Difficulty with 3d acceleration after install of 12.3

[dave_cass]

My Dell inspiron 510m worked fine in 3d through versions 11.x and up to 12.2. however since I took the plunge and updated to 12.3 it has broken so that I can't seem to find where the settings are that will successfully turn on 3d again.

Using the "SDB:Configuring Graphic Cards in OpenSuSE" I get:
Graphics hardware as - Intel 82852/ 855GM
Driver in use - i915

This is all as it was in 12.3 which worked. (yes I checked before upgrade due to fun in the past!).

The graphics all detected fine and it works at its native 1024x768 but no nice desktop desktop enhancements and no Open GL screensavers working anymore.

The Advanced tab in "Configure desktop - Workspace Appearance and Behavior - Desktop Effects" showed Compositing type set to Open GL. I tried changing it to Xrender and that didn't help. After making that change the system will not allow me to change back to Open GL (and keep it), as each time I try accepting the change it goes back to "Xrender". If I set up a new user account though it does assume OpenGL in there but again it is not working in accelerated mode.

Sax2 is no longer available to help me out with this so does any graphics guru have any idea where I go nowadays in SuSE to address problems with graphics acceleration and find settings to correctly configure it. All the references I can find seem to be for earlier versions and suggest the now deprecated and removed sax2.

I'm getting tired of the splinters in my fingers from scratching my head ! ????


David Casson

[caf4926]

You obviously tried a new account, which is a suggestion I would have made.

You mention 'Updated' to 12.3
Can we ask how?

For me, the 3D works in the live DVD, does it for you?

My GPU is

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:2a42] (rev 09)        Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:3a02]
        Kernel driver in use: i915

It works and has always done

[dave_cass]

You obviously tried a new account, which is a suggestion I would have made.

You mention 'Updated' to 12.3
Can we ask how?

I booted from a Live CD (32 bit version) then I Chose to format the existing '/' root partition but retained the '/home' partition as suggested in the install process.

For me, the 3D works in the live DVD, does it for you?

No - I just tried that now and the same problem occurs. If I attempt to test a. Open GL screensaver then I get a fullscreen white but no 3d animated screensaver. Also if I try to select any desktop effect, then when I select "apply" I get an error message to the effect that 20 desktop effects could not be loaded. Even if I only made a single change and reversed it. Selecting "Details" reports that "For technical reasons it is not possible to determine all possible error causes. Desktop effects system is not running.

My GPU is

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:2a42] (rev 09)        Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:3a02]
        Kernel driver in use: i915

It works and has always done

My GPU is

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device [8086:3582] (rev 02)
        Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:0164]
        Kernel driver in use: i915

This machine was working with 3d acceleration and Open GL from SuSE10.? through to 12.2 and just lost it with 12.3. I haven't tried reverting to an earlier version as time has been a little short and I would really rather get it working with 12.3. I've upgraded to keep up with later versions of some of the applications.

David Casson

[caf4926]

Have you been able to apply all the updates for 12.3?

I have actually seen this before

Also if I try to select any desktop effect, then when I select "apply" I get an error message to the effect that 20 desktop effects could not be loaded

But after some reboots it's come good.
Or I have (some time back now) had to start a new .kde4 - But you already tested a new user... so maybe no good that route.

Also, try toggling effects on/off
Alt+SHIFT+F12

Did you by any chance try gnome, maybe not if you are short of time, I'd just be interested to know if they differ in result.

[dave_cass]

Have you been able to apply all the updates for 12.3?

I have actually seen this before
But after some reboots it's come good.
Or I have (some time back now) had to start a new .kde4 - But you already tested a new user... so maybe no good that route.

Also, try toggling effects on/off
Alt+SHIFT+F12

Did you by any chance try gnome, maybe not if you are short of time, I'd just be interested to know if they differ in result.

I tried another new user just to be sure and it's just the same even after lots of reboots.
I also applied all the updates (Apper found 143 initially) - with no change.
I've just now checked "on-line Update" in Yast2 and as I write this a Mesa9.02 security update for intel drivers is being applied. I'll report if that helps.

I tried toggling effects on /off with Alt+SHIFT+F12 and I see some things change - A brief flicker as the screen refreshes, then the active window is surrounded by a highlight glow when toggled on and not when off. I also found that I can re-select OpenGL (and keep it selected after "Apply") in Desktop effects advanced tab, provided that I also set the QT graphics system option to "Raster" not "Native".

