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Ubuntu GMA 3600 driver

idata
Employee
10,645 Views

Dear Intel Representative,

I bought an Asus 1011cx netbook with Intel Atom N2600 inside. This contains the GMA3650/PowerVR

SGX545 GPU. The netbook is marketed as Ubuntu-certified, and comes with Ubuntu 12.04 preinstalled.

Since the current driver implements opengl functions in software, even the most basic OpenGL-accelerated software is unusably slow.

Please provide a driver that utilizes the GMA3650 OpenGL capabilities. I need this to use the netbook.

Regards,

Erno Szabados

14 Replies
DArce
Valued Contributor III
5,378 Views

Hello,

Linux* drivers for these video controllers are provided by the operating system distributor directly.

In that case I suggest that you check with your Linux* distro or your computer manufacturer for updated drivers for your system.

 

 

idata
Employee
5,378 Views

Hello Diego,

thanks for your feedback.

First I contacted ASUS about this issue. The ASUS representative said they do not support the OS, I should contact Ubuntu just like you did.

The problem is, how could Ubuntu provide a driver? Where is the documentation to enable this effort? Is it available somewhere in the documentation provided by Intel? https://01.org/linuxgraphics/ Home | Linux Graphics perhaps? There's plenty of docs about the other graphics cores, but I could not find anything related to the GMA 3600. Please show me where are the GMA 3600 programming docs available.

idata
Employee
5,377 Views

The lack of clear communication from Intel in this matter is dishartening. As I've said elsewhere, it's rather unbelievable for a company with the resources of Intel to be unable or unwilling to provide adequate support for its own products, even to the point of not providing enough information for other people to program an adequate driver. I doubt we'll see Diego_Intel answering Erno's question, which is more than adequate given Intel's disregard for Linux users.

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DArce
Valued Contributor III
5,377 Views

Hello Erno,

I apologize for the delay on my post,

The only article that is related to Linux* video drivers availability, is posted here:

http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/sb/CS-010512.htm http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/sb/CS-010512.htm

It does not highlight the Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 3600 there; however this applies as the same.

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idata
Employee
5,377 Views

Hello again, and thanks for your response.

I checked the link you provided. Out of curiosity I downloaded the x.org driver sources and find this release the NEWS.

Release 2.20.5 (2012-08-26)

===========================

Another silly bug found, another small bugfix release. The goal was for

the driver to bind to all Intel devices supported by the kernel.

Unfortunately we were too successful and started claiming Pouslbo,

Medfield and Cedarview devices which are still encumbered by propietary

IP and not supported by this driver.

The release states that Medfield and Cedarview devices are not supported because they are encumbered by proprietary IP. In other words, in this case the developers of the open-source Linux drivers are prevented from providing a driver for these graphics chipsets.

Is there any hope that this situation will change?

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idata
Employee
5,377 Views

Thanks for providing a helpful friendly tool to download drivers for linux systems.

Unfortunately, it doesn't yet support the cedartrail line of graphics chips. So for time being I and thousands of new netbook owners are totally stuck with having to use old gma 500 driver. From googling, it seems people have been waiting a long time for any linux support, due to closed source.

Please please please open source the driver code, or fix it so the drivers work in all distros, not just Intel's.

Oh by the way, I tried MeeGo distro again, but I didn't like it... at all

Regards

Art.

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idata
Employee
5,377 Views

I see someone has asked Imagination Tech for PowerVR linux driver support, and they clearly say it's Intel's responsibility. re: http://forum.imgtec.com/discussion/2442/intel-gma-3600 Intel GMA 3600 - Imagination Developer Forums

As far as I can see this question is far from answered.

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ÁLópe
Beginner
5,378 Views

I would like to know if there has been any news on this matter. I need to use at least 2D acceleration in this a CPU with Intel Atom N2600 and the PowerVR GPU. In my case it is used in Camera IP streaming.

Furthermore, I opened a thread in Unix&Linux at StackExchange: http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/265701/intel-gma-3600-linux-support/265712# 265712 http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/265701/intel-gma-3600-linux-support/265712# 265712

AFAIK, older ditributions might work :s... In my case, I tested it under Ubuntu 14.04 with vesa and fbdev and the performance slightly improved...

Moreover, XV channels of X-Video extension (https://www.x.org/archive/X11R7.5/doc/man/man1/xvinfo.1.html https://www.x.org/archive/X11R7.5/doc/man/man1/xvinfo.1.html) were not visible yet.

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ÁLópe
Beginner
5,377 Views

Finally, I managed to use up to four XV channels using certain combination of Linux distribution, Xorg server version and driver (pvr_drv).

However, it seems that sometimes a kind of "screen tearing" effect appears. I still don't know if it could be caused by a parameter in xorg.conf file.

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Hellen_D_Intel
Employee
5,377 Views

Hi Aloplop85,

Intel has a special website where we put altogether open source work that Intel engineers are involved in. https://01.org/ https://01.org/

Intel does provide development drivers for Intel® graphics to the open source community. These development drivers are intended to provide the Linux developer community with an opportunity to provide feedback on the driver and participate in its development. Most versions of the Linux* operating system include Intel® graphics drivers. Intel recommends checking with your Linux distribution vendor for precompiled driver packages.

Development driver source code can be obtained from public repositories found in the Downloads section of the Linux and Intel graphics website.

https://01.org/linuxgraphics/downloads https://01.org/linuxgraphics/downloads

Development driver support is only available through the open source community. See the Community section of the Linux and Intel graphics website.

https://01.org/linuxgraphics/community https://01.org/linuxgraphics/community

Intel Linux graphics is an open source project where all of our development is done in the open in our mailing lists and public git repositories. We encourage you to participate in this Intel® Graphics for Linux* Project.

https://01.org/linuxgraphics https://01.org/linuxgraphics

Regards,

Hellen.

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ÁLópe
Beginner
5,377 Views

Hi Hellen,

I checked Intel site, but the GPU is only supported under certain combination of OS and Xorg, such as Fedora 16 and Ubuntu 12.04.1.

The driver, which certainly works in those systems cannot be compiled with newer kernels.

Furthermore, Intel also warns about that they do not provide driver for GMA 3600 series as it seem to be difficult to be programmed.

Thanks for the links!

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Hellen_D_Intel
Employee
5,378 Views
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ssimp2
Beginner
5,378 Views

@aloplop85

I'm interested in how you get on. I've got a Acer Aspire D270. I'm running Ubuntu 16.04 32-bit with the gma500 driver.

btw. I think the Windows 7 starter 32-bit driver is accelerated.

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ÁLópe
Beginner
5,378 Views

@culyun

I don't know if it is possible to enable hardware acceleration in your PC board. AFAIK it will not be enabled, as the

last version of the driver was developed in 2012 (http://packages.ubuntu.com/precise-updates/cedarview-graphics-drivers http://packages.ubuntu.com/precise-updates/cedarview-graphics-drivers) and

it does not compile with newer kernels...even I am not sure it will compile with versions different from the one in Ubuntu 12.04.1.

You can execute 'xvinfo' command to know if the XV channels are enabled, but I don't think so.

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