Debian stretch and i915/compositing in KDE

[ljones0]

Hello all!

I'm having a nasty problem with my old asus eeepc "seashell" series netbook and compositing in kde under debian stretch. The video card on this netbook is an intel i915. The problem I'm having is that if I enable compositing (be it either opengl 2.0 or 3.1) the whole system becomes very slow with video. I don't get any screen tearing instead windows become unresposive (for example I could try to open a terminal window and move it, and moving the window from one part of the screen to another takes around 4-5 seconds to move - owch! Even giving a window focus can take 3 or 4 seconds - !).

I looked in /var/log/Xorg.0.log and that confirms that the system is using the intel/modesetting driver;

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[  23.487] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/intel_drv.so
[  23.567] (II) intel(0): Using Kernel Mode Setting Driver: i915, version 1.6.0 20160425
[  23.636] (II) intel(0): [DRI2]   DRI driver:i915
[  23.636] (II) intel(0): [DRI2]  VDPAU driver: va_gl

I did some reading and I found some people talking about the "modesetting" driver but I am not sure if this is my problem or not. I've also tried having nothing at all in /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf, and adding options there, e.g.

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options i915 enable_rc6=1 enable_fbc=1 semaphores=1 intel_idle.max_cstate=1 i915.enable_execlists=0

but with no effect nothing I've put in there so far makes any difference. BTW kernel version = 4.7.0-1-amd64 . Kinda at a dead-end with this one does anyone else know what could be going on or if others are having this issue? Thanks

ljones

[sunrat]

I had an original EeePC900 and it ran KDE3 ok back in 2008. KDE4 was less successful. You could try setting compositing to "Xrender" (if it's still an option), but Xfce or LXDE would probably give you a much better experience than KDE.

[bw123]

i915 had similar issues right before jessie went stable, IIRC. That's bad news for me again if I want to upgrade, the problem eventually got solved. Before you chuck the KDE install, how about posting some info? That way I'll know what to avoid, thanks.

You'll need package mesa-utils

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glxinfo  | grep rendering
glxinfo | grep OpenGL
apt-cache policy libegl1-mesa

[Hallvor]

I had an original EeePC900 and it ran KDE3 ok back in 2008. KDE4 was less successful. You could try setting compositing to "Xrender" (if it's still an option), but Xfce or LXDE would probably give you a much better experience than KDE.

There is no need to throw out KDE. The KDE3 fork Trinity runs very well on that hardware. In fact, I am writing this from my old Asus Eee netbook with Trinity and Pale Moon web browser.

[geoaraujo]

There is no need to throw out KDE. The KDE3 fork Trinity runs very well on that hardware. In fact, I am writing this from my old Asus Eee netbook with Trinity and Pale Moon web browser.

+1 for Trinity Desktop Environment.

[ljones0]

For someone who asked earlier btw;

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$ glxinfo  | grep rendering
direct rendering: Yes

$ glxinfo | grep OpenGL
OpenGL vendor string: Intel Open Source Technology Center
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI Intel(R) Pineview M 
OpenGL version string: 2.1 Mesa 12.0.3
OpenGL shading language version string: 1.20
OpenGL extensions:
OpenGL ES profile version string: OpenGL ES 2.0 Mesa 12.0.3
OpenGL ES profile shading language version string: OpenGL ES GLSL ES 1.0.16
OpenGL ES profile extensions:

$ apt-cache policy libegl1-mesa
libegl1-mesa:
  Installed: 12.0.3-1
  Candidate: 12.0.3-1
  Version table:
 *** 12.0.3-1 500
        500 http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian stretch/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

For now I'm using xrender but my guess is that there's some sort of issue with the 'modesetting' driver. Not sure how it works btw -- after poking around a bit online I find people say you shouldn't use modesetting and use i915 (or vice versa) or use both.

I've tried TDE too that worked fine. Was weird being able to make it look like an even older vesion of KDE(!).

ljones

[bw123]

Well, the intel driver is a modesetting driver, and I think this means it's not like the radeon or nvidia drivers. I don't think you would need to experiment there, but you never know.

I'm using the jessie-backports intel driver 2:2.99.917+git20160522-1~bpo8+1, but haven't tried the updated mesa driver 12.0.3 I'm still using 10.3.2 and everything is okay.

Every now and then if I mess with the opengl settings I get a few hangs with effects, errors like, can't enable 'blur' or whatever...
Usually, if I revert to defaults, tick 2.0 on opengl and reboot the machine everything gets back to normal. I think kde should detect the proper settings when you create a user, but sometimes it does seem to revert to xrenderer if too many effects are turned on.

I guess all that might not apply to stretch, but hey, that's why they call it testing, right?

Thanks for the info, if it's just a case of intel driver not keeping up with mesa. It will probably get fixed pretty soon.

[ljones0]

I did a couple of quick videos to try to show what I'm meaning. I'm thinking that the problem is driver related.

First here is a video of a really old eee pc - a 701SD. It's a bit slow at resizing windows, but 3D "wobbly windows" and moving the windows about works fine.

Next here is here's a video of me trying to do the same with the newer eeePC/seashell device. It's a *lot* slower.

BTW, the "seashell" eeepc is newer and higher spec than that old 701SD. The 701SD should not be winning!

From memory the last time I used jessie on the "seashell" eeepc after updating I had the same issue x.x

ljones

[debiman]

common sense tells me that you simply cannot use a current compositing desktop environment on a netbook that age.
but i see that it works on the other eeepc, so...
have you made a full comparison of the hardware specs? maybe they differ in some crucial aspects. show us.
are you using identical systems? debian testing? same kernels?
have you tried different kernels?

