82852/855gm intergrated graphics device and shared memory?

[Fintan]

I am installing JJ a HP pavilion ze 4931EA: cpu 1.5mz celeron, 512MB RAM for a friend.
everything is cool so far except for this:
It has a 82852/855gm intergrated graphics device
probably with shared memory.

Plasma slows down very quickly with more than one app. open.

The relevant part of:

lspci -vvnn

shows:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device [8086:3582] (rev 02)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:3084]
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx+
Latency: 0
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 10
Region 0: Memory at e8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
Region 1: Memory at e0000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512K]
Region 2: I/O ports at 1800 [size=8]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel modules: intelfb

The bios tells me that the graphic has 32MB allocated but I don't see any way to change that.

I will be upgrading the RAM to 2GB.

Any ideas on how to set the card to only a certain amount of ram?

PS: sorry for the big fonts, don't mean to scream and don't know how to get rid of it either :P

[lmilano]

Re: 82852/855gm intergrated graphics device and shared memory?

Oh Yes,

This is a common problem in Jaunty, see here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1130582

On my eee pc 701, I am doing "Optimal Configuration" together with the latest Karmic kernel (I only installed the _kernel_ from there, all the rest Jaunty plus xorg from the ppa). Performance improved brutally

Cheers!

[Fintan]

Re: 82852/855gm intergrated graphics device and shared memory?

Thankx for that but this disturbes me a bit:

Quote from "important notes"

Using the fixmtrr.sh script
The purpose of the fixmtrr.sh script is to workaround a bug in the intel driver and/or kernel and ensure your graphics card's memory region gets set to the correct type of caching (write-combining). If your memory region is not set with the proper type of caching, you will experience video stuttering and reduced 3D performance.

Note: If you are using Kubuntu or a custom distribution of Ubuntu that does not use the GNOME Display Manager (GDM), you need to execute the fixmtrr.sh script each time X (re)starts. Therefore, executing this script in your rc.local script is not sufficient.

[lmilano]

Re: 82852/855gm intergrated graphics device and shared memory?

yeah, well, I just installed gdm (and the eee is running wonderfully )

Otherwise, other ubuntuforums posts and external blogs show how to do these setting manually -- but there are many issues with Intel's IGP's in Jaunty, so I opted for a quick solution

[Fintan]

Re: 82852/855gm intergrated graphics device and shared memory?

Okay, before I go on one more question:
did the new kernel do anything to your wifi setup?

[lmilano]

Re: 82852/855gm intergrated graphics device and shared memory?

No issues - the wifi card on the 701 was supported out of the box with ath5k starting with Jaunty, and still is with 2-6-31rc2

There are some regressions with performance with ext4, not a showstopper though, I am sure later rcs will address this

[lmilano]

Re: 82852/855gm intergrated graphics device and shared memory?

I just read in launchpad though that they released a fix for this issue (maybe in the proposed updates) I am not sure how the fix compares with using the tips in the howto, it might not be as good but I really dont know for sure

[dibl]

Re: 82852/855gm intergrated graphics device and shared memory?

There are some regressions with performance with ext4

You used ext4 on an SSD?

I have my Eee PC 701 formatted with ext2 -- I manually fsck it once in awhile. I don't think the journalling filesystems are recommend for the SSD -- lots of journal-writing on the same sector will accelerate the "wear" of the SSD media. Besides which, the SSD can't crash like a mechanical hdd, so there's nothing for the journal to recover from.

[lmilano]

Re: 82852/855gm intergrated graphics device and shared memory?

True, and I was running ext2 But then I got wild

This thing is dying anytime anyways, the keyboard is half functional (typing from there now - not dots and 10 deade keys on a new kb - the ethernet port is dead, etc)

Thanks for the tip though! Ah, and the ext4 regressions also happen in HDDs, see Phoronix

Ah, one more thing, when using ext2, I did have some inconsitstencies, mostly because i was not fscking it regularly ;-) It been more solid with journaling quite franly, I just set noatime

[dibl]

Re: 82852/855gm intergrated graphics device and shared memory?

Interesting. My Eee PC has sidux/Xfce on it, and is totally stable, but I admit I don't like typing on it, and so it tends to gather a lot of dust.

I'll have to check Phoronix -- I know there was an issue with the earlier ext4 release, but I thought that was straightened out. I installed Kubuntu 9.04 on an ext4 filesystem, and so far I have not had any reason for concern about it. I'm using relatime and commit=120 -- this desktop is powered through a good UPS and the hard drive is less than a year old, so I can be brave.


EDIT: ext4 seems to come through the benchmark OK here:

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...s_nilfs2&num=7

although I see there are new filesystems coming soon.

[lmilano]

Re: 82852/855gm intergrated graphics device and shared memory?

Yes, but the issue is ext4 and kernel 2-6-31-rc so far (some regressions):
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...2631_rc2&num=1

Cheers!

[dibl]

Re: 82852/855gm intergrated graphics device and shared memory?

Ahhh -- OK, looks like there are significant bugs, or performance issues, according to that article. I'm running the 2.6.28-14 kernel on Kubuntu, and 2.6.30-1 on sidux, so I'm OK with ext4 filesystems, for now.

Greetz!