PCIe x1 video card suggestions

[Hokiefyd]

This is what my laptop says. And the utilities were already installed (this is Mint 13).

Originally Posted By: Ramblejam
Direct rendering


Yes

Originally Posted By: Ramblejam
OpenGL renderer string


Mesa DRI Intel(R) 945GM x86/MMX/SSE2

Looks to me like this confirms that it is using hardware acceleration? This is an Intel Celeron M 430 (1.73 GHz, code name Yonah) with the integrated 945 graphics.

The eMachines desktop is now apart waiting for its new motherboard (ordered today). Funny thing...when I took the old board out, I see that it actually has an eSATA port. The rear panel on the case has a knock-out that covers it, but the port is actually there. Whether or not it's physically connected to the board and/or enabled, I don't know. It may have been in the BIOS, but I was never looking for it, because the eSATA port was blocked.

This will be a super easy upgrade. I simply need to knock out the blanks where the HDMI and eSATA ports are and bolt the board in. The fan and heat sink came off the old processor very easily. I was afraid of them being somewhat glued together. I need to get a tube of heat transfer gel, but I'm otherwise good to go. I look forward to being able to connect this computer to an HD monitor or TV with HDMI and enjoying some video on it. Thanks again for the suggestion.

 

[uc50ic4more]

Hokiefyd, if it is an Intel graphics chip set then you ARE using acceleration. Intel's drivers are open source and therefore are included in all Linux distributions. It's the ATI/ AMD and NVIDIA ones that you have to worry about; but again: Mint and Ubuntu alert you to the fact that there is a proprietary drivers available, and download, compile and install it for you.

 

[Hokiefyd]

I received the new motherboard, but seem to be having some video driver issues. The screen just doesn't look crisp, and video is very choppy, which tells me that it's running a "baseline" driver and not the right one for the hardware.

glxinfo tells me that it is hardware rendering, and that the hardware is:

GeForce 9200/integrated/SSE2/3DNOW!

And that the driver is:

3.3.0 NVIDIA 319.32

This driver is the one that is [RECOMMENDED] in the Additional Drivers window. I expected the hardware to be GeForce 8200, but it looks like it's 9200 instead. I suppose that's good, "better" than 8200, but the drivers don't seem quite in sync yet. More playing with this over the next few days.

Also interesting is the fan runs twice as fast as it did before; about 1,800 rpm instead of 900 rpm. I'm not sure why. My first guess is that it doesn't know that the processor is only a 15W processor; the base processor with the newer machines was, I think, a 45W processor. pSensor tells me the CPU idles around 28 deg C, and never rises above 33 deg C, so it doesn't appear to be overheating.

 

[Ramblejam]

Still loving Linux?

What have you tried so far?

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
This driver is the one that is [RECOMMENDED] in the Additional Drivers window. I expected the hardware to be GeForce 8200, but it looks like it's 9200 instead. I suppose that's good, "better" than 8200, but the drivers don't seem quite in sync yet. More playing with this over the next few days.

Did you try the non-proprietary (i.e. open source) drivers? I had decent luck with them with my last nVidia card on the old system. I was stuck with the proprietary drivers at first (and that was troublesome with kernel upgrades), but I stayed with the open source ones on a later version of the OS.

 

[Hokiefyd]

I enjoy Mint as something different. It hasn't been a plug-and-play deal so far, but I do enjoy (to some degree) doing some troubleshooting and making things work. And it certainly boots into the OS faster than either Windows 7 or XP, so it's quick and easy to fire up the laptop and boot into Mint to get on Chrome and do something online. To be fair, the laptop actually has been mostly a plug-and-play deal. Mint installed straight away, I dual boot with Win7, and everything runs perfect.

This eMachines desktop has been more difficult. Two outstanding issues:

1) Somehow, the boot record or the partition itself for Windows became corrupted, and I cannot boot into Windows (XP). It will begin to load and show the XP splash screen, but then there is a quick blue screen with some text on it and the computer immediately restarts so I can't read the text. It's literally gone in the blink of an eye. I used a partition tool in Mint a week ago that seemed to repair the Windows partition and I was able to boot to Windows. So I thought it was fixed. But since the new motherboard install, the old behavior has back and I can't recall at the moment which partitioning tool I used in Mint.

