<SOLVED>i915 driver troubles in Betsy

[Fred Barclay]

G'day! I'm having trouble with what I believe is the i915 driver in Betsy Every so often, black bars form across the background, and icons disappear in Firefox.

According to

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fred@mark14:62 ~ $ inxi -Gx
Graphics:  Card: Intel 82915G/GV/910GL Integrated Graphics Controller
           bus-ID: 00:02.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.16.4 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
           Resolution: 1366x768@59.79hz
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel 915G x86/MMX/SSE2
           GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 10.3.2 Direct Rendering: Yes
fred@mark14:62 ~ $ sudo lshw -C video
[sudo] password for fred: 
  *-display               
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: 82915G/GV/910GL Integrated Graphics Controller
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 2
       bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
       version: 04
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=i915 latency=0
       resources: irq:16 memory:cfe80000-cfefffff ioport:c800(size=8) memory:d0000000-dfffffff memory:cfe40000-cfe7ffff

I'm using the i915 driver. I need to know how to get and install a different version of the driver in the hopes that it will solve my issue. And if you think I'm barking up the wrong tree, please tell me. I've never had graphics problems before, so I'm kind of lost.
Thanks!

I have screenshots here: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 03#p996303

[richyrich]

Intel drivers are built into the kernel . . so you may want to try upgrading the kernel.

[Fred Barclay]

Thanks--any idea how? To this date I've only installed kernels from Debian .deb files--never compiled them, so I'm unsure how to do it, and I can't find the 3.18 i386 kernel on the Debian website. Of course, Jessie and LMDE use the 3.16 kernel.

Strangely, I upgraded my old LMDE to 3.16 kernel and never had this trouble. So maybe it's more than just a kernel issue.

[richyrich]

I'm not running LMDE, but doesn't Mint Update have the kernel upgrade option? Mint Update > Menu > View > Linux Kernels

[Fred Barclay]

No--neither does it have the Driver Manager that 17.x has .
Two areas that are sadly missing.

[richyrich]

Two debian resources for you . . I have used the liquorix kernel in previous debian installs, they are top quality builds.

https://wiki.debian.org/HowToUpgradeKernel

Liquorix Kernel

Liquorix is a distro kernel replacement built using the best configuration and kernel sources for desktop, multimedia, and gaming workloads.

[Fred Barclay]

Agh! Liquorix didn't work.
I verified that I was using the Liquorix kernel via uname -a.

[Fred Barclay]

I have vesa and fbdev drivers unloaded (as per "inxi -Gx"). If I could figure out how to load one or both of them, and they work, I'd be willing to kiss the Intel driver good-bye.
I've tried uninstalling xserver-xorg-video-intel, and hoped that would force the others to load, but they seem strangely resistant to cooperating. (Much like Betsy at the moment.)

I'm actually a bit mystified as to all this--Debian Jessie ( and Sid) never gave me this trouble with the desktop. Why Mint?

[cli-86]

I have vesa and fbdev drivers unloaded (as per "inxi -Gx"). If I could figure out how to load one or both of them, and they work, I'd be willing to kiss the Intel driver good-bye.
I've tried uninstalling xserver-xorg-video-intel, and hoped that would force the others to load, but they seem strangely resistant to cooperating. (Much like Betsy at the moment.)

I'm actually a bit mystified as to all this--Debian Jessie ( and Sid) never gave me this trouble with the desktop. Why Mint?

im no expert on this but mint lmde doesnt get as much attention as the likes of mint cinnamon,mate,kde (rebecca) etc i think, im currently trying to find out how to update the kernel to latest 4.0 rc if i can get it sorted i will post the procedure for you that might help !

are you running 32bit or 64bit? you could maybe try the mate flavour as cinnamon can be tedious lol

[Fred Barclay]

Thanks! I'll try almost anything--I really want to get Betsy working!

I did try MATE--same issues.

[cli-86]

Thanks! I'll try almost anything--I really want to get Betsy working!

I did try MATE--same issues.

are you running 64bit or 32 bit of the lmde 2 os?

[Fred Barclay]

32-bit.

My processor is pae-capable, so on my first Betsy installation I installed the 686-kernel as per the instructions in the release notes, but I have just wiped and reinstalled it (I'd made so many changes out of desperation that tracking down the bug would be seriously hampered) and left the default kernel.
Still the same problems.

[cli-86]

32-bit.

My processor is pae-capable, so on my first Betsy installation I installed the 686-kernel as per the instructions in the release notes, but I have just wiped and reinstalled it (I'd made so many changes out of desperation that tracking down the bug would be seriously hampered) and left the default kernel.
Still the same problems.

if you dont mind me asking what processor are you using? have you tryed 64 bit os?

