HOW TO SOLVE SLOW VIDEO AND GET BETTER/NEWER DRIVERS

siege · **Posted:** Tue Aug 04, 2009 12:47 am

EDITED: 02 November 2009 - Updated Fewts temp directory edit
EDITED: 28 August 2009 - Added 1000H feedback
EDITED: 23 August 2009 - Corrected pciehp typo and added 900A feedback
EDITED: 20 August 2009 - renamed OP
EDITED: 17 August 2009 - listed more models
EDITED: 16 August 2009 - adjusted suggested time allotment, added some verbiage about ramdisk, and listed models
EDITED: 13 August 2009 - removed some steps that are no longer necessary
EDITED: 12 August 2009 - Clarified commenting out the xorg ppa
EDITED: 10 August 2009 - Added suggestion to follow fewt's wiki for moving temp stuff to ramdisk
EDITED: 04 August 2009 - Made it more obvious that this guide is NOT for beginners, clarified downloading fewt's modified synaptics deb, and posted a follow-up on reverting major changes
EDITED: 03 August 2009 - Added stuff for WIFI and removed ondemand from startup scripts
EDITED: 13 September 2009 - Added a mention of LXDE and a bit about xorg.conf empty line

Introduction
This guide captures the steps I took to get my 1000HA as optimized as I wanted it to be with Eeebuntu 3.0 (all ACPI stuff working). My initial intent was to assist fewt in testing and refining his eeepc-acpi-utilities and eeepc-tray. Along the way, I ended up with a great streaming video capability (a welcome side effect!!). This guide is current as of 13 September 2009.

I have positive feedback that this guide is successful for models: 900A, 901, 1000, 1000H, 1000HA, 1000HD, 1000HE, and 1005HA.

I have mixed feedback on the 900.

I have negative feedback on the 701.

I have positive feedback with LXDE - see bstamper's post on page 5 of this thread.

Issues
1. This guide is for intermediate users as it will branch you away from the mainline Eeebuntu kernel and will require xorg modifications to go back to the 2.6.29-1-netbook kernel
2. Due to the i2c_i801 module problem, Atom users will see Insane Mode but will not be able to use it

References
1. fewt at: http://www.statux.org/wiki/index.php?title=EeePC
2. psyke83 at: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1130582

Step 0 â€“ Preparation
1. Make sure you're running Eeebuntu 3.0, are running Gnome, and everything is up to date (especially eeepc-acpi-utilities and eeepc-tray)
2. Make sure you have some time to spare; due to reboots, I estimate needing 20-60 minutes
3. Make sure you have the latest BIOS from Asus; a recent one increased allocated memory for graphics
4. Make sure that you don't have a /etc/hal/fdi/policy/shmconfig.fdi file from a previous adventure

Step 1 â€“ Upgrade kernel
1. In a terminal, type:

Code:

wget -c http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v2.6.30.4/linux-headers-2.6.30-02063004-generic_2.6.30-02063004_i386.deb http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v2.6.30.4/linux-headers-2.6.30-02063004_2.6.30-02063004_all.deb http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v2.6.30.4/linux-image-2.6.30-02063004-generic_2.6.30-02063004_i386.deb

2. In a terminal, type:

Code:

sudo dpkg -i linux-headers-2.6.30-02063004-generic_2.6.30-02063004_i386.deb linux-headers-2.6.30-02063004_2.6.30-02063004_all.deb linux-image-2.6.30-02063004-generic_2.6.30-02063004_i386.deb

3. Reboot
4. Boot into new kernel at the grub prompt

Step 2 â€“ MTRR-related stuff (for part of the fluid video fix)
1. In a terminal, type:

Code:

sudo wget http://launchpadlibrarian.net/26193373/fixmtrr.sh -O /usr/local/bin/fixmtrr.sh

2. In a terminal, type:

Code:

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/fixmtrr.sh

3. In a terminal, type:

Code:

sudo ln -s /usr/local/bin/fixmtrr.sh /etc/gdm/PostLogin/Default

Step 3 â€“ Xorg-related stuff
1. In a terminal, type:

Code:

sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.old

(You'll need the old version if you want to boot back into your previous kernel as painlessly as possible)
3. In a terminal, type:

