Intel video woes

[Don B. Cilly]

Hi,
I have an old(ish) Asrock motherboard - 4-core Celeron 1.9 - which is quite adequate for my needs.
The problem is the video card.
Not that I do gaming or mining. It's that (K)Ubuntus don't like it. In fact, they positively hate it.
It's the dreaded "Intel Corporation Atom Processor Z36xxx/Z37xxx", which uses the i915 driver.

Now, with this thing, not only do I get the Desinex burger have to enter intel_idle.max_cstate=1 at boot (try that on a non-english keyboard) when installing any linux (and then permanently pass the parameters to the kernel after installation), or it will freeze, but I'm quite sure it still plays hell with OpenGL and things.

So.
I'd like to get a different video card. Nothing fancy, but one that (K)Ubuntus don't hate as much.
Except.
The MB only has a 1x PCIE slot.
So (the actual question)
I can get a 1x to 16x adapter. I was wondering whether they actually worked, and if they do, what card to put in it.
Considering, I don't do gaming or mining, and all I need is a card that Linux won't spit at.
Any suggestions?

[jglen490]

The 1x to 16x adapter might physically work, but whether a proper driver would work with the 16x video card via a 1x circuit is a problem - in my mind. You might be better off looking for a native 1x PCIe video card (AMD or NVidia) with adecent Linux driver.

[Don B. Cilly]

I see. I just wasn't aware they existed... simply because I asked an "expert" - at a shop - and he said, no but you can get an adapter, maybe it works.
So... what would a decent card (for general use, not gaming etc.) be, that's known to work well with linux drivers?

[EDIT] Or... there seems to be a huge amount of used Matrox 550s on eBay for next to nothing. Is that known to work well with linux drivers?

[jglen490]

Maybe something like this just make sure that whatever you select has a PCIE x1 connector. Note the picture with the short connector. The PCIe x 16 has a larger connector - more pins. This particular video card is a GeForce GT710. A bit of older technology, but it ought to work. Once it's installed, the Driver Manager GUI or ubuntu-drivers in a konsole should recommend and install a proper driver.

Yes, an adapter will physically provide a way to mount an x16 to an x1, but you will lose function and the driver may have a problem with such a configuration. I've never tried it, so my opinion is based on theory. What I do know, is there are still PCIe x1 video cards available and a Linux NVidia driver (a 304 or a 340 series driver) should work just fine. I have a GT760-based video card (PCIe x16), again older technology, and Kubuntu found the correct NVidia version to work with it on my machine.

I don't game either.

[claydoh]

matrox ----- my guess is not, it would not be a good choice, those are pushing what, 15 + years old?
My initial feeling is that the current intel crappy driver wil, still be better than this one. Might want to investigate what sort of resolution that it can output, as well as if your monitor has an input that matches the card's output. probably DVI.

[jglen490]

Agree, Matrox would not be a good choice. Technology years are like dog years - 15 years on the calendar is like a century for you and I!

Look around for reasonably priced AMD-based or NVidia GeForce-based cards. The link I gave above may be more than you're willing to pay, but it gives an idea of what may be currently available.

[Don B. Cilly]

Many thanks.
Very useful information. I can now proceed and experiment.

[jglen490]

Tell us about your success!!

[Don B. Cilly]

Will do.
I got a used Zotac ZT-71304-20L (nvidia GEforce) "as new" from Amazon.
It looks like this, so the PCI plug looks OK, and it has 3 video outputs, DVI, HDMI and VGA.
I should get it next Wednesday (it's probably in Outer Mongolia or something ;·).

[jglen490]

I've gotten plenty of things from the Mongolians - mostly good

[Don B. Cilly]

Success.
It was in inner Mongolia Germany, so I got it one day earlier.
Whether it behaves better remains to be seen, but I immediately noticed the picture is a lot crisper.

I am now officially the envy of the neighbourhood
(envidia means envy in Spanish).

[woodsmoke]

I have run many Matrox and have several in a box, no problems previously.
woodsmoke

[Don B. Cilly]

Now you tell me
Still... it seems that I've gone from Intel video woes straight to nvidia ones.

It will boot once in three times.
Basic stuff worked, abut as soon as I used any graphics-intensive thing, it freezed.

I've had some mild success with the freezes by using the proprietary nvidia driver, but it still won't boot more often than it will.
Playing around with nomodeset, quiet and splash, seems to show some improvement.
I tried removing the intel_max.cstate=1 because i said, zis is not an intel, it's an nvidia (read the same way as "zis is not a balloon, it's a zeppelin"), and, whoa, the flicker was so bad I almost couldn't do a shutdown.
Now, why would it need an "intel" instruction to work...

So hey, I've searched, I've experimented... I'll ask.
Any known tricks I should try to cut the experimenting down a bit?

[vinnywright]

how did you install the driver (nvidia) and which one .

that card should be supported with the driver's you can install with apt I just checked the list in the nvidia-driver-390 "doc" and the GT 710 is listed .

did you just go straight to the one (driver) you can get from the nvidia website or did you use the driver manager in system settings or apt .

VINNY

[Don B. Cilly]

I installed it via "software and updates".
Inxi says:
Graphics: Card: NVIDIA GK208B [GeForce GT 710] bus-ID: 01:00.0
Display Server: x11 (X.Org 1.19.6 ) drivers: nvidia (unloaded: modesetting,fbdev,vesa,nouveau)

As I was using the nouveau but it wasn't very good.
nvidia-smi reports: Driver Version: 390.116

Now... the card works. Using the nvidia driver got rid of the freezes.
The problem is, boot.
Should I just set it permanently to nomodeset and/or no-splash?

I'm also curious about the intel_max.cstate=1 parameter, without which it flickers horribly, as, well, it's not intel...