Guide to Get the Best Performace from the GMA 500

[lucazade]

Aside these positive news, there's also a bad one. Compared with the previous kernel, the system is now generally more responsive, but in a non-constant fashion; for example, you could see a flash video going on at a decent flow for some seconds, then it suddenly become slow for a small amount of time and then it flows decently again, approximatively repeating this strange bheaviour.

Interesting.. haven't tried your kernel yet, i'll try asap

If i'm not wrong Brian's kernel had a modified 'nohz' kernel option, this could cause some issues for interrupts and the delay from a tick to another. Don't know as well if bfs scheduler use this option or not..just an idea!

[lucazade]

The integrated Webcam was permanently switched on in my netbook (1101HA). Powertop suggested enabling USB suspend for device 1-7 in order to fix this behaviour. Enabled USB suspend for devices 1-7 permanently by appending 'auto' to '/sys/bus/usb/devices/1-7/power/level' in /etc/rc.local. Saved me another 0.5 W.

My /etc/rc.local now, after enabling 'wifi timeout' and 'USB suspend':

#!/bin/sh -e
#
# rc.local
#
# This script is executed at the end of each multiuser runlevel.
# Make sure that the script will "exit 0" on success or any other
# value on error.
#
# In order to enable or disable this script just change the execution
# bits.
#
# By default this script does nothing.

export GMA500_WORKAROUND=yes
iwconfig wlan0 power timeout 500ms
echo auto > /sys/bus/usb/devices/1-7/power/level
exit 0

Thanks for pointing this out.. i'll try for sure!

[lucazade]

If anyone want to complain about driver-scandal there is also a facebook group.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php...1517402&ref=ts
Everyone should know how bad we, poulsbo users, are considered by intel.
Spread the voice!

[maddis]

Have anyone tried to install poulsbo driver to Ubuntu 10.04 with RT-kernel?

I tried it to vanilla Ubuntu 10.04 with generic kernel and it seemed to work fine.

Then I reinstalled everything.After that I installed linux-rt - package and removed every generic-linux packaged so the rt-kernel was only one on the system. Now when I try to install the poulsbo-drivers the psb-kernel-modules fails to build.

The error from make.log is:

/var/lib/dkms/psb-kernel-source/4.42.0/build/psb_drv.c: In function 'psb_do_init':
/var/lib/dkms/psb-kernel-source/4.42.0/build/psb_drv.c:345: error: expected expression before '{' token

Strangly enough the part of the code does not have { in it.

       }

        dev_priv->irqmask_lock = SPIN_LOCK_UNLOCKED; <- this is line 345
        dev_priv->fence0_irq_on = 0;

        tt_pages = (pg->gatt_pages < PSB_TT_PRIV0_PLIMIT) ?
            pg->gatt_pages : PSB_TT_PRIV0_PLIMIT;

The RT-linux kernel is bit older than the newest generic in 10.04. Generic is 2.6.32 and RT is 2.6.31.11. Could that be the problem?

I was able to compile everything when I commented out the SPIN_LOCK_UNCLOCKED - lines. I know it's a hack, but at least the older version worked that way. Now I just can't figure out how to force the system use the new source instead of everytime removing them and using the originals.

[aku-aku]

Thanks to those who've put in the effort to get GMA500 support to where it is today - you've now got a reasonably happy 751h user: I'm able to use it in Ubuntu as my main laptop.

However, I'm seeing a couple of issues with my installation (Lucid netbook edition with the psb drivers installed), and I hoped that some of the other Aspire One 751h users might have run into them:

Firstly, it doesn't look like I can disable hyperthreading in the BIOS. The noht kernel option doesn't appear to work either. Any tips for how to turn it off?

Secondly - and this may not be the right place to ask about this as it's probably more a compiz issue - the panel at the top of the screen doesn't seem to work properly when Compiz is enabled. When going to the home screen, the panel will just disappear. Which is a shame, as Compiz looked quite handy and solved minor issues like the white flicker when windows open. I guess I'll try metacity's compositing option later.

I've done my best to find answers to these questions independently, but I can't. Given that this thread's where a lot of searches for 751h-related information end up, it'd be good to get some answers here. Can any of you help, please?

[loodjuret]

Thanks to those who've put in the effort to get GMA500 support to where it is today - you've now got a reasonably happy 751h user: I'm able to use it in Ubuntu as my main laptop.