[Fred Barclay]

Intel Celeron M.

I've an old machine, and it's 32-bit only.

"Inxi -Fx" returned this on CPU

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CPU:       Single core Intel Celeron M (-UP-) cache: 1024 KB
           flags: (nx pae sse sse2) bmips: 3395 clocked at 1697 MHz

My machine is the HP Pavilion s7410n.

if you dont mind me asking...

Ask away!

[cli-86]

Intel Celeron M.

I've an old machine, and it's 32-bit only.

"Inxi -Fx" returned this on CPU

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CPU:       Single core Intel Celeron M (-UP-) cache: 1024 KB
           flags: (nx pae sse sse2) bmips: 3395 clocked at 1697 MHz

My machine is the HP Pavilion s7410n.

if you dont mind me asking...

Ask away!

just trying to do some searching for you as i can learn as im going along aswell

[Fred Barclay]

Just found something interesting in the GLX version:
LMDE Betsy:

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GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 10.3.2 Direct Rendering: Yes

Debian Sid:

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GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 10.4.2 Direct Rendering: Yes

I've had absolutely no graphics troubles in Sid (or Jessie), just Betsy, so I'm wondering if I could somehow upgrade the GLX (whatever that is.)

[richyrich]

Mesa is a level 4 update, so you will need to activate the level 4 in Mint Update to see if there is an update available. (Might as well check the level 5 while you are at it.)

[Fred Barclay]

I did that and applied all updates as one of my first steps in the first installation.

[cli-86]

Just found something interesting in the GLX version:
LMDE Betsy:

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GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 10.3.2 Direct Rendering: Yes

Debian Sid:

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GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 10.4.2 Direct Rendering: Yes

I've had absolutely no graphics troubles in Sid (or Jessie), just Betsy, so I'm wondering if I could somehow upgrade the GLX (whatever that is.)

https://sites.google.com/site/easylinux ... amon-first this will show you how to select level 5 updates this might help you

[Fred Barclay]

Sorry--I DID select and apply level 4 and level 5 updates.

More and more this is looking like a Mint problem instead of a base (Debian) problem. I just changed the /etc/apt/sources.list.d/trusted or whatever (I don't recal the exact name at the moment, but it was the sources.list file inside the sources.list.d directory) from Jessie to Sid (I left the Betsy repositories alone) I then ran

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sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade[/i] and upgraded my system. Rebooted, ran FireFox for a few minutes, and sure enough, the black bars formed on the background. 
This is what was upgraded [list]The following packages will be upgraded:
  aspell bash binutils busybox-static cabextract cgmanager console-setup
  console-setup-linux dmraid dpkg-repack ecryptfs-utils
  evolution-data-server-common geoip-database gnome-menus groff-base
  grub-common grub-pc grub-pc-bin grub2-common hardening-includes hexchat
  hexchat-common icedtea-7-plugin icedtea-netx icedtea-netx-common
  icedtea-plugin keyboard-configuration kmod libarmadillo4 libaspell15
  libc-bin libc-dev-bin libc6 libc6-dev libcamel-1.2-49 libcgmanager0
  libdmraid1.0.0.rc16 libecal-1.2-16 libecryptfs0 libedataserver-1.2-18
  libegl1-mesa libegl1-mesa-drivers libevdev2 libfreetype6 libfreexl1 libgbm1
  libgcrypt20 libgl1-mesa-dri libgl1-mesa-glx libglapi-mesa libgnome-menu-3-0
  libgusb2 libhdf4-0-alt libhdfeos5-ruby1.9.1 libhdfeos5-ruby1.9.1-dbg
  libhyphen0 libkmod2 liblogging-stdlog0 libmarkdown2 libmpc3 libmpfr4
  libparted2 libpython3.4 libpython3.4-minimal libpython3.4-stdlib libsane
  libsane-common libsidplay1 libslv2-9 libspandsp2 libsqlite3-0 libssl1.0.0
  libtdb1 libteamdctl0 libtevent0 libtiff5 libwayland-egl1-mesa libxatracker2
  libxml2 locales multiarch-support ntfs-3g openjdk-7-jre
  openjdk-7-jre-headless openssh-client openssl parted python-gdbm
  python-imaging python-libxml2 python-lxml python-pil python-pyinotify
  python-tdb python3.4 python3.4-minimal rdesktop reiserfsprogs ruby-hdfeos5
  ruby-hdfeos5-dbg sane-utils simple-scan sudo tdb-tools unattended-upgrades
  unrar wget whois xfonts-100dpi xfonts-75dpi xfonts-base
  xserver-xorg-video-vmware xtrans-dev[/list]

If I haven't mentioned it before, I have some screenshots [url=http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=218&t=192276]here.[/url]