Years Later, Intel Poulsbo Remains A Bloody Mess

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Years Later, Intel Poulsbo Remains A Bloody Mess

While Intel's original GMA500 "Poulsbo" hardware is now more than four years old, this Intel Atom platform with PowerVR graphics continues to be a bloody mess under Linux...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTEyMjU

[lucazade]

The splitted screen is due to a bug of Ubuntu, not to gma500_gfx driver.
There is a solution but still not integrated in ubuntu backports packages:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...ts/+bug/914311

[droidhacker]

I was experiencing the screen split on Fedora 17 beta. Reset the x server (ctrl-alt-backspace) and the screen will unsplit. Problem seems to be fixed with kernel 3.4, its now 100%. Try running Fedora 17 fully updated and in fallback mode or with something lighter than gnome3. Guaranteed to work perfect with that hardware.

I am now fully satisfied with that machine. Acceleration with that graphics chip is irrelevant, the CPU isn't strong enough to run anything heavy enough to benefit from acceleration anyway. Nice portable little netbook/tablet, fully working suspend/resume, 32GB SSD, really nice now.

Only shame is that it took so long to get to this stage. Because of that, I will never buy another system with intel cpu or gpu.

[droidhacker]

The splitted screen is due to a bug of Ubuntu, not to gma500_gfx driver.
There is a solution but still not integrated in ubuntu backports packages:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...ts/+bug/914311

That bug appears to be something different -- about BLANK SCREEN and vt handoffs.

[lucazade]

blacklisting the vt.handoff=7 (provided only in Ubuntu) solves the splitted screen at least here on my acer751h.
When the handoff feauture is enabled the KMS and the framebuffer are not correctly initializated...

Alan Cox is aware of the incompatibility with handoff but it is not on top of his todo list (he uses fedora, not ubuntu!)

[DanL]

Because of that, I will never buy another system with intel cpu or gpu.

It's not an intel GPU..

[patrik]

I bought the Fit-PC2 when it was brand spanking new and to be honest I was very disappointed (and a bit pissed) when I realized there was a black box GPU inside. I don't blame Intel for this, it's clearly PVR's fault.

I've fixed many of the pieces (SDVO, connector / encoder abstractions, vblank support, hardware cursor, bug fixes, etc...) in gma500_gfx that makes the Fit-PC2 tick. I have done this in my spare time (and I'm no GPU expert) on hardware I've paid for myself. There are still things that can be worked upon such as hooking up the 2D bits to a DDX driver, SDVO hotplug support, overlay support (If I can figure out how to reach it) but it starts to feel rather pointless.

What makes me sad is the total lack of interest shown by the community and vendors for this driver. On my box the driver is working fine but every now and then I stumble across forum posts with people complaining about bugs I had no idea about. We need bug reports in order to fix bugs. Maybe there just isn't enough users with Poulsbo hardware and it's probably a lost cause since the hardware is obsolete anyways.

It seems about time to retire my Poulsbo hardware and find something else to contribute to.

[locovaca]

The splitted screen is due to a bug of Ubuntu, not to gma500_gfx driver.
There is a solution but still not integrated in ubuntu backports packages:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...ts/+bug/914311

As a side note, that bug is a damn fine example of what is wrong with Ubuntu. It's no different than calling up a company and having to sit through the first three tiers of tech support before you get to someone who is actually knowledgeable.

[GreatEmerald]

Yeap, that's the handoff issue indeed. It was fixed in the current 12.10 daily build.

The poulsbo situation isn't really that bad with the current kernel. For my device, it still doesn't turn off the monitor correctly, but it at least lets me lower the brightness of it, while still allowing for displaying at native resolution. That's all only in the daily build, however.

[droidhacker]

It's not an intel GPU..

I really don't give a shit who came up with the design. Companies license each other's IP ***ALL THE TIME***.
And in fact, there is quite a large portion of that IGP that IS Intel's work. It isn't just a PVR stuck on with chewing gum, its a hybrid of PVR+Intel IP.

So in all... it is LABELED Intel, it is FOUNDED by Intel, it has a huge chunk of Intel IP, and it was Intel calling the shots. Guess what that makes it?
You got it... INTEL.