2) The graphics drivers. I almost had to re-format this very computer about a year ago after updating the nVidia graphics drivers, so I'm relatively gun-shy about graphics drivers. I have not tried to locate any open source drivers for this hardware yet. I'm not even completely positive what the hardware is, to begin with. The BIOS of the motherboard identifies it as an Acer Aspire X1300. I understand that Acer/eMachines/Gateway have a relationship (or are even the same company), so while this was a surprise, it's also understandable.

The Aspire X1300 appears to have come with an AMD Athlon X2 7450, which is much more powerful than the little 2650e that's in it now. That may explain the difference in idle fan speed. But the X1300 is supposed to have GeForce 8200 graphics, which is what that eBay auction said. Lint identifies it as 9200 graphics. I haven't yet been able to boot into Windows to see what it thinks about it.

This isn't really a distress call yet...it's just a status update. I'd like to get this computer out into the garage with its own monitor so I can spend more time with it and not have to unplug our Dell in the sunroom and swap cables each time I want to mess with this one. So I really haven't spent much time with it.

I certainly do appreciate your ideas and suggestions on where to look for the open source drivers.

 

[Garak]

The open source drivers should be available on the repositories, and perhaps are installed already. I just have to remember how I toggled them.

 

[Ramblejam]

How are you progressing with the drivers?

 

[Hokiefyd]

I procured a monitor over the weekend from Craigslist. I paid 45 bucks for one of these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824001094

So the computer is out in the garage and plugged in and I can mess with it more. I'm still short on time until vacation next week, but I do with it what I can.

The graphics drivers seem to be okay, actually. This 19" Samsung display looks much nicer than the 23" Asus display we have on our main computer inside. Some of the stuff looked just a little "off" on the Asus display, but it looks better on the Samsung display. And it's sure that it has the correct drivers. I will have to get the version number at home. It's 319.xx, but the driver is from July...it's not the VERY latest one from nVidia. But this hardware was released five years ago, so I doubt that there's a lot of functionality difference in the various driver versions at this point.

Some parts of the system (like Mint) report the hardware as nVidia 9200. But the nVidia Server X control panel identifies it as 8200. That's odd to me. I don't know if that indicates that I don't have the correct drivers or not.

Streaming video playback is fair at best. It will play a YouTube video on the website good, and it will be smooth. But if I switch that to full screen, the video becomes choppy. Internet connectivity seems good (wireless, through a D-link USB stick). It seems that the hardware cannot handle the video playback at full screen. I don't want to upgrade the processor if I don't have to, but then again, a dual-core Athlon can be had on eBay for pretty cheap, so there's probably not a whole lot of reason for me to NOT upgrade the processor.

Still...I have other equipment with lesser hardware that streams video very well. It's a personal challenge for me to refurbish equipment and get it running well, so that part of me wants to keep this little CPU and get it working as it should. But maybe this is all it can give.

But otherwise, I'm happy with the motherboard upgrade. It has a real PCIe x16 slot, which opens up a lot of video card upgrade options. But I feel that the onboard stuff SHOULD work okay here...

 

[Ramblejam]

Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
But I feel that the onboard stuff SHOULD work okay here...


You're absolutely right.

So, from what I'm hearing, all indications are that hardware acceleration isn't current enabled.

1. Enable hardware acceleration.
I assume you're using Chrome? If so, type about:gpu in the address bar -- everything should say "hardware accelerated". If not, type about:flags in the address bar. Click on enable for "Override software rendering list". Now, restart Chrome and check about:gpu again.

As well, you want to make sure flash itself is now utilizing the hardware. Go to Youtube, and right click on a video playing, go into settings, and check that hardware acceleration is enabled.

2. sudo apt-get install libvdpau1 vdpau-va-driver
3. sudo gedit /etc/adobe/mms.cfg

Add these two lines:
EnableLinuxHWVideoDecode=1
OverrideGPUValidation=1

Save, exit, restart, and report back -- good luck!