[ljones0]

Well both systems are running debian stretch. One thing I should mention is that the newer device (eeepc seashell) is 64 bit, whereas the 701SD is an older 32 bit device. Both have the same kernel version, 4.7.0-1.

Specs are:
701SD
- Memory=1GB
- Storage=8GB (some sort of eMMC or flash device, not sure)
- Video=Intel 915GM
- Audio=Intel 82801FB
- CPU=Intel Celeron M, 900Mhz

Seashell
- Memory=2GB (The limit for this device)
- Storage=232GB (hard disk)
- Video=Intel D4xx/D5xx/N4xx/N5xx (it appears to be using the i915 driver)
- Audio=Intel NM10/ICH7
- CPU=Intel atom N570, 1.66Ghz

ljones

[bw123]

Sounds pretty close this little Dell I'm on, so definitely interested to see if you can solve it.

Video=Intel D4xx/D5xx/N4xx/N5xx (it appears to be using the i915 driver)

you can find out for sure like this

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$ lspci -kkk | grep -A2 VGA
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Atom Processor D4xx/D5xx/N4xx/N5xx Integrated Graphics Controller
        Subsystem: Dell Device 041a
        Kernel driver in use: i915

Do you think there's anything in the BIOS that could be limiting the amount of memory to the video, or shared memory speed?

see if anything jumps out with this

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$ dmesg | grep drm\]
[    1.570255] [drm] Initialized drm 1.1.0 20060810
[    1.606040] [drm] Memory usable by graphics device = 512M
[    1.606432] [drm] Replacing VGA console driver
[    1.612807] [drm] Supports vblank timestamp caching Rev 2 (21.10.2013).
[    1.612816] [drm] Driver supports precise vblank timestamp query.
[    1.688403] [drm] RC6 disabled, disabling runtime PM support
[    1.688435] [drm] initialized overlay support
[    1.692264] [drm] Initialized i915 1.6.0 20160229 for 0000:00:02.0 on minor 0

[ljones0]

Gotta go sleep now, but here's what I got;

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$ lspci -kkk | grep -A2 VGA

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Atom Processor D4xx/D5xx/N4xx/N5xx Intergrated Graphics Controller (rev 02) 
Subsystem ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Atom Processor D4xx/D5xx/N4xx/N5xx Intergrated Graphics Controller
Kernel driver in use: i915

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$ dmesg | grep drm

[    9.286532] [drm] Initialized drm 1.1.0 20060810
[    9.488502] [drm] Memory usable by graphics device = 512M
[    9.488515] [drm] Replacing VGA console driver
[    9.496168] [drm] Supports vblank timestamp caching Rev 2 (21.10.2013).
[    9.496176] [drm] Driver supports precise vblank timestamp query.
[    9.573236] [drm] RC6 disabled, disabling runtime PM support
[    9.573271] [drm] initialized overlay support
[    9.614341] fbcon: inteldrmfb (fb0) is primary device
[   10.379641] i915 0000:00:02.0: fb0: inteldrmfb frame buffer device
[   10.382725] [drm] Initialized i915 1.6.0 20160425 for 0000:00:02.0 on minor 0

BTW, wonder if discussion threads outside this place like this one have any bearing on all of this?

ljones

[bw123]

BTW, wonder if discussion threads outside this place like this one have any bearing on all of this?

Yes, if you're using the modesetting built in driver instead of the intel driver (xorg-xserver-video-intel) for 2d, maybe you should give it a try? The link where all the redit guys are spamming the bugreprts is a good clu, read what the dev says.

This driver is working great on KDE4 with mesa 10 for opengl, I use default effects, but I might try some wobbly windows here in a bit just to see what happens. I've tried the modesetting driver available for jessie, but I think it needs the updated xorg to work, I only get software rendering on it.

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# apt-cache policy xserver-xorg-video-intel
xserver-xorg-video-intel:
  Installed: 2:2.99.917+git20160522-1~bpo8+1
  Candidate: 2:2.99.917+git20160706-1~bpo8+1
  Version table:
     2:2.99.917+git20160706-1~bpo8+1 0
        100 http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ jessie-backports/main amd64 Packages
 *** 2:2.99.917+git20160522-1~bpo8+1 0
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     2:2.21.15-2+b2 0
        500 http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ jessie/main amd64 Packages

[ljones0]

>Yes, if you're using the modesetting built in driver instead of the intel driver (xorg-xserver-video-intel) for 2d, maybe you should give it a try?

I would but I honestly am not sure on how to do that. Depending on how you read things it seems almost as if the intel driver needs modesetting or vice versa.

ljones

[ljones0]

Ok, I gave this another try, but haven't gotten anywhere so far. First of all I'm reading a lot about two things - the modesetting driver and the glamor software (which I think is related to 3D). First question though - is "xserer-xorg-video-intel" still needed if you use the modesetting driver?

I did try to remove the xorg-video-intel driver and put this in /etc/X11/xorg.conf

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Section "Device"
 Identifier "Intel Graphics"
 Driver "modesetting"
EndSection

It did not work as X didn't start. Looking through the logs (/var/log/Xorg.0.log) I found this error;

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(WW) glamor requires at least 128 instructions (64 reported)
(EE) modeset(0): Failed to initalize glamor at ScreenInit() time.
(EE)
Fatal server error:
(EE) AddScreen/ScreenInit failed for driver 0

I'm not sure if this means the system is too old or if this is some sort of missing file/package or a bug that causes that though. Though I did read:

http://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_ ... -Intel-DDX

I note that there is a mention of "xf86-video-modesetting" on that page. But I don't see any package with that name at all.

Ok, right now I'm out of ideas on this one. Ack!

ljones