: Intel Device 3e92
Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: fbdev,intel (unloaded: vesa) Resolution: 1920x1080@77.00hz
GLX Renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 5.0, 256 bits) GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 17.2.4
Audio: Card Intel Device a2f0 driver: snd_hda_intel Sound: ALSA v: k4.10.0-38-generic
Network: Card: Intel Ethernet Connection (2) I219-V driver: e1000e
IF: enp0s31f6 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: 2c:fd:a1:bf:54:9a
Drives: HDD Total Size: 4000.8GB (0.4% used) ID-1: /dev/sda model: TOSHIBA_HDWQ140 size: 4000.8GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 1.8T used: 6.6G (1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda4
ID-2: swap-1 size: 8.43GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda3
RAID: No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
hSensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 29.8C mobo: 27.8C
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: 0
Info: Processes: 213 Uptime: 1:13 Memory: 1131.7/7834.5MB Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 2.2.35
xxxxxxx@Knit1 ~ $
In addition to the above, the Intel microcode for this board has been updated and loaded.

Everything works perfectly except the video which is absolutely horrible. The famous pop-up regarding rendering, where the main CPU is doing video processing rather than a
dedicated GPU is ever present. Silly me, I thought the Intel sites -

(https://01.org/linuxgraphics
The above site has a small program you can download and install but doesn't work. Even when I change the identity of the machine to standard Ubuntu (/etc/*-release), still
nothing works.
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en ... ivers.html
Lots of .exe branded downloads and info at the above link but nothing applies that I can find)

would have made obtaining a driver easy. If anyone has figured this mess out by all means send me a link or tell me where I went wrong.

Thanks a bunch for any information

[ClixTrix]

I believe that's a Coffee Lake CPU/GPU. This article and the tip on GPU acceleration should be what you need until the 4.15 Kernel is available from Ubuntu in the Spring.

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page= ... L-No-Alpha

I would go to Update Manager and install the 4.13.0-xxx latest Kernel.

You'll then need to add the boot parameter from Grub Menu for a test (similar to adding NOMODESET parm).

i915.alpha_support=1

If it works, you can add it to /etc/default/grub using sudo and editor of choice to make it permanent.

Look for this line:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="elevator=deadline quiet splash"

Change it to this:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="elevator=deadline quiet splash i915.alpha_support=1"

[cpu-whisper1]

I changed the grub file to both what you recommended and what was recommended for an Ubuntu machine -

"www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page= ... L-No-Alpha" last comment for the article.

with no difference on a new boot. On this machine what was initially in the grub file matched what was recommend for an Ubunty machine
"quiet splash". I did not initially see "elevator=deadline quiet splash" in this machine's grub file. Anyway, I changed to both suggested wordings with no effect on video speed. I guess I will need to wait for the next kernel update. Thank you very much for your help. If you think of anything further I can try, by all means post it here.

[thx-1138]

I changed the grub file to both what you recommended and what was recommended for an Ubuntu machine -

"https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page= ... L-No-Alpha" last comment for the article.

with no difference on a new boot. On this machine what was initially in the grub file matched what was recommend for an Ubunty machine
"quiet splash". I did not initially see "elevator=deadline quiet splash" in this machine's grub file. Anyway, I changed to both suggested wordings with no effect on video speed. I guess I will need to wait for the next kernel update. Thank you very much for your help. If you think of anything further I can try, by all means post it here.

(although theoritically obvious) - but did you ran sudo update-grub after editing grub's parameters as suggested above by ClixTrix for it to take effect?
Also, you didn't said clearly - did you also updated to a newer 4.13.x kernel?
I'd suggest using modesetting, try removing xserver-xorg-video-intel (sudo apt-get purge xserver-xorg-video-intel).
Is your current firmware the latest version? Latest one is 1.157.15 (sudo apt-get update linux-firmware).
If those still don't do trick, you could try a newer *unsupported* 4.15 mainline kernel...

[cpu-whisper1]

I haven’t messed with Grub in 5 – 6 years. I had forgotten a “sudo update-grub” was even necessary. Anyway, bottom line, neither wording worked, messed up the boot and required recovery mode to fix.
I’ve never checked a “Linux firmware version”. Doing a quick search indicates the term means different things to different people. Running dmidecode yields a version for American Megatrends Inc.
Version: 0430 which doesn’t make any sense. Running lshw yields
*-firmware
description: BIOS
vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
physical id: 0
version: 0430
date: 11/01/2017
size: 64KiB
capacity: 15MiB
capabilities: pci apm upgrade shadowing cdboot bootselect socketedrom edd int13floppy1200 int13floppy720 int1
3floppy2880 int5printscreen int9keyboard int14serial int17printer acpi usb biosbootspecification uefi
Maybe you have a better code.

Kernel 4.15 has been released. No sign of it on the Mint system. There is an advertised easy upgrade path here -
https://mintguide.org/tools/691-ukuu-ub ... ility.html
Don’t know anything about them but I’m tempted. Much thanks again for your time and patience I'll be gone tomorrow but I'll be back working on this problem over the week end.

[thx-1138]

cpu-whisper1, step by step:
gksudo xed /etc/default/grub
Change GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash" to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=" i915.alpha_support=1 quiet splash", and save.
Then you run sudo update-grub in order to make that change permanent & effective.
This is to instruct the kernel to behave with some pre-eliminary support for such newer hardware.
You need that parameter to be enabled under both 4.13.x & 4.15.x for now...

sudo apt-get purge xserver-xorg-video-intel
This gets rid of an older & obsolete intel video driver which hasn't been updated since late 2014.
Actually, it's a driver not recommended for even older systems than yours...
After rebooting, if you run inxi -Fxz, you will see the term modesetting mentioned:
It means that the system will be using the newer built-into-the-kernel driver.

sudo apt-get install linux-firmware
You already have linux-firmware installed (dpkg -s linux-firmware will tell you so as well).
The above apt command will simply make sure that you run the latest 'stable' & approved firmware available.

In regards to Coffee Lake & 01.org above: do not mess around with the 'Recipe Stacks' there,
as it will create more problems than we could solve...
What someone would need from there, would be the 3 corresponding packages from the Firmware page.
However, those happen to be the very same ones with Kabylake (because both architectures use similar graphics engines underneath).
And, (luckily for you), all 3 of them have already been added since quite a few months in linux-firmware described above:
so no need for any further manual downloading / installing etc.

In regards to 4.15 & updating: i haven't ever used Ukuu myself (i prefer doing such type of updates the manual way),
but the instructions in the site you linked to appear to be correct and in order.

Follow the above step-by-step, and if the problem persists, we'll see how we will take it afterwards...

[cpu-whisper1]

Many thanks to thx-138. The problem is solved. I also learned a lot along the way