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[SOLVED]Poor graphics/performance in Dell Inspirion 15 3552

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trailtron
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[SOLVED]Poor graphics/performance in Dell Inspirion 15 3552

#1 Post by trailtron »

I recently installed Debian Jessie on a new laptop that was preloaded with Ubuntu 14.04.

However although most of the stuff works,I had to face many graphics related issues-some programs quitting showing llvm error,plymouth failing to load,poor rendering of images,etc...

However I tried everything as this post said as my card seems to be a fifth generation broadwell card- http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=131611

Although some issues like applications refusing to startup were solved,I still had to face lots of the same issues-poor rendering,plymouth not loading,etc..

Even in applications that previously refused to start,the graphics performance is still poor/very slow(For eg-Mupen64plus shows a black screen with just the health bar shown in many games,Many steam games were very slow/skipped lots of frames,etc..).The renderer is still Gallium llvmpipe according to my inxi -G output.
Here's my inxi -G output

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Graphics:  Card: Intel Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx Integrated Graphics Controller
           Display Server: X.Org 1.16.4 drivers: fbdev,intel (unloaded: vesa)
           Resolution: 1366x768@76.00hz
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 3.8, 128 bits)
           GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 13.0.4
According to the previous tutorial,the renderer is still corrupted even after doing as instructed.

Another issue that I faced is that I can't boot using the latest kernel(4.9).Whenever I boot up after showing 'Loading Please wait..." the screen immediately goes blank.Not black screen or anything,just a blank screen and I have to force switch off(By long pressing power button) to boot again.Then I had to boot from the stable kernel(3.16) to get a working system.These are the outputs of update-initramfs -u and update-grub2 for Kernel 4.9 and Kernel 3.16 respectively.

Kernel 4.9

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Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.9.0-0.bpo.1-amd64
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/kbl_guc_ver9_14.bin for module i915
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/i915/bxt_guc_ver8_7.bin for module i915
Generating grub configuration file ...
Found background image: /usr/share/images/desktop-base/desktop-grub.png
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-4.9.0-0.bpo.1-amd64
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-4.9.0-0.bpo.1-amd64
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.16.0-4-amd64
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-3.16.0-4-amd64
Adding boot menu entry for EFI firmware configuration
done
Kernel 3.16

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Generating grub configuration file ...
Found background image: /usr/share/images/desktop-base/desktop-grub.png
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.16.0-4-amd64
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-3.16.0-4-amd64
Adding boot menu entry for EFI firmware configuration
done
All this time I assumed it was some software problem,but now it seems like a driver problem.
Last edited by trailtron on 2017-05-07 21:50, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Poor graphics/performance in Dell Inspirion 15 3552

#2 Post by stevepusser »

It might be a better idea to just try with Debian 9 Stretch, now that it's frozen and is just getting the bugs out. Though I'm also curious...perhaps switching to the modesetting instead of the intel video driver would help. I also help with MX Linux, and am curious to see how the 64-bit MX 16 Live ISO works on your box, as it's basically Jessie underneath with all those package backport upgrades already in it to support up to seventh generation Intel GPUs; any non-free firmware we can think of is also pre-installed (sorry purists :) ) I know it works out of the box for my sixth generation one.
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Re: Poor graphics/performance in Dell Inspirion 15 3552

#3 Post by Dai_trying »

I have this laptop and like suggested it is much better to use stretch as it will have everything working better, the only problem I have is the sd card reader doesn't work properly but I use a usb adapter for now. You can use jessie after installing the newer kernel from backports and also the video drivers, and there are probably more packages you would need but I gave up and installed stretch to keep life simple.

trailtron
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Re: Poor graphics/performance in Dell Inspirion 15 3552

#4 Post by trailtron »

Dai_trying wrote:I have this laptop and like suggested it is much better to use stretch as it will have everything working better, the only problem I have is the sd card reader doesn't work properly but I use a usb adapter for now. You can use jessie after installing the newer kernel from backports and also the video drivers, and there are probably more packages you would need but I gave up and installed stretch to keep life simple.
I will move to stretch if there is no choice but I would like to know what are those bunch of tasks that I would have to do to get it work because I have setup a lot of other stuff already and I really don't want to do everything from scratch.

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Re: Poor graphics/performance in Dell Inspirion 15 3552

#5 Post by bw123 »

I will move to stretch if there is no choice but I would like to know what are those bunch of tasks that I would have to do to get it work because I have setup a lot of other stuff already and I really don't want to do everything from scratch.
Backup first. If you have space you can make another partition for stretch, do some research on size. You could use dd to copy your existing install to the new partition after backing it up and upgrade from there? That way there should be less setup, depending on how well the upgrade goes.