Code:

sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

4. Make it look like the file posted at the bottom of this guide
5. In a terminal, type:

Code:

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

6. At the bottom of the file, copy and paste these three lines:

Code:

# Xorg ppa
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates/ubuntu jaunty main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates/ubuntu jaunty main

7. In a terminal, type:

Code:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

8. Reboot
9. Delete the three lines you added in #6 above
10. Save this file to your Desktop (right-click, Save Link As..., browse to your Desktop): http://eeepc-acpi-util.svn.sourceforge. ... vision=318
11. In a terminal, type:

Code:

sudo dpkg -i ~/Desktop/xserver-xorg-input-synaptics_0.99.3-2ubuntu4_i386.deb

12. Reboot

Step 4 â€“ Boot stuff, mostly for WIFI
1. In a terminal, type:

Code:

sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

2. Find this section and modify it accordingly:

Code:

## additional options to use with the default boot option, but not with the
## alternatives
## e.g. defoptions=vga=791 resume=/dev/hda5
# defoptions=quiet splash force-hpet pciehp.pciehp_force=1 pciehp.pciehp_poll_mode=1

3. In a terminal, type:

Code:

sudo update-grub

4. Reboot

Step 5 â€“ Allow eeepc-acpi-utilities to control the bus at startup
1. In a terminal, type:

Code:

sudo update-rc.d -f ondemand remove

Step 6 â€“ Move temp stuff to ramdisk (OPTIONAL; enhanced Flash video playback for me)
1. Follow fewt's instructions here (noted below): http://www.fewt.com/2009/03/why-run-eee ... -your.html

Put temp spaces in ramdisks. This can be done by editing fstab and adding the following lines (sudo gedit /etc/fstab):

Code:

tmpfs /tmp tmpfs defaults,noatime,mode=1777 0 0
tmpfs /var/log tmpfs defaults,noatime,mode=1777 0 0
tmpfs /var/tmp tmpfs defaults,noatime,mode=1777 0 0

Remount your temp directories:

Code:

sudo /etc/init.d/sysklogd stop
sudo rm -rf /tmp/*
sudo rm -rf /var/log/*
sudo rm -rf /var/tmp/*
sudo mount -a
sudo /etc/init.d/sysklogd start

(The "tmpfs /var/log..." line in the /etc/fstab file does not pertain to this guide.)

siege

____________________________________________________________

Code:

# xorg.conf (X.Org X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# Note that some configuration settings that could be done previously
# in this file, now are automatically configured by the server and settings
# here are ignored.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
#   sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "Device"
   Identifier   "Configured Video Device"
   Driver "intel"
   Option      "AccelMethod"         "uxa"
   Option      "EXAOptimizeMigration"      "true"
   Option      "MigrationHeuristic"      "greedy"
   Option      "Tiling"         "true"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
   Identifier   "Configured Monitor"

   # Uncomment if your screen resolution is 1024x600
   DisplaySize 195 113
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
   Identifier  "ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad"
   Driver      "synaptics"
   Option      "SendCoreEvents"    "true"
   Option      "Device"        "/dev/psaux"
   Option      "Protocol"      "auto-dev"
   Option      "VertTwoFingerScroll"   "1"
   Option      "HorizTwoFingerScroll"   "1"
   Option      "VertEdgeScroll"    "0"
   Option      "HorizEdgeScroll"   "0"
   Option      "SHMConfig"         "1"
   Option      "TapButton3"        "2"
   Option      "TapButton2"        "3"
   Option      "MinSpeed"      "1.0"
   Option      "MaxSpeed"      "1.0"
   Option      "AccelFactor"   "0.2"
EndSection   

Section "Screen"
   Identifier   "Default Screen"
   Monitor      "Configured Monitor"
   Device      "Configured Video Device"
   DefaultDepth   24
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
   Identifier   "Configured Mouse"
   Driver      "ExplorerPS2"
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
   Identifier      "Default Layout"
   Screen      "Default Screen"
   InputDevice      "Configured Mouse"
   InputDevice      "ETPS/2 Elantech Touchpad"
EndSection

Make sure you have an empty line at the end of xorg.conf.

