11.4 and Intel GMA 4500M graphics

smily_03 · March 11, 2011, 4:22pm

Hi everyone!

I had a quick question about my Acer Aspire AS1410-2801 with Intel GMA 4500M graphics. Last night I upgraded it from openSuSE 11.3 (which worked beautifully) to 11.4, and after the upgrade, my graphics are a bit jerky. This is the most noticible with the mouse (where it occasionally will get really jerky) but also when you scroll in FireFox, etc. - the CPU spikes up way high, which makes me think that the graphics driver isn’t right.

I know that the problem isn’t related to the upgrade from 11.3 to 11.4, because I run into the same problem when booted off of a Gnome LiveUSB.

I did a hwinfo --gfxcard, and everything looks pretty normal (it looks like it’s detecting the video card properly, but appears that it’s using a i915 driver instead of a GM45 one. Since openSuSE doesn’t use the xorg.conf file anymore, how would I go about telling X to use a different driver? And, am I even chasing the right rabbit here?

09: PCI 02.0: 0300 VGA compatible controller (VGA)
[Created at pci.318]
Unique ID: _Znp.ocqHJHAoUZ0
SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0
SysFS BusID: 0000:00:02.0
Hardware Class: graphics card
Model: “Mobile Intel® GM45 Express Chipset”
Vendor: pci 0x8086 “Intel Corporation”
Device: pci 0x2a42 “Mobile Intel® GM45 Express Chipset”
SubVendor: pci 0x1025 “Acer Incorporated [ALI]”
SubDevice: pci 0x029b
Revision: 0x07
Driver: “i915”
Driver Modules: “drm”
Memory Range: 0x90000000-0x903fffff (rw,non-prefetchable)
Memory Range: 0x80000000-0x8fffffff (ro,non-prefetchable)
I/O Ports: 0x30d0-0x30d7 (rw)
IRQ: 41 (96465 events)
I/O Ports: 0x3c0-0x3df (rw)
Module Alias: “pci:v00008086d00002A42sv00001025sd0000029Bbc03sc00i00”
Driver Info #0:
XFree86 v4 Server Module: intel
Driver Info #1:
XFree86 v4 Server Module: intel
3D Support: yes
Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown

10: PCI 02.1: 0380 Display controller
[Created at pci.318]
Unique ID: ruGf.J3CwC7TSmA6
SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.1
SysFS BusID: 0000:00:02.1
Hardware Class: graphics card
Model: “Intel Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller”
Vendor: pci 0x8086 “Intel Corporation”
Device: pci 0x2a43 “Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller”
SubVendor: pci 0x1025 “Acer Incorporated [ALI]”
SubDevice: pci 0x029b
Revision: 0x07
Memory Range: 0x92400000-0x924fffff (rw,non-prefetchable)
Module Alias: “pci:v00008086d00002A43sv00001025sd0000029Bbc03sc80i00”
Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown

Primary display adapter: #9

caf4926 · March 11, 2011, 4:44pm

Working perfect here:

09: PCI 02.0: 0300 VGA compatible controller (VGA)              
  [Created at pci.318]
  Unique ID: _Znp.tkyU_dBHk93
  SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0
  SysFS BusID: 0000:00:02.0
  Hardware Class: graphics card
  Model: "Mobile Intel® GM45 Express Chipset"
  Vendor: pci 0x8086 "Intel Corporation"
  Device: pci 0x2a42 "Mobile Intel® GM45 Express Chipset"
  SubVendor: pci 0x17aa "Lenovo"
  SubDevice: pci 0x3a02 
  Revision: 0x09
  Driver: "i915"
  Driver Modules: "drm"
  Memory Range: 0xf4000000-0xf43fffff (rw,non-prefetchable)
  Memory Range: 0xd0000000-0xdfffffff (ro,non-prefetchable)
  I/O Ports: 0x1800-0x1807 (rw)
  IRQ: 41 (137258 events)
  I/O Ports: 0x3c0-0x3df (rw)
  Module Alias: "pci:v00008086d00002A42sv000017AAsd00003A02bc03sc00i00"
  Driver Info #0:
    XFree86 v4 Server Module: intel
  Driver Info #1:
    XFree86 v4 Server Module: intel
    3D Support: yes
  Config Status: cfg=no, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown

10: PCI 02.1: 0380 Display controller
  [Created at pci.318]
  Unique ID: ruGf.OBK7uTUx+m8
  SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.1
  SysFS BusID: 0000:00:02.1
  Hardware Class: graphics card
  Model: "Intel Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller"
  Vendor: pci 0x8086 "Intel Corporation"
  Device: pci 0x2a43 "Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller"
  SubVendor: pci 0x17aa "Lenovo"
  SubDevice: pci 0x3a02 
  Revision: 0x09
  Memory Range: 0xf4400000-0xf44fffff (rw,non-prefetchable)
  Module Alias: "pci:v00008086d00002A43sv000017AAsd00003A02bc03sc80i00"
  Config Status: cfg=no, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown

consused · March 11, 2011, 9:26pm

but appears that it’s using a i915 driver instead of a GM45 one. Since openSuSE doesn’t use the xorg.conf file anymore, how would I go about telling X to use a different driver? And, am I even chasing the right rabbit here?