Before that, make a backup.

I haven't tried mx16, but the live is only 1.2gigs, and if it works, I bet Steve will help you fix your install with what you learn.

https://mxlinux.org/download-links

Do a backup first if you have time.
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trailtron
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Re: Poor graphics/performance in Dell Inspirion 15 3552

#6 Post by trailtron »

stevepusser wrote:It might be a better idea to just try with Debian 9 Stretch, now that it's frozen and is just getting the bugs out. Though I'm also curious...perhaps switching to the modesetting instead of the intel video driver would help. I also help with MX Linux, and am curious to see how the 64-bit MX 16 Live ISO works on your box, as it's basically Jessie underneath with all those package backport upgrades already in it to support up to seventh generation Intel GPUs; any non-free firmware we can think of is also pre-installed (sorry purists :) ) I know it works out of the box for my sixth generation one.
Ok,I installed Stretch and I was able to resolve the graphics issue.However I still can't boot to the latest kernel(4.9) and have to select the old kernel(3.16) from the recovery to boot.

Is there someway I can go back to using the old kernel forever and prevent any further upgrades from the old kernel?

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Re: Poor graphics/performance in Dell Inspirion 15 3552

#7 Post by stevepusser »

How are you seeing the 3.16 Jessie kernel with a Stretch install? The 3.16 kernel's internal part of the Intel graphics driver does not support Broadwell graphics except in a crippled manner, anyway, so I can't see the point of you using it in Stretch. Have you tried any Live sessions of Stretch or other distros, as suggested?
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trailtron
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Re: Poor graphics/performance in Dell Inspirion 15 3552

#8 Post by trailtron »

stevepusser wrote:How are you seeing the 3.16 Jessie kernel with a Stretch install? The 3.16 kernel's internal part of the Intel graphics driver does not support Broadwell graphics except in a crippled manner, anyway, so I can't see the point of you using it in Stretch. Have you tried any Live sessions of Stretch or other distros, as suggested?
Live sessions don't boot at all
I upgraded from pre installed jessie.But as you said,the graphics is still corrupted as indicated by inxi -G(But plymouth kind of works)I select the old kernel from the grub menu

I think this might be kernel issue,as all distros using 2015+ kernels seems to have this problem(And by blank screen,I meant literal blank screen with no backlight),as if its shutdown,but its not.

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Re: Poor graphics/performance in Dell Inspirion 15 3552

#9 Post by Segfault »

Did this laptop come with Ubuntu preinstalled? Did Ubuntu work? You should look at dmesg after it boots up into black screen. The black screen is after kernel loads or after X loads? If latter, looking at Xorg log will tell what's wrong.

Just SSH'd into my Kodi box, it happens to have the same hardware, I'm using Intel driver with it, kernel 4.10.1.

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 ~ $ DISPLAY=:0.0 inxi -G 
Graphics:  Card: Intel Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx Integrated Graphics Controller
           Display Server: X.Org 1.19.2 driver: intel Resolution: 1920x1080
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 400 (Braswell) GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 17.0.1
Works great.

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Re: Poor graphics/performance in Dell Inspirion 15 3552

#10 Post by Dai_trying »

trailtron wrote:Live sessions don't boot at all
I had to disable secure boot from UEFI menu and then press F12 to get the boot menu on start-up select the usb stick and then everything boots fine for live systems. I just tested this using Q4OS Scorpion (Debian Stretch Based) and the results from inxi are shown below, Everything appears to be running fine from live session.

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adminq@debian:~$ inxi -F
System:    Host: debian Kernel: 4.9.0-1-amd64 x86_64 (64 bit) Desktop: KDE Plasma 3
           Distro: Debian GNU/Linux 9 (stretch)
Machine:   Device: portable System: Dell product: Inspiron 15-3552 v: 4.0.13
           Mobo: Dell model: 0T14MC v: A00 UEFI: Dell v: 4.0.13 date: 12/22/2016
Battery    BAT0: charge: 23.5 Wh 91.6% condition: 25.7/28.0 Wh (92%)
CPU:       Quad core Intel Pentium N3700 (-MCP-) cache: 1024 KB
           clock speeds: max: 2400 MHz 1: 789 MHz 2: 760 MHz 3: 930 MHz 4: 525 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Intel Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx Integrated Graphics Controller
           Display Server: X.Org 1.19.1 drivers: modesetting (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
           Resolution: 1366x768@60.00hz
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 405 (Braswell) GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 13.0.3
Audio:     Card Intel Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx Series High Definition Audio Controller
           driver: snd_hda_intel
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.9.0-1-amd64
Network:   Card-1: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9565 / AR9565 Wireless Network Adapter driver: ath9k
           IF: wlp1s0 state: up mac: 94:53:30:3d:09:15
           Card-2: Atheros
           IF: null-if-id state: N/A speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: N/A
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 504.1GB (0.1% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: TOSHIBA_MQ01ABF0 size: 500.1GB
           ID-2: USB /dev/sdb model: STORAGE_DEVICE size: 4.0GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 1.9G used: 142M (8%) fs: overlay dev: N/A
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 41.0C mobo: 34.0C
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A fan-1: 0
Info:      Processes: 157 Uptime: 4 min Memory: 244.1/3867.5MB Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 2.3.5
If I recall right I had to mess around with the debian image to get it to boot using UEFI, but it was quite a while back and it may not be necessary to alter anything now (I haven't checked lately). Hopefully this will help in some way...

