HOW TO: Install experimental X.Org and the latest graphics drivers

[67GTA]

You shouldn't need the additional PPA from Robert Hooker (https://launchpad.net/~sarvatt/+archive/intel-sna), as the regular driver in Xorg now has SNA enabled by default. (Matter of fact, Robert has closed the intel-sna PPA -- when I try to navigate to that Launchpad URL, it throws an authentication error.)

I think he has thrown in with the xorg-edgers. Just got an update from xorg-edgers repo with his name attached: xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.20.1+git20120725.8c5077e4-0ubuntu0sarvatt

[QUOTEThere is another nice ppa with latest opensource drivers from git.

"Updated and Optimized Graphics Drivers" https://launchpad.net/~oibaf/+archive/graphics-drivers

The ppa has only drivers so it lowers the risk of breakage. I am using it all the time without any problems (plus newest stable kernel from mainline kernel ppa) ][/QUOTE]

This PPA sounded nice, but it stops at "precise" so I was afraid of breaking stuff in quantal. Maybe since it is the driver only, it won't matter. Just got my new ivy bridge graphics laptop, and ran across this thread while trying to get the most out of it. Seems to be a good time to switch from AMD/Nvidia.

[sixonetonoffun]

 glxgears -info
GL_RENDERER   = Mesa DRI Intel(R) 965GM x86/MMX/SSE2
GL_VERSION    = 2.1 Mesa 8.1-devel
GL_VENDOR     = Intel Open Source Technology Center
299 frames in 5.0 seconds = 59.626 FPS

LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=1 glxgears -info
GL_RENDERER   = Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 0x301)
GL_VERSION    = 2.1 Mesa 8.1-devel
GL_VENDOR     = VMware, Inc.
1349 frames in 5.0 seconds = 269.640 FPS

This seems reasonable for this old 965 GM. Best of all the latest update I did last night seems to pretty much smoothed out rough edges on the desktop cube animation. Not quite tearing but there had been a bit of a jagged edge to it. I'm beginning to think Intel Graphics don't suck!

[HalationEffect]

Regarding vsync, try this:

export vblank_mode=0
glxgears -info

The first command disables sync to vblank for anything subsequently executed from that particular terminal window.

[SteveRiley]

Huh, interesting... hadn't enountered that one before.

I didn't install the drivers from that PPA, but did try the suggested test for Gallium and LLVMpipe. They sure seem a lot faster than the regular renderer. On my X1, with Intel HD3000 graphics, note the difference:

steve@x1:~$ [B]glxgears -info[/B]
Running synchronized to the vertical refresh.  The framerate should be
approximately the same as the monitor refresh rate.
GL_RENDERER   = Mesa DRI Intel(R) Sandybridge Mobile 
GL_VERSION    = 3.0 Mesa 8.1-devel
GL_VENDOR     = Intel Open Source Technology Center
GL_EXTENSIONS = <...snip...> 
303 frames in 5.0 seconds = 60.565 FPS

steve@x1:~$ [b]LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=1 glxgears -info[/B]
GL_RENDERER   = Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 0x301)
GL_VERSION    = 2.1 Mesa 8.1-devel
GL_VENDOR     = VMware, Inc.
GL_EXTENSIONS = <...snip...>
2130 frames in 5.0 seconds = 425.861 FPS

I think I'm going to have to learn more about this. My first question: why does the native DRI do v-sync, and does that ultimately matter? Yum, research!

[schnelle]

There is another nice ppa with latest opensource drivers from git.

"Updated and Optimized Graphics Drivers" https://launchpad.net/~oibaf/+archive/graphics-drivers

The ppa has only drivers so it lowers the risk of breakage. I am using it all the time without any problems (plus newest stable kernel from mainline kernel ppa)

[SteveRiley]

Running 12.10 with xorg-edgers and savatt repos.