If the mouse is too fast, scale back the value in xorg.conf for AccelFactor. Then log out and back in.

siege · **Posted:** Tue Aug 04, 2009 12:49 pm

EDITED: 13 August 2009

Assuming you made all the changes, and you don't like them, you can revert.

Not all the stuff is problematic... below are instructions on how to remove the components that are not generally-accepted solutions/additions to the mainline Eeebuntu product. You can work your way through removing them one at a time: xorg is most likely the culprit and the kernel is least likely, IMHO.

Steps mostly from psyke83 here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1130582

Reset xorg
1. Downgrade packages (make sure they're only downgraded and not removed, otherwise hit cancel and send me a PM). In a terminal, type:

Code:

sudo apt-get install libdrm-dev/jaunty libdrm2/jaunty libdrm-intel1/jaunty xserver-xorg-video-intel/jaunty libdrm-nouveau1/jaunty libgl1-mesa-dri/jaunty libgl1-mesa-glx/jaunty libgl1-mesa-dev/jaunty libglu1-mesa/jaunty mesa-common-dev/jaunty mesa-utils/jaunty xserver-common/jaunty xserver-xorg-core/jaunty xserver-xorg-input-evdev/jaunty xserver-xorg-input-evdev/jaunty xserver-xorg-input-synaptics/jaunty xserver-xorg-video-ati/jaunty xserver-xorg-video-nv/jaunty xserver-xorg-video-openchrome/jaunty xserver-xorg-video-radeon/jaunty

2. Restore your original xorg file. Aren't you glad you made a backup in the guide?? In a terminal, type:

Code:

sudo mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf.old /etc/X11/xorg.conf

3. Reboot
4. In a terminal, type:

Code:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

5. Log out and back in

Remove the MTRR fix (optional)
1. In a terminal, type:

Code:

sudo rm /usr/local/bin/fixmtrr.sh /etc/gdm/PostLogin/Default

Remove the newer kernel
1. In a terminal, type:

Code:

sudo dpkg -r linux-headers-2.6.30-02063004 linux-headers-2.6.30-02063004-generic linux-image-2.6.30-02063004-generic

2. Reboot

siege

dylanwinnn · **Posted:** Sun Aug 09, 2009 6:39 pm

cylverbak · **Posted:** Sun Aug 09, 2009 9:29 pm

I love that cartoon

siege · **Posted:** Fri Aug 14, 2009 1:18 am

I just edited the guide and the revert post. There are less steps in both now.

siege

Kyusaku · **Posted:** Sat Aug 15, 2009 7:07 am

tried out your guide, everything came out smooth, no problems. Thanks.

A question about the tmp to ramdisk issue though, will I run into issues like this?
viewtopic.php?f=41&t=2869&p=12251

TRiPgod · **Posted:** Sat Aug 15, 2009 7:29 am

Kyusaku wrote:

tried out your guide, everything came out smooth, no problems. Thanks.

A question about the tmp to ramdisk issue though, will I run into issues like this?
http://forums.eeebuntu.org/viewtopic.ph ... 69&p=12251

So I take it you haven't tried that part of the guide, then, yet, eh?
Good searching, good question.

Kyusaku · **Posted:** Sat Aug 15, 2009 9:31 am

TRiPgod wrote:

Kyusaku wrote:

tried out your guide, everything came out smooth, no problems. Thanks.

A question about the tmp to ramdisk issue though, will I run into issues like this?
http://forums.eeebuntu.org/viewtopic.ph ... 69&p=12251

So I take it you haven't tried that part of the guide, then, yet, eh?
Good searching, good question.

I've done it just not installed anything since. I don't really want to test by installing compiz since I hear there are compatibility issues. Any other suggestions?

As a note, I did get the same output as the OP in the linked thread when doing the RAMdisk directions(if that's normal)

dinky · **Posted:** Sat Aug 15, 2009 10:05 am

WHy would there be compiz issues? I don't get it... COmpiz runs fine on both my 701 and 901... why would using this guide, and updating the xorg change this?

Kyusaku · **Posted:** Sat Aug 15, 2009 10:24 am

TRiPgod wrote:

So I take it you haven't tried that part of the guide, then, yet, eh?
Good searching, good question.