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Re: Poor graphics/performance in Dell Inspirion 15 3552

#11 Post by trailtron »

Dai_trying wrote: I had to disable secure boot from UEFI menu and then press F12 to get the boot menu on start-up select the usb stick and then everything boots fine for live systems
Yes,I did that.

It seems the screen goes blank whenever the kernel loads.And its not just live USB.Screen goes blank like this when I upgrade to the latest kernel.
Last edited by trailtron on 2017-03-07 17:38, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Poor graphics/performance in Dell Inspirion 15 3552

#12 Post by trailtron »

Segfault wrote:Did this laptop come with Ubuntu preinstalled? Did Ubuntu work? You should look at dmesg after it boots up into black screen. The black screen is after kernel loads or after X loads? If latter, looking at Xorg log will tell what's wrong.

Just SSH'd into my Kodi box, it happens to have the same hardware, I'm using Intel driver with it, kernel 4.10.1.

Code: Select all

 ~ $ DISPLAY=:0.0 inxi -G 
Graphics:  Card: Intel Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx Integrated Graphics Controller
           Display Server: X.Org 1.19.2 driver: intel Resolution: 1920x1080
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 400 (Braswell) GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 17.0.1
Works great.
It came with Ubuntu preinstalled(12.04) but like I said,it does'nt work with the latest Ubuntu image or anything 2014+ for that matter.I already tried 4 distros-Debian,Arch,Ubuntu and Elementary and all had the same errror.
The screen goes blankk soon after 'Loading Please Wait' starts

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Re: Poor graphics/performance in Dell Inspirion 15 3552

#13 Post by Segfault »

Well, sounds like the newer kernel can't handle your Intel graphics for some odd reason. My NUC, the Kodi box, is years old, it had most of time updated kernels and they all worked. I roll my own kernels, so it has always been customized for this hardware.

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Re: Poor graphics/performance in Dell Inspirion 15 3552

#14 Post by Dai_trying »

which cpu do you have?

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Re: Poor graphics/performance in Dell Inspirion 15 3552

#15 Post by trailtron »

Dai_trying wrote:which cpu do you have?
Pentium Quad Core(Probably N300)

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Re: Poor graphics/performance in Dell Inspirion 15 3552

#16 Post by trailtron »

Segfault wrote:Well, sounds like the newer kernel can't handle your Intel graphics for some odd reason. My NUC, the Kodi box, is years old, it had most of time updated kernels and they all worked. I roll my own kernels, so it has always been customized for this hardware.
If this is a kernel issue,is there some way to fix it?

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Re: Poor graphics/performance in Dell Inspirion 15 3552

#17 Post by Segfault »

Despite turning black it may actually boot - and produce a helpful dmesg. So have a look at it. Pay attention to lines containing drm and/or vga.

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Re: Poor graphics/performance in Dell Inspirion 15 3552

#18 Post by stevepusser »

This Linux Mint thread seems to show that changing the settings for UEFI vs Legacy Boot cured the black screen problem, but there's two contradictory answers. The nonfree intel-microcode package could be worth adding, too. https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=215965
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Re: Poor graphics/performance in Dell Inspirion 15 3552

#19 Post by Segfault »

Yup, there is EFI framebuffer, if it cannot handle the [possibly buggy] UEFI firmware you get black screen, booting in CSM mode will work around it.

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Re: Poor graphics/performance in Dell Inspirion 15 3552

#20 Post by trailtron »

stevepusser wrote:This Linux Mint thread seems to show that changing the settings for UEFI vs Legacy Boot cured the black screen problem, but there's two contradictory answers. The nonfree intel-microcode package could be worth adding, too. https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=215965
Hmmm...The guy with my exact problem seems to have fixed it in UEFI by just installing the latest Linux Mint.Or maybe my reading comprehension might be bad :P(Sorry,not I am an ESLer)

Is there some special package thats included with latest mint so as to work with latest UEFI drivers?

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