I didn't try gnome as I've never used gnome other than in an older Ubuntu install on a machine belonging to my daughter. I will try that later. I would just rather not spend time going back to earlier versions of SuSE now that I have made the move forwards. Can you advise the best way to add the gnome desktop? (i.e. Does a search for Gnome in Yast2 find a complete package list of everything required and will the Gnome desktop then appear in the options on the KDM login screen?)

Many thanks for adding your thoughts to the problem too. - David Casson

[wolfi323]

I tried toggling effects on /off with Alt+SHIFT+F12 and I see some things change - A brief flicker as the screen refreshes, then the active window is surrounded by a highlight glow when toggled on and not when off. I also found that I can re-select OpenGL (and keep it selected after "Apply") in Desktop effects advanced tab, provided that I also set the QT graphics system option to "Raster" not "Native".

That "glow" means that desktop effects are working.
And you really SHOULD set Qt graphics system to "Raster" when using "OpenGL".

I didn't try gnome as I've never used gnome other than in an older Ubuntu install on a machine belonging to my daughter. I will try that later. I would just rather not spend time going back to earlier versions of SuSE now that I have made the move forwards. Can you advise the best way to add the gnome desktop? (i.e. Does a search for Gnome in Yast2 find a complete package list of everything required and will the Gnome desktop then appear in the options on the KDM login screen?)

There's no need to install GNOME I would say. If you want to, select "Patterns" in the "View" chooser in YaST and install the GNOME pattern.

If you want to check if OpenGL is working, you could just install the package "Mesa-demo-x" and call "glxinfo | render".
But it seems to be working, see above.

So is it fixed for you now, when you set Qt graphic system to "Raster" and Composite-Type to "OpenGL", or can you still not turn on desktop effects permanently?

[dave_cass]

Further to post of 10 minutes prior to this, the Mesa security update is now applied and after a re-boot there is no change to the 3d problem.

David Casson

[dave_cass]

That "glow" means that desktop effects are working.
And you really SHOULD set Qt graphics system to "Raster" when using "OpenGL".


There's no need to install GNOME I would say. If you want to, select "Patterns" in the "View" chooser in YaST and install the GNOME pattern.

If you want to check if OpenGL is working, you could just install the package "Mesa-demo-x" and call "glxinfo | render".
But it seems to be working, see above.

So is it fixed for you now, when you set Qt graphic system to "Raster" and Composite-Type to "OpenGL", or can you still not turn on desktop effects permanently?

I wonder if the glow just means some of the effects are working. i.e. only those that do not require the 3d engine to be working. Or maybe the 3d acceleration system is only partially working. Certainly the cube rotation does not work or any other effects involving 3d movements. Also none of the Open GL screensavers work. It is still the case that turning on one effect and then off, Followed by clicking on "Apply" gives the message about n desktop effects could not be loaded etc.

What I have managed to fix is that I could not restore the selection of compositing type in Desktop Effects advanced to "OpenGL" after trying "Xrender". I have now successfully restored that change which I made in my attempts to track down the problem. OpenGL is now selected and saved but still not working sadly.

I tried installing Mesa-demo-x and had no success with the render pipe that you've suggested. Was that correct? I got:

glxinfo | render
If 'render' is not a typo you can use command-not-found to lookup the package that contains it, like this:
    cnf render
X Error of failed request:  BadAlloc (insufficient resources for operation)
  Major opcode of failed request:  153 (GLX)
  Minor opcode of failed request:  3 (X_GLXCreateContext)
  Serial number of failed request:  22
  Current serial number in output stream:  25

David Casson

[wolfi323]

I tried installing Mesa-demo-x and had no success with the render pipe that you've suggested. Was that correct?

Sorry, typo.

Should have been:

glxinfo | grep render

[wolfi323]

I wonder if the glow just means some of the effects are working. i.e. only those that do not require the 3d engine to be working. Or maybe the 3d acceleration system is only partially working. Certainly the cube rotation does not work or any other effects involving 3d movements. Also none of the Open GL screensavers work. It is still the case that turning on one effect and then off, Followed by clicking on "Apply" gives the message about n desktop effects could not be loaded etc.

What I have managed to fix is that I could not restore the selection of compositing type in Desktop Effects advanced to "OpenGL" after trying "Xrender". I have now successfully restored that change which I made in my attempts to track down the problem. OpenGL is now selected and saved but still not working sadly.

Not all effects use the same OpenGL features. If the driver doesn't support a certain feature, then all effects using that can't be activated.
So maybe there is a regression in the intel driver in 12.3?
You could try to upgrade your X/Mesa/intel driver to the latest versions in the X11:Xorg repo.

I will tell you how, but let's wait for your output first...