Recommended modesetting driver for Intel graphic cards

Mon Nov 20 23:27:06 GMT 2017

On Montag, 20. November 2017 23:40:38 CET Milian Wolff wrote:
> On Montag, 20. November 2017 17:28:06 CET Martin Flöser wrote:
> > Am 2017-11-20 11:59, schrieb Milian Wolff:
> > > On Samstag, 18. November 2017 15:34:16 CET Friedrich W. H. Kossebau
> > > 
> > > wrote:
> > >> Am Donnerstag, 16. November 2017, 23:24:52 CET schrieb Ingo Klöcker:
> > >> > On Dienstag, 7. November 2017 20:55:57 CET Martin Flöser wrote:
> > >> > > Am 2017-11-07 20:08, schrieb Martin Koller:
> > >> > > >> Are you aware that KWin uses QtQuick for all its UI elements,
> > >> > > >> such
> > >> > > >> as
> > >> > > >> Alt+TAB?
> > >> > > > 
> > >> > > > I have deactivated the compositor since sadly it simply does not
> > >> > > > work
> > >> > > > on my laptop (the intel graphics driver just freezes the whole
> > >> > > > machine).
> > >> > > 
> > >> > > I did not talk about compositor, I talked about QtQuick! Yes, KWin
> > >> > > uses
> > >> > > QtQuick for rendering it's UI, that is unrelated to compositing.
> > >> > > 
> > >> > > Now you mention that your intel graphics driver freezes the whole
> > >> > > system. I'm using Intel on all my systems and it's the most used
> > >> > > driver
> > >> > > out there. We get many, many, many bug reports in KWin about
> > >> > > issues.
> > >> > > Freezing systems has not been in the list for now something like
> > >> > > two
> > >> > > years.
> > >> > > 
> > >> > > Given that I am very certain that you have a hardware issue where
> > >> > > people
> > >> > > can help you with. Intel GPUs are good enough to run the Plasma
> > >> > > session
> > >> > > without any negative impact.
> > >> > > 
> > >> > > So let us help you fix your issues that you can enjoy our work
> > >> > > without
> > >> > > having to spend time on writing your own shell.
> > >> > > 
> > >> > > First thing: are you using the xorg-modesettings driver? If not:
> > >> > > install
> > >> > > it, problems solved. Do not (I repeat) do not use the xorg-intel
> > >> > > driver.
> > >> > > 
> > >> > > For kernel I recommend at least version 4.13 as this comes with the
> > >> > > atomic modesettings driver stack enabled by default. If you do not
> > >> > > have
> > >> > > such a kernel version yet I highly recommend to give it a try.
> > >> > 
> > >> > Martin, thanks a lot for your advice!
> > >> > 
> > >> > I've suffered from freezes since I updated my openSUSE 13.2 to
> > >> > Tumbleweed
> > >> > some time ago (and much longer on my laptop where I've switched to
> > >> > Leap
> > >> > and
> > >> > later Tumbleweed much earlier).
> > >> 
> > >> Same here, happy to finally see someone with correlated experience. I
> > >> never
> > >> got any useful hints in the log files, so was close to consider my
> > >> hardware
> > >> broken. Strange enough all freezes seemed to happen while moving the
> > >> mouse
> > >> though, which kept the hope alive it was something software-related.
> > >> 
> > >> Curious to see if my daily freeze will now be a thing of the past now
> > >> that I
> > >> changed the driver. Though I am on a 2nd gen 915 device, while all the
> > >> modesettings driver talk I came across on a quick search seemed to be
> > >> only
> > >> about gen4 and later? No issues seen for one hour so far, hope grows
> > >> 
> > >> :)
> > >> :
> > >> > The switch to the modesetting driver seems
> > >> > to have fixed those issues. It took me some time to find out how to
> > >> > enable
> > >> > the modesetting driver. To save others the time here's how to do it:
> > >> > Write
> > >> > #=====
> > >> > Section "Device"
> > >> > 
> > >> >    Identifier  "Intel Graphics"
> > >> >    Driver      "modesetting"
> > >> > 
> > >> > EndSection
> > >> > #=====
> > >> > to a file in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/, e.g. 50-device.conf. Make sure
> > >> > that
> > >> > this is the only (or at least the first) "Device" section in any of
> > >> > the
> > >> > files in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/.
> > >> 