Same as @caf4926, I have Intel GM45 chipset and graphics on 11.4 (including HD video streamed over internet) and it’s working well on 11.4 using the i915 driver module (kernel). The xorg driver for Intel graphic chipsets is known as the “intel” driver. There is an older version of the xorg driver called the “intellegacy” driver and it’s packaged separately by openSUSE, but you shouldn’t need it. Providing you never configured 11.3 for the “intellegacy” driver e.g. in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-device.conf, your upgrade to 11.4 should have maintained the default “intel” driver which shouldn’t need configuring and is the right one for your chipset.

You can check which xorg driver is loaded and running, in /var/log/Xorg.0.log file.

rottenman · April 22, 2011, 12:52pm

Hi

I got almost the same problem as @smily_03 in my HP Pavilion DM3, with openSUSE 11.4, but I made a clean installation. The CPU doesn’t seem to be overloaded, but sometimes some small graphics (like forms, font, scroll or the cursor) look bad.

09: PCI 02.0: 0300 VGA compatible controller (VGA)              
  [Created at pci.318]
  Unique ID: _Znp.BkBDYCPo0W6
  SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0
  SysFS BusID: 0000:00:02.0
  Hardware Class: graphics card
  Model: "Mobile Intel® GM45 Express Chipset"
  Vendor: pci 0x8086 "Intel Corporation"
  Device: pci 0x2a42 "Mobile Intel® GM45 Express Chipset"
  SubVendor: pci 0x103c "Hewlett-Packard Company"
  SubDevice: pci 0x3649 
  Revision: 0x07
  Driver: "i915"
  Driver Modules: "drm"
  Memory Range: 0xd0000000-0xd03fffff (rw,non-prefetchable)
  Memory Range: 0xc0000000-0xcfffffff (ro,non-prefetchable)
  I/O Ports: 0x40f0-0x40f7 (rw)
  IRQ: 41 (205374 events)
  I/O Ports: 0x3c0-0x3df (rw)
  Module Alias: "pci:v00008086d00002A42sv0000103Csd00003649bc03sc00i00"
  Driver Info #0:
    XFree86 v4 Server Module: intel
  Driver Info #1:
    XFree86 v4 Server Module: intel
    3D Support: yes
  Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown

10: PCI 02.1: 0380 Display controller
  [Created at pci.318]
  Unique ID: ruGf.iAZrR2iSI7C
  SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.1
  SysFS BusID: 0000:00:02.1
  Hardware Class: graphics card
  Model: "Intel Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller"
  Vendor: pci 0x8086 "Intel Corporation"
  Device: pci 0x2a43 "Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller"
  SubVendor: pci 0x103c "Hewlett-Packard Company"
  SubDevice: pci 0x3649 
  Revision: 0x07
  Memory Range: 0xd2400000-0xd24fffff (rw,non-prefetchable)
  Module Alias: "pci:v00008086d00002A43sv0000103Csd00003649bc03sc80i00"
  Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown

Primary display adapter: #9

Also, some months ago I tried 11.3 and it worked perfectly.

consused · April 22, 2011, 12:59pm

Are you running Gnome or KDE?

rottenman · April 23, 2011, 1:05am

Sorry I forgot that…
I’m using Gnome 2.32 and the Intel driver.
Should I try with the “intellegacy” driver?

Thanks!

caf4926 · April 23, 2011, 6:01am

No
I can’t say you have really defined a problem
For example: Can you watch flash videos full screen?
(Your earlier comments about ‘some graphics/fonts look bad’ is a rather subjective comment) Have you changed the fonts from default? Mine are exactly as the install left them and they look great.

consused · April 23, 2011, 3:00pm

I agree with caf4926 here, and it doesn’t sound like a graphics driver problem so far.

I wonder if in ‘some graphics/fonts look bad’ you are referring to browser content. My default fonts on Gnome look great, except for those in SeaMonkey and Firefox. It’s not my main DE/system so I haven’t addressed that yet. There are solutions in other threads about font problems, if you search the forum. IIRC there was a howto for improving fonts by updating the subpixel hinting support, in last week’s openSUSE newsletter (Tips/hints section).

rottenman · April 25, 2011, 1:16am

Yeah, the most of these errors happen on Firefox, but not only with fonts, sometimes textboxs and buttons are not completely drawn, or sometimes the cursor is lost.
I’ll try to find about that in the forum.

Thanks!

consused · April 25, 2011, 1:41am

Ok. I’m wondering if it’s related to desktop effects [enabled here] on Gnome. In SeaMonkey (haven’t tried so much with Firefox) sometimes the cursor is lost/won’t click in place e.g. when posting in this forum. If I Minimise and Restore the window, it clears the problem.

martin_helm · April 25, 2011, 1:44am

rottenman wrote:

>
> Yeah, the most of these errors happen on Firefox, but not only with
> fonts, sometimes textboxs and buttons are not completely drawn, or
> sometimes the cursor is lost.
> I’ll try to find about that in the forum.
>
> Thanks!
>
Did you check if you also have that problem if you disable the desktop
effects in gnome.
Start simple-ccsm and disbale it and see if it is still there.
There are now several threads around with that problem which seems to be
compiz related.
If you already tried that and it makes no difference just ignore my
question.

rottenman · April 28, 2011, 12:56pm

Yep, you were right…if I disable compiz effects there’s no problem.
Also, Minimising and Restoring Firefox window clears these annoying errors.
I’ll try to find a better solution in the forum.

Thanks!

consused · April 28, 2011, 1:12pm

A recent update to the “intel” driver, as part of xorg-x11-driver-video package update, is available from openSUSE 11.4 Update repo and may well fix the display issues when using desktop effects (compiz). Although I doubt it will fix the font issues. Make sure you apply the update.