Configure X with Intel Graphic in testing

[sesselastronaut]

I just installed a fresh Debian testing on my laptop with a VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Broadwell-U Integrated Graphics (rev 09). Although X is running seems like it's rather slow. As there’s no xorg.conf I was wondering if anyone has a hint at hand on how the graphic card could be configured using the appropriate driver.

[squeeze]

For Broadwell i think you have to use the experimental drivers. See The Wiki on how to accomplish this.

Gruesse

[sesselastronaut]

That helped - merci mille!

[sesselastronaut]

Hm, guess I cheered too soon - seems like X with the experimental driver seems to freeze after suspend...

[squeeze]

SNA is the default acceleration method in xf86-video-intel. If you are experience issues with SNA, try using UXA instead, which can be done by creating an X configuration file containing the following:

Code: Select all

/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf

Section "Device"
   Identifier  "Intel Graphics"
   Driver      "intel"
   Option      "AccelMethod"  "uxa"
EndSection

Source: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/In ... SNA_issues

Debian often has problems with brand new hardware, use a bleeding edge distro instead or wait until jessie gets released and switch to testing.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

I have had good results using Glamor, it seems very stable with version 2.99.917-4 of the Intel driver.

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Section "Device"
	Identifier "Intel Graphics"
	Driver "intel"
	Option "AccelMethod" "glamor"
EndSection

It also seems to work very well with the sid driver (2.21.15-2)

[sesselastronaut]

Thanks for those indications! As there's no xorg.conf nor a /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ folder I was wondering where to adjust the settings you proposed. The Xsession.d folder in /etc/X11/ holds different settings I suppose?

[squeeze]

Code: Select all

/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf

If it doesn't exist just create one

[sesselastronaut]

Ok got it For me only the experimental (xserver-xorg-video-intel_2.99.917-1~exp1_amd64) with "uxa" acceleration seems to work - using "glamor" generates artefacts and makes X unusable after resume. Configurations with sid( xserver-xorg-video-intel_2.21.15-2+b2_amd64) lacks acceleration be it glamor or uxa used as AccelMethod.

[sesselastronaut]

Just found out that videos are not playing with these settings - have to watch with -vx x11 till another version of xserver-xorg-video-intel is coming up I suppose :/

[squeeze]

Just found out that videos are not playing with these settings - have to watch with -vx x11 till another version of xserver-xorg-video-intel is coming up I suppose :/

... which should happen 'soon'.

[sesselastronaut]

Although the above mentioned issues seem to be fine, I'm still having some issue with the acceleration of my graphic card.
I'm currently using xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.21.15-2+b2 and an /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf as follows:

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Section "Device"
   Identifier  "Intel Graphics"
   Driver      "intel"
   Option      "AccelMethod"  "uxa"
EndSection

The problem becomes apparent for example if I start chromium and try to move the whole browser window by holding down the alt key + the mouse, resulting in almost slow motion. Similar effects with Iceweasel on various websites e.g. googlemaps. This is after a fresh reboot. Furthermore I noticed after a couple of resumes I can't play videos with the default settings any more, e.g. in mplayer only with the -xv X11 option. Guess this is due to the hardware acceleration but do not know how to debug this though...

[Head_on_a_Stick]

I'm currently using xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.21.15-2+b2

Version 2.99 is now in jessie-backports and is much improved compared to the version you are using -- try that instead.
https://packages.debian.org/jessie-back ... ideo-intel
https://wiki.debian.org/Backports

[sesselastronaut]

thanks for this indication, I tried the 2.99 backports version which seems to perform bit better sometimes. But still after resumes I can't play videos with the default settings any more. This behaviour seems to be very arbitrary, can happen after just one resume or a couple of them. I wanna mentioned at this point I switch between screens using the following command:

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xrandr --output HDMI2 --off --output HDMI1 --off --output DP1 --off --output eDP1 --mode 2560x1440 --pos 0x0 --rotate normal --output DP2 --mode 1680x1050 --pos 2560x0 --rotate normal

which might affect the above mentioned issue.
Another problem with X but most probably not connected to this graphic card's performance I just filed here: http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=122827