> > >> Another approach seems to be to uninstall xf86-video-intel, that way
> > >> the
> > >> seemingly hardcoded driver-auto-match logic will skip forward to the
> > >> modesetting driver:
> > >> 
> > >> [    12.125] (==) Matched intel as autoconfigured driver 0
> > >> [    12.125] (==) Matched intel as autoconfigured driver 1
> > >> [    12.125] (==) Matched modesetting as autoconfigured driver 2
> > >> [    12.125] (==) Matched fbdev as autoconfigured driver 3
> > >> [    12.125] (==) Matched vesa as autoconfigured driver 4
> > >> [    12.125] (==) Assigned the driver to the xf86ConfigLayout
> > >> [    12.125] (II) LoadModule: "intel"
> > >> [    12.127] (WW) Warning, couldn't open module intel
> > >> [    12.127] (II) UnloadModule: "intel"
> > >> [    12.127] (II) Unloading intel
> > >> [    12.127] (EE) Failed to load module "intel" (module does not
> > >> exist, 0)
> > >> [    12.127] (II) LoadModule: "modesetting"
> > >> [    12.127] (II) Loading
> > >> /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/drivers/modesetting_drv.so
> > > 
> > > I've also recently come across this. According to [1] the performance
> > > is
> > > supposedly much worse. Is this still true for more recent mesa/kernel
> > > versions?
> > 
> > You quoted Phoronix. I hope you don't expect Phoronix to be able to get
> > proper measurements. That's something Phoronix still hasn't succeeded
> > after all those years. Just for fun I clicked that link and the first
> > graph shows a benchmark showing a game one running at 22.15, the other
> > at 22.13 fps. This difference is kernel sneezing. So much to that. But
> > the real issue is that a game running at 22 fps is unplayable. It has
> > nothing to do in the benchmark, the setup is broken. This has been the
> > issue as long as I followed Phoronix benchmarking. From an academic
> > point of view - which you understand as much as I do - it's just all
> > extremely horrible.
> > 
> > Don't take any numbers serious. Michael doesn't understand how to do
> > benchmarking. He just runs his tools. He doesn't think about what a
> > benchmark should show, what he wants to show. And he doesn't interpret
> > the numbers. He just gives numbers. Do they matter? Who knows. You
> > derived from his numbers that the "performance is much worse". Is that
> > the case? I don't know because I don't see this in the benchmark. I just
> > see numbers. We would have to ask someone understanding the system
> > whether it makes sense. I assume there are not many people who might be
> > able to answer the question. Maybe the authors of GtkPerf, maybe Keith
> > Packard as the author of glamor, but certainly not Michael from
> > Phoronix.
> > 
> > Hadn't done a Phoronix benchmarking rant for years ;-) Sad that it still
> > is needed.
> > 
> > For reference I point to a blog post from 2012 where I discuss Phoronix
> > benchmarking in detail:
> > http://blog.martin-graesslin.com/blog/2012/09/why-i-dont-like-game-renderi
> > ng -performance-benchmarks/
> > 
> > Everything written there still fully applies to the benchmark in
> > question
> 
> Thanks for the rant :) I rarely look at graphic related Phoronix stuff since
> I don't know the tools and what they measure. For some I/O and CPU stuff,
> the tools are useful and thus the numbers reported are, too.
> 
> So since the tools used here are apparently useless, could you or someone
> else please answer the actual question: Is there any perceived performance
> difference between modesetting driver and intel driver? I assume it isn't
> from the way you respond. Just wanted to make sure.

Well, I tried it out myself now that tosky said it works for him. Indeed, it 
does for me too - and some glaring bugs are resolved on top! Most notably I'm 
finally able to launch secondary X sessions, nice :)

Thanks everyone for recommending this. I bet more people have this old driver 
installed out of habit (like I did), without a clear understanding of what 
they are doing.

Cheers

-- 
Milian Wolff
mail at milianw.de
http://milianw.de
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