RevertingIntelDriverTo2.4

Revision 18 as of 2009-04-23 19:20:14

Clear message

The problem

As Described in X/Troubleshooting/IntelPerformance, some laptops with intel graphics hardware experience a serious performance degration after upgrading from intrepid to jaunty. The reasons for that are already explained on that page. This page explains how to revert the driver to the version in intrepid.

Installing the package

Add the following lines to your /etc/apt/sources.list:

 deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/siretart/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main
 deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/siretart/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main

See https://help.launchpad.net/Packaging/PPA#Adding%20a%20PPA%20to%20your%20Ubuntu%20repositories for additional information how to add GPG keys to your system.

Install the driver:

 $ sudo apt-get update
 $ sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-intel-2.4

Now you should be set. Restart X and see if the graphics performance from intrepid is restored.

Rolling back

If the driver does not work for you, or is not better, you should rollback to the original Ubuntu one. Remove the two lines from /etc/apt/sources.list again, and install the original one again:

 $ sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-intel

If X.org does not start at all, you should change to a text terminal by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F2, logging in, and use "sudo nano" to edit /etc/apt/sources.list. After installing xserver-xorg-video-intel, restart the computer with "sudo reboot".

Results

If you have tested the package, please report your findings (broken|same|better) and also your PCI ID:

  lspci -nn | grep VGA

HARDWARE

RESULT

WHO

COMMENTS

[8086:27a2] (rev 03)

Performance restored

siretart

compiz/3d performance is comparable to intrepid, even planet-penguin-racer is playable again

[8086:2a42] (rev 07)

Performance improved

Lure

much better performance than 2.6 driver with EXA+greedy or UXA, only problem is that it gets physical size of my 12.1" panel wrong (have to use xrandr --fbmm to fix it manually)

[8086:2a02] (rev 03)

Slightly worse

Laurent

With the normal Jaunty driver, at least with no open Windows, the Compiz effects were fluid. Now, I experiment lack of performances even with no open windows. Apart of that, no change (even after reboot).

[8086:2a02] (rev 03)

Performance restored

arjnav

Significant improvement compared to previous state. Fullscreen video as well as compiz-fusion effects are functioning and fast.

[8086:2a02] (rev 0c)

Performance improved

Venko

Much better performance although I'm unsure of whether it's quite as good as it was in Intrepid.

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:2a02] (rev 0c)

Xorg uses 30% CPU, like the 2.6 driver does when used with no UXA option. Under 8.10 all was fine.

tomchiverton

[8086:2a02] (rev 03)

Performance restored

michael_wigren

compiz/metacity performance is back on par with Hardy (I didn't test Intrepid).

[8086:2572] (rev 02)Intel Corporation 82865G Integrated Graphics Controller

Performance completely restored

VMC

compiz/metacity performance is the same as Hardy (I also had issues with Intrepid).

Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:2a02] (rev 03)

Performance worse

Joshua Kite

Performance improves for about half a second, then screen dims and full screen videos are jerky. Was fine with Intrepid

Intel Corporation 82G35 Express Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:2982] (rev 03)

Better

Juan Marulanda

Videos are playable again, compiz is still slow, but not a lot compared to 2.6 driver. Still, there may be even more improvements with Kernel 2.6.30

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation 82865G Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:2572] (rev 02)

Performance Completely Restored

Chad Rodrigue

DRI: Check. Compiz (or Metacity Composting): Check. Videos playable on youtube and totem: Check. Tearing and corruption: gone. Still a little slow on full-screen refreshes (min/maximizing windows), but this driver is a godsend for this chipset, which is awfully laggy and has no DRI in Jaunty's default 2.6 driver.