Intel GMA 3600 - Need help compiling drivers from Ubuntu PPA

[valerie94]

I just bought a netbook with Intel Atom Cedarview (Cedar Trail) N2600 cpu with Intel GMA 3600 gpu. Intel GMA 3600 is a problematic piece of hardware and the only Linux distro I found with a useable driver is MeeGo and Ubuntu (using this PPA).

My question is how do I go about building the Ubuntu PPA sources into proper Debian packages? By the way I'm not a newbie and I use Debian Sid.


Here are some forum threads discussing Intel GMA 3600:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php? ... &t=1953734
http://communities.intel.com/thread/29157
http://communities.intel.com/thread/28472

Related driver released by Intel for Linux:
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_ ... ldID=21519

Ubuntu Cedarview PPA:
https://launchpad.net/~sarvatt/+archive/cedarview

[valerie94]

Please see related topic for more info. Thanks a lot to those who will be able to help me - it's urgent!

[vbrummond]

Why post two threads about the same thing. Also, who can say how incompatible the ubuntu packages are. You should probably just find the source code and and compile the drivers the normal way.

[valerie94]

Well this is not just some package. It's a driver. I know how to compile and to compile the debian way but I don't know how to debianize ppa sources. Thank you for your input.

[craigevil]

add the ubuntu source repo,
should look similar to:
deb-src http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian/ unstable main contrib non-free

You can install python-software-properties in order to use the add-apt-repository command:

Code: Select all

Adding PPA through commandline

If you're using the most recent version of Ubuntu (or any version from Ubuntu 9.10 onwards), you can add a PPA to your system with a single line in your terminal.

Make sure you have the package python-software-properties installed.

Step 1: On the PPA's overview page, look for the heading that reads Adding this PPA to your system. Make a note of the PPA's location, which looks like (for example):

ppa:gwibber-daily/ppa

Step 2: Open a terminal and enter:

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:user/ppa-name

Replace 'ppa:user/ppa-name' with the PPA's location that you noted above.

Your system will now fetch the PPA's key. This enables your Ubuntu system to verify that the packages in the PPA have not been interfered with since they were built.

Step 3: Now, as a one-off, you should tell your system to pull down the latest list of software from each archive it knows about, including the PPA you just added:

$ sudo apt-get update

Note I have never messed with any Ubuntu package nor have I used the add-apt-repository command.

then follow the normal backporting steps:

How do I backport a sid package to testing or stable?
Install the Debian source (and the development tools, especially debhelper, devscripts, and build-essential), and then build the package.

Step by step:

add a deb-src line for sid to your sources.list
apt-get update
apt-get build-dep PACKAGE_NAME
apt-get -b source PACKAGE_NAME
The resulting debs should be in the current directory and can be installed with dpkg -i the.deb.

what magical package does Ubuntu have that isn't available in either the normal Debian repos or a 3rd party repo?

[vbrummond]

I tried to compile the source package for the driver from the ppa but it has errors. It looks like it pretty much just copies some binary for for the 32-bit arch.

[valerie94]

add the ubuntu source repo,
should look similar to:
deb-src http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian/ unstable main contrib non-free

You can install python-software-properties in order to use the add-apt-repository command:

Code: Select all

Adding PPA through commandline

If you're using the most recent version of Ubuntu (or any version from Ubuntu 9.10 onwards), you can add a PPA to your system with a single line in your terminal.

Make sure you have the package python-software-properties installed.

Step 1: On the PPA's overview page, look for the heading that reads Adding this PPA to your system. Make a note of the PPA's location, which looks like (for example):

ppa:gwibber-daily/ppa

Step 2: Open a terminal and enter:

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:user/ppa-name

Replace 'ppa:user/ppa-name' with the PPA's location that you noted above.

Your system will now fetch the PPA's key. This enables your Ubuntu system to verify that the packages in the PPA have not been interfered with since they were built.

Step 3: Now, as a one-off, you should tell your system to pull down the latest list of software from each archive it knows about, including the PPA you just added:

$ sudo apt-get update

Note I have never messed with any Ubuntu package nor have I used the add-apt-repository command.

then follow the normal backporting steps:

How do I backport a sid package to testing or stable?
Install the Debian source (and the development tools, especially debhelper, devscripts, and build-essential), and then build the package.

Step by step:

add a deb-src line for sid to your sources.list
apt-get update
apt-get build-dep PACKAGE_NAME
apt-get -b source PACKAGE_NAME
The resulting debs should be in the current directory and can be installed with dpkg -i the.deb.

This procedure only works with a debian source repo. We're trying to build a graphics driver here.

what magical package does Ubuntu have that isn't available in either the normal Debian repos or a 3rd party repo?

It is magical, especially considering PowerVR never released the sources, not even documentation. Somebody with real skills need to port this to debian.

[valerie94]

I tried to compile the source package for the driver from the ppa but it has errors. It looks like it pretty much just copies some binary for for the 32-bit arch.

Thank you for your efforts. I've done all of that before I posted in this forum.

[vbrummond]

If its the case it is not open source it will not be supported in Debian, and I doubt you will find someone interested in working on some odd binaries. You will probably have to wait for it to be accepted into the kernel. So try contacting someone upstream in the kernel or xorg projects.

[valerie94]

If its the case it is not open source it will not be supported in Debian, and I doubt you will find someone interested in working on some odd binaries. You will probably have to wait for it to be accepted into the kernel. So try contacting someone upstream in the kernel or xorg projects.

It is not some odd binary. It is a driver for a GPU installed in most netbooks released this 2012. Anyway, there is hope as Intel has released a driver for a similar hardware as I mentioned in my first post. Also there is MeeGo (co-owned by Intel) who made a final release just for Cedar Trail and the Ubuntu PPA in question.

[craigevil]

A driver is just like any other package, make a proper .deb and install it.

the source and dsc files are on launchpad.

[valerie94]

A driver is just like any other package, make a proper .deb and install it.

the source and dsc files are on launchpad.

Yes I know, thank you, and if you download the files and build locally, it would still be the same Ubuntu binary with all its patches.

Anyway, I just found out there is a similar post in this forum even though most of the guys are happy just using fbdev/vesa.

I think I would have to get down and dirty with this one. I'm currently reading this.