 

[Hokiefyd]

Thanks. Will try this this evening. Using glxinfo, I do believe that hardware acceleration was enabled. Yes, I'm using full Chrome on it (not Chromium).

 

[Hokiefyd]

Thank you for your continued effort to help me get this right!

Originally Posted By: Ramblejam
1. Enable hardware acceleration.
I assume you're using Chrome? If so, type about:gpu in the address bar -- everything should say "hardware accelerated". If not, type about:flags in the address bar. Click on enable for "Override software rendering list". Now, restart Chrome and check about:gpu again.


Hardware acceleration is not available for Flash or for video decoding. Enabling the override does not change any of these attributes, nor does it improve video performance.

Code:


Graphics Feature Status

Canvas: Software only, hardware acceleration unavailable

Compositing: Hardware accelerated

3D CSS: Hardware accelerated

CSS Animation: Accelerated

WebGL: Hardware accelerated

WebGL multisampling: Hardware accelerated

Flash 3D: Unavailable. Hardware acceleration unavailable

Flash Stage3D: Unavailable. Hardware acceleration unavailable

Flash Stage3D Baseline profile: Unavailable. Hardware acceleration unavailable

Texture Sharing: Hardware accelerated

Video Decode: Software only, hardware acceleration unavailable

Video: Software only, hardware acceleration unavailable

Problems Detected

Accelerated 2d canvas is unstable in Linux at the moment.

Stage3D is not supported on Linux.: 129848

Accelerated video decode is unavailable on Mac and Linux.: 137247, 133828

NVIDIA linux drivers are unstable when using multiple Open GL contexts and with low memory.: 145600

Force compositing mode is off, either disabled at the command line or not supported by the current system.

Driver Bug Workarounds

clear_alpha_in_readpixels

init_gl_position_in_vertex_shader

set_texture_filter_before_generating_mipmap

use_current_program_after_successful_link


Originally Posted By: Ramblejam
As well, you want to make sure flash itself is now utilizing the hardware. Go to Youtube, and right click on a video playing, go into settings, and check that hardware acceleration is enabled.

2. sudo apt-get install libvdpau1 vdpau-va-driver
3. sudo gedit /etc/adobe/mms.cfg

Add these two lines:
EnableLinuxHWVideoDecode=1
OverrideGPUValidation=1


The Flash player in YouTube does say that hardware acceleration is enabled. I used gedit to edit that file and it doesn't exist. There's not an /adobe folder in /etc. I re-installed the Flash plugin (and now have 11.9), but still no /etc/adobe/mms.cfg. I created one, with those two lines in it, but still no improvement.

Videos on YouTube play okay if they're at a very low resolution. But HD videos (listed as 720p anyway), play choppy, even if I let them buffer/load.

 

[Ramblejam]

Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
Videos on YouTube play okay if they're at a very low resolution. But HD videos (listed as 720p anyway), play choppy, even if I let them buffer/load.


Sorry you're having such difficulty with this. I don't quite grasp why it's telling you things are unable to be done because of Linux, yet here's my old laptop:

 

[Hokiefyd]

Something's going on here besides drivers I think. I tried some of the same YouTube videos with my laptop (running the exact same distro -- Mint MATE 13), and the laptop plays them much better. And the laptop has same or lesser equipment (32-bit Intel Celeron M, integrated 945 graphics, same RAM). And if I about:gpu in Chrome, more things are disabled on the laptop than on the desktop. In fact, every single field lists either "Software only, hardware acceleration unavailable" or "Unavailable. Hardware acceleration unavailable". But the laptop will play a 720p video from YouTube pretty well.

Could it be that the desktop would run better if I installed the 64-bit version of Linux, even that it has a 64-bit processor?

All of this smacks of having not enough processing power (in the desktop). I don't know how a Celeron M at 1.7 Ghz compares with an Athlon 64 at 1.6 GHz, but this Athlon seems like it's more for netbooking and that's it. Isn't much of the graphical horsepower (at least with integrated setups like these are) at least shared with the main CPU? The desktop struggles and acts like it simply doesn't have enough power. The laptop, in comparison, screams. Even the Linux install seems more solid on the laptop. I get bouts on the desktop where things will take a second or two to open (where they would have already been open on the laptop).