So I tried to remove one of my kernels via synaptics and saw
E: Directory '/var/log/apt/' missing

Synaptics reported as successful but wasn't.

sudo aptitude remove worked though to clear out the older kernels. (did show the error though, but didn't stop the process)

dinky wrote:

WHy would there be compiz issues? I don't get it... COmpiz runs fine on both my 701 and 901... why would using this guide, and updating the xorg change this?

Just making a guess cause other threads in the forum say that NBR in Netbook mode has problems with compiz. Should've clarified that I'm running NBR Eeebuntu in Netbook Mode

fewt · **Posted:** Sat Aug 15, 2009 1:08 pm

Kyusaku wrote:

TRiPgod wrote:

So I take it you haven't tried that part of the guide, then, yet, eh?
Good searching, good question.

So I tried to remove one of my kernels via synaptics and saw
E: Directory '/var/log/apt/' missing

Synaptics reported as successful but wasn't.

sudo aptitude remove worked though to clear out the older kernels. (did show the error though, but didn't stop the process)

dinky wrote:

WHy would there be compiz issues? I don't get it... COmpiz runs fine on both my 701 and 901... why would using this guide, and updating the xorg change this?

Just making a guess cause other threads in the forum say that NBR in Netbook mode has problems with compiz. Should've clarified that I'm running NBR Eeebuntu in Netbook Mode

You can safely ignore that warning message.

LurkAzusa · **Posted:** Sat Aug 15, 2009 5:38 pm

I followed your instructions and everything seemed to work great. Then after rebooting, it wouldn't load. The video showed streaks.

I then followed the instruction to uninstall and that got me back in.

Reinstalled and came up with this error:

run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/nvidia-common

Setting up linux-headers-2.6.30-02063004-generic (2.6.30-02063004) ...
Examining /etc/kernel/header_postinst.d.
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/header_postinst.d/dkms
* Running DKMS auto installation service for kernel 2.6.30-02063004-generic
* asus_eee (0.3a)... asus_eee (0.3a): Unable to locate /var/lib/dkms/asus_eee/0.3a/source/dkms.conf
DKMS tree must be manually fixed.
[fail]

Is this the source of my problem?
How can I fix that?
Thanks for such a clear guide, btw. It really made it so easy. I am installing on a 1000, if that makes any difference.

siege · **Posted:** Sun Aug 16, 2009 1:13 am

LurkAzusa wrote:

I followed your instructions and everything seemed to work great. Then after rebooting, it wouldn't load. The video showed streaks.

I then followed the instruction to uninstall and that got me back in.

Reinstalled and came up with this error:

run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/nvidia-common

Setting up linux-headers-2.6.30-02063004-generic (2.6.30-02063004) ...
Examining /etc/kernel/header_postinst.d.
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/header_postinst.d/dkms
* Running DKMS auto installation service for kernel 2.6.30-02063004-generic
* asus_eee (0.3a)... asus_eee (0.3a): Unable to locate /var/lib/dkms/asus_eee/0.3a/source/dkms.conf
DKMS tree must be manually fixed.
[fail]

Is this the source of my problem?
How can I fix that?
Thanks for such a clear guide, btw. It really made it so easy. I am installing on a 1000, if that makes any difference.

I've never seen that error. Before running that command again, make sure that this code shows that you're running netbook-dkms 0.5b:

Code:

dpkg -l | grep netbook-dkms

If it says you have it, run this command:

Code:

sudo dpkg -P asus-eee-dkms

Then try installing the newer kernel again.

siege

LurkAzusa · **Posted:** Sun Aug 16, 2009 5:53 am

I reinstalled from scratch, applied all updates. Then used Synaptic to install netbook-dkms. Upgraded eeepc-acpi-utilities and now everything is fine. Thank you. I think the original problem was asus-eee-dkms 0.3c was installed by default.

dinky · **Posted:** Sun Aug 16, 2009 8:31 am

Wow Seige, that was by far the easiest instructions to upgrade a kernel I've every followed. No compiling, no advanced terminal use... basically cut and paste... well done...

I'm now using the .30 kernel, with all patches applied, and Fewt's tmp folders mounted in ram space fix. Working great! Can now rotate the screen and use external displays.

I'm using a 901 with base and a 2103 bios revision. Cheers.

~dinky

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