You shouldn't need the additional PPA from Robert Hooker (https://launchpad.net/~sarvatt/+archive/intel-sna), as the regular driver in Xorg now has SNA enabled by default. (Matter of fact, Robert has closed the intel-sna PPA -- when I try to navigate to that Launchpad URL, it throws an authentication error.)

[67GTA]

Running 12.10 with xorg-edgers and savatt repos. Running minecraft with all features set to high with no lag. I'm pretty happy with the HD4000 so far. Most of the crappy reviews were from gamers with hard core gaming rigs. There is a visual glitch with chromium tabs not showing text.

[67GTA]

This works awesome with my new Intel HD 4000 laptop and KDE. Much better performance! There is however a bug with Unity that makes all the launcher icons invisible FYI, but the performance is still better even with invisible icons!

[SteveRiley]

Thanks for the apt-cache policy xserver-xorg-video-intel tip!

The last thing on my wish list is getting control of the fan on here. Seems to me it could run a little more and rely less on cpu scaling for temp control?

Yeah, apt-cache policy is very useful indeed.

Not sure how to advise you about fans. I'm pretty familiar with using thinkfan on ThinkPads, but have no experience digging into fan control for other types of machines.

[sixonetonoffun]

I had changed it earlier today. Thanks for the apt-cache policy xserver-xorg-video-intel tip! Synaptic was reporting in error the 2:2.17 version so I'd made sure 2:2.20 was installed using ForceVersion but it was already 2:2.20 I should probably clean out the cache now that I have a good running system. Used your tip on PulseAudio 2 and have to say that was pretty much all that was missing. Now just to clean up some few apps that aren't functioning properly and aren't really needed.

The last thing on my wish list is getting control of the fan on here. Seems to me it could run a little more and rely less on cpu scaling for temp control?

xserver-xorg-video-intel:
  Installed: 2:2.20.0+git20120720.f92a64dd-0ubuntu0sarvatt~precise
  Candidate: 2:2.20.0+git20120720.f92a64dd-0ubuntu0sarvatt~precise
  Version table:
 *** 2:2.20.0+git20120720.f92a64dd-0ubuntu0sarvatt~precise 0
        500 [URL]http://ppa.launchpad.net/xorg-edgers/ppa/ubuntu/[/URL] precise/main i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     2:2.17.0-1ubuntu4 0
        500 [URL]http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/[/URL] precise/main i386 Packages

[SteveRiley]

I don't think the ppa:sarvatt/intel-sna is needed anymore from xedgers page

Right, not after 29 June, according to the PPA's description.

By adding it to my xedgers install I think I down graded from
2:20.0
to
2:19.0

On your PC, what's the output of

apt-cache policy xserver-xorg-video-intel

[sixonetonoffun]

I don't think the ppa:sarvatt/intel-sna is needed anymore from xedgers page

June 29th, 2012: SNA is now on by default on intel. If you have problems (such as screen corruption), save this as /etc/X11/xorg.conf

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

By adding it to my xedgers install I think I down graded from
2:20.0
to
2:19.0

Just thought I'd throw that out there.

[pnunn]

Just discovered another problem, the laptop no longer recovers from hibernation. This is a real bummer, everything else is working great. I'm not sure if this is related to the xorg bits or something else that was updated at the same time.

Any clues as to where to start looking for this one?

Also, since the update, synaptic panel doesn't recognize taps of any description (although multi touch still works) and when I try and open it in system settings it just crashes system settings (not that it did much before the updates anyway in system setting, but certainly didn't crash the whole thing).

Peter.

[sixonetonoffun]

I don't use vbox but I am going to give the ppa:sarvatt/intel-sna driver a try on this GM965 /GL960 chipset. Sounds like it should work and offer some performance increase. Not about to benchmark before and after but if it still boots I'll consider it a success.

[pnunn]

I do have dkms installed but got a similar error to the one below by vinnywright but talking about vboxdrv instead. Installing the latest vbox has it all sorted though.