However, I'm seeing a couple of issues with my installation (Lucid netbook edition with the psb drivers installed), and I hoped that some of the other Aspire One 751h users might have run into them:

Firstly, it doesn't look like I can disable hyperthreading in the BIOS. The noht kernel option doesn't appear to work either. Any tips for how to turn it off?

Secondly - and this may not be the right place to ask about this as it's probably more a compiz issue - the panel at the top of the screen doesn't seem to work properly when Compiz is enabled. When going to the home screen, the panel will just disappear. Which is a shame, as Compiz looked quite handy and solved minor issues like the white flicker when windows open. I guess I'll try metacity's compositing option later.

I've done my best to find answers to these questions independently, but I can't. Given that this thread's where a lot of searches for 751h-related information end up, it'd be good to get some answers here. Can any of you help, please?

I'd keep hyper threading enabled if I were you. The loss in performance disabling it is simply not worth it. Especially not on slow atom/gma500 hardware. If you want to save some power, it's better to enable power saving features and also upgrade to the patched maverick kernel (2.5.35-18-power). Saved me 3 hours. Having 7-8 hours of battery life now (Atom Z520 + GMA500 + 48 Wh battery) instead of the ~5 using default Ubuntu settings.

I also disabled compiz and enabled metacity compositing. Better performance (mainly window scrolling), but also less choppy and less cpu intense compared to regular metacity.

The GMA500 was never built for speed but the energy efficiency is quite impressive afterall. Running at 6 W now. It stays cool, quiet and lasts for a long time on battery.

However, the GMA500 is nothing but terrible in terms of graphics and support. I'd never expect it to be this bad when I bought this netbook. I did trust Intel and didn't bother to do any proper research before buying it. Read the basic specifications and trusted Intel for giving me a (Linux) supported chipset. At least, now I know not to trust them again, and know the necessity in always checking HW Linux compability before buying anything. Don't want to repeat this scenario again. Had lots of issues with ATi before, but I've never experienced anything like this.

[lucazade]

This is what i do on a clean Lucid install, maybe useful to someone even if these tips are already known:

Kernel:
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:brian-rogers/power && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install linux-headers-2.6.35-power+18-generic linux-image-2.6.35-power+18-generic

Drivers:
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:gma500/ppa && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install poulsbo-driver-2d poulsbo-driver-3d poulsbo-config

Video Vaapi:
wget http://kanotix.com/files/fix/mplayer-vaapi-latest.txt && sudo bash ./mplayer-vaapi-latest.txt

Plymouth:
remove 'blacklist vga16fb' in /etc/modprobe.d/poulsbo.conf
append 'psb' and 'drm_psb' to /etc/initramfs-tools/modules
sudo update-initramfs -u

Suspend:
remove /usr/lib/pm-utils/sleep.d/99video

Flash:
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:klich-lukasz/kleewho && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install gnome-mplayer gecko-mediaplayer
http://lukaszklich.pl/wp-content/upl...api_output.png
http://lukaszklich.pl/wp-content/upl...5/vaapi_va.png
http://flvideoreplacer-extension.blogspot.com/

Powersave:
sudo gedit /etc/rc.local
export GMA500_WORKAROUND=yes
echo auto > /sys/bus/usb/devices/1-4/power/level
echo 1 > /sys/module/snd_hda_intel/parameters/power_save

Fix battery status (acer751h):
add to gnome autostart:
cat /proc/acpi/battery/BAT1/info

Compiz:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1338581/poul...004um3_all.deb
#Option "ExaNoComposite" "true"

and enabling metacity compositor...a lot of stuff!

[maddis]

Can you help me how to do a new version of the psb-kernel-source - package so that I could take those my own modifications in use. It doesn't seem to be normal debian package so I don't know how to edit it.

[aku-aku]

This is what i do on a clean Lucid install, maybe useful to someone even if these tips are already known:

Wow, that was quick!

Thanks for that - looks like I've got a few things to do. If the power kernel drops usage down to 6W that'll be impressive - my laptop tends to use about 7-7.5W, so with only a small battery I should be heading towards four hours.

I got suspend and hibernate working using the trick where pm-suspend and pm-hibernate are moved out of the way for links to s2ram and s2disk - though when Compiz is enabled it doesn't work - was that what removing sleep.d/99video fixes?

[lucazade]

Can you help me how to do a new version of the psb-kernel-source - package so that I could take those my own modifications in use. It doesn't seem to be normal debian package so I don't know how to edit it.

Please can you open a bug here, this way we can gather all the info.. i'll see/hope to help you!