Guide to Get the Best Performace from the GMA 500

[jbernardo]

I use eee-control on my 1101HA to control over/underclock, bluetooth, wifi. The home page for it is here: http://greg.geekmind.org/eee-control/
You can also use the ppa: https://launchpad.net/~eee-control/+archive/eee-control

[loodjuret]

I use eee-control on my 1101HA to control over/underclock, bluetooth, wifi. The home page for it is here: http://greg.geekmind.org/eee-control/
You can also use the ppa: https://launchpad.net/~eee-control/+archive/eee-control

I tried installing eee-control. It seems to improve fan control. However, changing 'performance' with the panel applet tool didn't do the trick. Still on 1.33 GHz (max). Any suggestion what I'm doing wrong here? The newest bios (323) should support this feature right?

[modafokaxx]

I would imagine he is referring to Aurora OS's Jupiter power manager:
http://www.auroraos.org/project/jupiter

[jbernardo]

I tried installing eee-control. It seems to improve fan control. However, changing 'performance' with the panel applet tool didn't do the trick. Still on 1.33 GHz (max). Any suggestion what I'm doing wrong here? The newest bios (323) should support this feature right?

Yes, just don't believe cpufreq. It does work, and I usually also change the performance to powersave when on battery, and get 10-15% extra time out of it.

[loodjuret]

Yes, just don't believe cpufreq. It does work, and I usually also change the performance to powersave when on battery, and get 10-15% extra time out of it.

Are there any tool like CPU-Z (in Windows) for Linux? A thing like that would be great.

[zehjotkah]

We have a symbol mismatch, I think that a function in xorg is no longer exported but called from our driver. I need some time to investigate this, maybe we only have to add it to the symbol list, dunno... (need a setup first to really test this too)

-Yves

Thanks for your thoughts.
Let me know if I can help you in any way, testing for example.
My Booklet is not needed to be working every day..

[a_petrov303]

I've made a customized livecd of Ubuntu 10.04 with Intel GMA500 support out of the box!


Features:
* gma500 drivers (ppa repository)
- 2D support (native resolution and hw rendering)
- 3D support (openGL, Composite)

* mplayer with vaapi backend (original script)
- video playback (also HD)


Dowload from Torrent or Megaupload


Tested on:
Acer 751h, Asus 1101HA, Asus 1201HA, Asus 91MT, Dell Mini 10, Dell Mini 12, Fujitsu u820, Clarion Mind, Sony Vaio X and P (*), FitPC2 (*)


Changelog:
July 14 2010 - first release (psb1)


Known problems:
full list here: http://code.google.com/p/gma500/issues/list
* XV video broken (black screen on totem and webcam)
* Compiz broken (due to OpenGL extensions)
* Thunderbird shows artefacts (workaround here)


Video Playback fix:
Use mplayer either via command line:

mplayer -vo vaapi -va vaapi filename.avi

or follow this tutorial.

Vlc fix here


Function keys fix:
Function keys are broken on some netbooks. Use this workaround.


Leds fix:
Some leds doesn't work properly (wireless, bluetooth). Upgrade to maverick kernel to fix them.


Suspend fix:
Remove the package vbetool, install uswsusp and suspend using the command:

sudo s2ram --force

(*) Sony Vaio black screen/low performances fix:
When booting livecd on Sony Vaio you can get a blank screen.
Hit ESC when you see first purple screen during livecd boot
Hit F6 - Other options
append this option to the end of kernel entry:

mem=1900MB nohz=off

then ctrl-x to start livecd

Once installed fix permanently using this workaround.


(*) FitPC2 fix
Replace generic /etc/X11/xorg.conf with the file
Compulab wiki here


Notes:
This iso image has been created with UCK and customized using this script
Other info about GMA500 Poulsbo are available in the wiki

Feedback and comments are appreciated!

Hi, I just installed it on a ASUS 1201HA and it worked great.

After I do a system update though I cannot see anything on the screen after the required restart.

Can you suggest some?

[loodjuret]

Hi, I just installed it on a ASUS 1201HA and it worked great.

After I do a system update though I cannot see anything on the screen after the required restart.

Can you suggest some?

Happened to me too the first time installing it. Now I don't dare upgrading the system. Also interested in a workaround for this.

I tried Jolicloud today from a live-usb. Works fairly well, but still slow and graphics are a bit choppy. Also the sound card doesn't work out of the box on my 1101HA. What GMA500 drivers are they using for Jolicloud?

[jbernardo]

Hi, I just installed it on a ASUS 1201HA and it worked great.

After I do a system update though I cannot see anything on the screen after the required restart.

Can you suggest some?

The old version of the psb-kernel-source package had a bug where it would remove the source tree and the module wouldn't get rebuilt after updating or updating the kernel. I pushed a fix but the first try would still fail, as it would use the scripts from the previous one and remove the source. Try to boot in recovery mode, and do a "apt-get reinstall psb-kernel-source".

[singpolyma]

I have an Asus eeePC 1101HA running 10.04

I have for some time been happily running xserver-xorg-video-psb to give me 2D acceleration and correct video resolution. I have the PPA added, and it was installed from there.

Today I ran updates and psb-kernel-source tried to update and failed with a "folder not found" error. I uninstalled all psb-related packages, ran apt-get clean, and then installed poulsbo-driver-2d, poulsbo-driver-3d, and poulsbo-config. The module built and installed without any error.

I rebooted and the splash screen was still the right resolution. Instead of GDM, though, all I got was a black screen. Could not switch to a vt.

So I booted into recovery mode and uninstalled all psb-related packages again. Rebooted, and Ubuntu put me into VESA mode. Everything worked fine, except of course graphics were slow and the resolution was wrong. The splash screen during boot was also in the wrong resolution.

I installed just poulsbo-driver-2d. The module built and installed without error. Rebooted, the splash screen was in the right resolution again. I saw the textmode login for a moment, then a black screen for a few seconds, then back to the textmode login, then back to the black screen. Still could not switch to a vt.

Booted into safemode again, tore out psb packages again, rebooted again. I am running in VESA mode now, but it's slow and the resolution is wrong. I'd really like to get the psb driver working again, even if I have to install an old version. I'm just not sure what to do to revert?

Man... this is why I need ZFS and apt-clone

Any ideas, anyone?