Ubuntu/Linux vs OpenELEC

[riotbr]

Hi! First of all, sorry about my english

I'm stuck for days (5) trying to build a htpc with an old hardware. To resume the story, the machine runs very well using OpenELEC 5.0.8 32 bits. I'm watching Youtube videos and movies in 1080 without any problem.

The problem when installing Ubuntu/Linux (my option to have something more)? The video card: XFX Radeon HD 4650 1GB AGP. Btw, to buy a new hardware it's not an option right now =/

So, I tried everything (I think). I tried to use many Ubuntu versions (12.04 to 16.04; Ubuntu, Lubuntu and Ubuntu Gnome) and other Linux distros (Debian, Mint,...). I also know that is a question of Kernel and the lack of support of the proprietary drivers.

About the drivers? Ubuntu/Open Source, proprietary (from 12.4 to 13.1-legacy) and, of course, Oibaf's drivers.

OpenELEC 5.0.8 32 bits have this xorg.conf is attached):

• Kernel 3.17.8
• Xorg 1.16.4
• OpenGL 3.0
• Mesa 10.3.7
• "radeon" drivers

So... there's a way of reproduce these conditions? What would be the best version of Ubuntu (or distro) to do that? Theres a way to use Oibaf's drivers?

Thanks in advance!!! Cheers from Brazil =)

[bridgman]

Remember that the proprietary drivers and Oibaf's drivers are different things. We have been doing a lot of work on the open source drivers and Oibaf's repositories give you access to the latest versions of those drivers. You can't run proprietary *and* open source drivers at the same time - you'll get all kinds of problems if you try.

Any recent Ubuntu version should be fine, generally the newer the better (eg start with 14.04.4). Don't install the proprietary drivers, stay with what you get from the distro install.

Did you do any testing with just the open source drivers on a recent distro ? If so, what problems were you having ? Might be more related to other parts of the video playback stack than to the drivers...

[riotbr]

Hi, bridgman. Thanks for the answer.

Remember that the proprietary drivers and Oibaf's drivers are different things.

I know. How I'm doing (yeah, it's painful): I install/upgrade the OS, install the drivers and test the video card on the same conditions (Youtube and movies in 1080). For each attempt (driver), a new installation. Yeah, I'm a little crazy lol

Any recent Ubuntu version should be fine, generally the newer the better (eg start with 14.04.4). Don't install the proprietary drivers, stay with what you get from the distro install.

I'm trying everything... Ubuntu (11.04, 11.10, 12.04, 12.04.1,... 16.04-beta1; Ubuntu Gnome, Lubuntu, Debian, Mint,...). As I said, "for each attempt (driver), a new installation".

Did you do any testing with just the open source drivers on a recent distro ? If so, what problems were you having ? Might be more related to other parts of the video playback stack than to the drivers...

It was my first attempt. Videos on Youtube, on the HDD and local network (HD; 1080) are choppy.

Using OpenELEC, for example, the videos are perfect.

[riotbr]

My intention is to use open source drivers and Oibaf's repositories, the reason why I'm here =)

Oh... the content of xorg.conf (OpenELEC):

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "aticonfig Layout"
    Screen      0  "screen" 0 0
EndSection

Section "Device"
        Identifier "Radeon"
        Driver     "Radeon"
        Option     "SWcursor" "off"
        Option     "AccelMethod" "EXA"
        Option     "EnablePageFlip" "on"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
  Mode 0666
EndSection

Section "Screen"
  Identifier     "screen"
  Device         "aticonfig Layout"
  DefaultDepth   24
  SubSection     "Display"
    Option       "ColorRange""Full"
#   Option       "ColorRange""Limited"
    Option       "ColorSpace""RGB"
#   Option       "ColorSpace""YCbCr444"
    Modes        "1920x1080_60" "1920x1080@60"
  Depth          24
  EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
  Option      "Composite"             "false"
EndSection