 

[Ramblejam]

Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
All of this smacks of having not enough processing power (in the desktop).


Are you utilizing system monitor to check on CPU, memory, and swap file loads?

 

[Hokiefyd]

The CPU tends to idle at around 10-30% when using system monitor, and indicating that system monitor is responsible for the load. Memory usage is always very low. Less than 500 MB when YouTube is open and playing (2 GB in the system total). I am not all that familiar with Linux swap file yet, so I may have to look into that.

Great news, though. I was able to get XP to stop BSODing by changing the HDD setting in the BIOS from AHCI to IDE. I saw somewhere how XP wasn't compatible with AHCI? I dunno...XP loads now. It's all jacked up...I can't get any of my USB input devices to work, but I will continue to work on this. My goal is to get Windows to load correctly and then compare performance to see if it's a software issue in Linux or a hardware issue plaguing both OSes.

 

[Ramblejam]

Now dual-booting? Man, you've got issues!

 

[Hokiefyd]

Ha ha! I didn't take Windows off of either of the machines onto which I installed Linux. Both the desktop and laptop are dual-boot environments. I say again, the laptop was just so seamless. Linux Mint MATE 13 installed alongside Windows, and all was good.

It installed alongside Windows on the desktop, but at some point, the Windows partition got messed up. I fixed that with a Boot Fix tool in Linux. But then Windows would BSOD out before I could load it. And it'd automatically restart when it BSODed. So I had to turn that automatic restart on fail setting to OFF. But I couldn't start Windows to turn it off.

So I made an AVG Rescue CD, which is an excellent tool, by the way. You can boot to this rescue CD and run a Windows registry editor from it. That's how I disabled the automatic restart. Then I restarted the computer just so I could see what the BSOD screen said. It had a certain Stop code (I don't recall), but a few minutes of Googling turned up a tip to check the BIOS and ensure that AHCI is not on. This is a new motherboard, and after checking on it, this motherboard was not installed in a machine that had XP...all had either Vista or 7, which can use AHCI. So I found that setting and switched it back to IDE and bingo....got Windows to load again. As noted above, it's got a lot of driver-finding to do at this point, and that's about when I ran out of time last night, so I will tackle it again at some point this weekend or next week. I did get the USB inputs to work (keyboard and mouse), and I also got the wi-fi USB stick to work, so I'm online with it. Small progress...

All of this is of little consequence in the grand scheme of things (whoopee, he got an XP machine to boot up!), but these little challenges teach me something about *something* every time. I found a great tool in the AVG Rescue CD and now also know the difference between AHCI and IDE (after reading up on that last night).

I like trying to get an old computer to run as much as I like trying to resurrect an old lawn mower.

 

[Ramblejam]

Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
I like trying to get an old computer to run as much as I like trying to resurrect an old lawn mower.


Is this where we start talking about my W5019 Kubota?

Bravo for having the patience (or is that persistence?) to get Windows up & running again -- thanks for the AVG tip! Years ago, when I was able to stop into a local computer shop and pick up WD3200 laptop drives (7200RPM, 320GB, 100MB/sec for first 40%) for $50, I knew it was time to stop messing around with dual-booting (I'd ran into the same issue you're dealing with, but never took the time to resolve it) and preserve Windows on a standalone HDD.

On an unrelated note, you got me interested in Linux Mint -- so far, so good with Cinnamon 16!

 

[Hokiefyd]

I choose to dual-boot both because I do like the ability to switch back and forth in a near instant without changing out drives. You do make a good point...it's not terribly difficult to simply swap the drive out. Neither one of these are what you'd call a "production" computer, though, so I don't need storage space on either and don't mind if the HDD is filled with two OSes.

I will mess with Windows this weekend on the desktop and see if I can get videos to play well. If I can, then I might try a different type of Linux on the Linux partition. I'm thinking it's hardware, though. Even straight Ubuntu with its Unity interface ran laggy on this desktop. I'm beginning to think that the processor itself is to blame.

Fortunately, a reasonbly fast socket AM2 processor can be had on eBay for cheap.