Latest Intel Graphics Drivers on Lattitude D610

[NicCOConnor]

I have a lattitude D610 Laptop that I'm using as a Media Driector. everything diskless boots well and I go through the AV wizard. I can even watch some videos once everything is all set up. However at a seemingly random occurence the UI will lock up. Sometimes it happens when I'm putting a disk in the drive, Sometimes it happens when I start to play a video and other times it will happen just because it feels like it.

I've done my searching on the forum and followed directions from http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=5830.0 and others.

The solution in that post helped and stopped it from locking up on boot however I still get frequent random lockups and there are a few more features that I'd like to take advantage of (S-video Support being the no. 1) I think some tweeking of the xorg.conf file may help but I think an upgrade of the driver is the best solution Currently the revision of intel drivers do not support S-Video Out. Additionally as I understand it the new intel drivers will not work on LinuxMCE 710 because of the Linux Kernal version.

So,
Question 1: In LinuxMCE 710 is it possible to upgrade the kernel to a version that will support the latest intel drivers. Compile the new drivers and utilize them. Any resources that you can provide to accomplish this task would be greatly appriciated. Step by step is best since I'm still kinda new to the linux world, But learning Fast :-)

Question 2: if I can't upgrade the linux kernal and drivers would it be possible to use the 810alpha for a media director connecting to a 710 core. As I understand it the 810 alpha uses the new linux kernal that can support the new intel drivers. But I do not want my core to become unstable with an alpha release.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Nic

[colinjones]

The information on static photo screen saver is not accurate. Any form of the PSS will crash the interface due to driver issues. The only way around this at the moment is disabling the PSS in the web admin. This will leave your screen a bit messy due to lack of screen background redrawing, but doesn't effect it functionally at all. It will make the MD completely stable.

Upgrading the kernel is _highly_ inadvisable, and should only be done by someone who is very familiar with the process and concepts involved as some things will break LMCE completely. Note that you will not get any support if you upgrade your kernel.

No, running 810alpha on a 0710 core is not possible. Your best bet is to disable the PSS completely, as suggested, and wait for the full release of 0810 - fingers crossed, the new kernel and drivers will fix this issue!

PS. some implementations of this Intel chipset can be made to work without disabling the PSS, as Andrew indicated of platforms like the ASUS eee. However, the Dell laptops are not in that list (D410, 420, 430, 610, 620, etc)

[NicCOConnor]

I appricate the reply, that's the information I was looking for. Although it sucks I can't upgrade the intel drivers, well at least not without a whole lot of time and determination. One more question that's kinda unrelated. Since I have a diskless Media Director, and that image is streamed from the Core. When I run or make changes in the Media Director, Are those changes streamed back to the core or does it get a new image on every boot.

I know there is a way to change the MD image on the core, and those changes will reflect on the Media Director. But sometimes I find it easier to run a command, or make a setting change directly on the MD.

Nic

[patmankn]

NicCOConnor,

the MDs are not working on a "stream", but are using the core as the "harddrive".
This means, that the system your are running is the one in the "moonXX" folder.

I doesn't matter if you change stuff on the MD or ssh from the core into the moonXX
or edit the files directly. It's just alle the same ;O)

Patrick

[colinjones]

Nic - as Pat says...

more info... when your MD boots, the NIC has enough intelligence to send a DHCP boot image request (known as a PXE, Pre-eXecution Environment) on the network. The core sends it a couple of tiny image files. The first one (linuz) is executed, and this gives the MD enough intelligence to create a simple RAMDisk. The second one (initramfs) is an archive file that is unrolled into that RAMDisk and executed. This is a tiny linux kernel with all the drivers, configuration and code required to start up your MD's hardware enough to create an NFS mount - this is a simple Linux network share. It then uses NFS to connect to the NFS share on the core that contains the specific LMCE image for that MD and mounts this share under the root '/'. At that point it can drop the interim boot kernel and RAMDisk code, and boot from the core over the network. Essentially, it is all just a mechanism to connect to a remote drive as your system drive over an ethernet cable instead of SATA or IDE.

So any change you make on the MD are actually changes directly the the system image on the core and are thus retained just like any other. The only circumstance where you will loose changes is if you click the rebuild image in the web admin as this creates a new, fresh image, based on your core's original files and the configuration set in the web admin.

You will find the image here /usr/pluto/diskless/##/ etc where ## is the device number of your MD. So you can change stuff either from the MD itself or from the core.. .usefull if you want to make changes whilst the MD is powered off!

[itsmeok]

PS. some implementations of this Intel chipset can be made to work without disabling the PSS, as Andrew indicated of platforms like the ASUS eee. However, the Dell laptops are not in that list (D410, 420, 430, 610, 620, etc)

I just created a new core with an intel based chipset 945. Where can I find what have been done to get the ones with intel chip working.

I installed 7.10 RC2 on it and could not select the s-video output and get black and white screen on tv. When selecting the i810 driver throught KDE desktop I got color. Still UI2 crashes and UI2 with alpha blending has a blinking screen. Still I cannot choose the S-Video output in the wizard but the picture with UI1 is very good.

I am willing to test and try anything and report back as I still have my old one running.

If I am only using this core for the media features without additional media directors would the 8.10 alpha version be a good try ?

My new MB is an iBase MB899F. Interesting system using less then 28 watts with dvd player and 3,5" HD. Will create wiki page ones working. looks very similar then the jetway.

[colinjones]

I don't think you have to "do" anything, it either works or doesn't depending on the hardware implementation. Andrew from CHT (totallymaxed) has made numerous comments about the systems that they have used with this chip.

Give up on alpha blending - you need nVidia chips to get anywhere near that, even if it was supported for the Intel chips, this one certainly doesn't have the grunt to do it.

In terms of resolving the crashing in OpenGL modes, either use the PSS disable work around, or cross your fingers for the new drivers/kernel in 0810. You can try the alpha, but if it doesn't work you won't get any support for it! I would strongly recommend waiting at least until the first Beta is available.

[totallymaxed]

PS. some implementations of this Intel chipset can be made to work without disabling the PSS, as Andrew indicated of platforms like the ASUS eee. However, the Dell laptops are not in that list (D410, 420, 430, 610, 620, etc)

I just created a new core with an intel based chipset 945. Where can I find what have been done to get the ones with intel chip working.

I installed 7.10 RC2 on it and could not select the s-video output and get black and white screen on tv. When selecting the i810 driver throught KDE desktop I got color. Still UI2 crashes and UI2 with alpha blending has a blinking screen. Still I cannot choose the S-Video output in the wizard but the picture with UI1 is very good.

I am willing to test and try anything and report back as I still have my old one running.

If I am only using this core for the media features without additional media directors would the 8.10 alpha version be a good try ?

My new MB is an iBase MB899F. Interesting system using less then 28 watts with dvd player and 3,5" HD. Will create wiki page ones working. looks very similar then the jetway.

Well you definitely do not want to use the i810 driver... you must use the 'intel' driver in xorg.

Andrew

[itsmeok]

Well you definitely do not want to use the i810 driver... you must use the 'intel' driver in xorg.

Andrew

Andrew, the intel driver seems not to support s-video connection. With the i810 driver I have at least my colors.

Can you explain why I would not want to use the i810 driver ?

Is this a newer driver ?

http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/xorg-announce/2008-July/000621.html

[tschak909]

The i810 is the legacy driver for older chipsets.

-Thom