My Video "State of the Union"

[raymac46]

I just thought I would summarize the situation right now in Linux video for a bunch of different machines I have around the house. Maybe you might like to add your own "state of the union" in this thread.

Basically I have 4 different systems I can try Linux video on.

System 1 - Fairly up to date desktop with AMD R7 360 card - runs LM 18.1

This was my problem child up until recently when the latest release of Linux Mint fixed all the issues with the FOSS radeon driver. Right now it runs great and I am in no hurry to change anything. AMD proprietary drivers don't work and never will with my card, but the FOSS driver is good enough for me.

System 2 - Aging but still good desktop with Nvidia GTX 950 video card - runs Windows

I run Linux mostly in VirtualBox here. When I tried a USB drive version of LM18.1 it was awful. Nouveau just doesn't work with the GTX 950. You'd have to install the system and implement the Nvidia proprietary driver to get any sort of graphics worth having.

System 3 - old desktop with Nvidia GTX 650 Ti Boost Card - runs LM 18.1

Again Nouveau graphics leave much to be desired - Cinnamon won't run in hardware rendered 3D. The proprietary Nviidia driver works just fine.

System 4 - old netbook with Intel GMA 3150 graphics - runs MX-16 Xfce

Intel just works. This is a low end laptop with a low end desktop environment and a low end graphics adapter but I haven't had any problems. Mind you I don't expect much.

 

The bottom line?

If I were building a Linux system today and didn't care about a discrete card I'd just go with Intel and fuggedaboudit. If I were installing a discrete card I'd still take Nvidia I think. The proprietary driver rips out the FOSS graphics stack and Nvidia isn't a great Linux partner. But Nvidia supports its products going back many years and once you get the driver installed you are in great shape.

AMD in theory has worked closely with Linux developers in the last few years. But they still have the habit of dropping Linux support for anything but their latest technology - you are stuck with the older FOSS radeon driver now for cards that are only a couple of years old. That can be a problem - or not. When it works the radeon driver is very good. When it does not, it's a nightmare. Why risk the aggravation?

[Dr. J]

I'd second you're motion for Intel graphics, both of my machines have Intel integrated graphics only and I've never had any issues.

 

My main system is a 2010 Lenovo B-series laptop (the one I've mentioned in a few posts before - I'm posting from it now even) running Manjaro with Plasma 5. With 4 gigs of ram and a third gen i3 (which has hyperthreading, to the surprise many people who tell me i3s usually don't) it does just about everything I need it to. I can even play some more heavy games on it. I recently purchased "Borderlands - The Pre Sequel" and it runs just fine ! It's a reliable ol' soldier and I'll probably get a few more years out of it yet... I've been considering upgrading to an SSD and doubling the RAM.

 

My other machine is an MSI netbook from the early days of Windows 7, with one of the earliest quad core Atom processors and one gig of RAM. It still has the original copy of Win 7 starter edition on it, which was never anything other than slow and annoying (hence I inherited the machine when the owner got a new one). I did however dual boot it with Arch Linux, which it runs just fine with Xfce, so I can use it as a backup if something happens to the good one. Trouble is, the battery has deteriorated to the point where I'd probably get better results from a lemon with two electrodes stuck in it , so it's not exactly great for on the go.

[raymac46]

My netbook is a Toshiba NB305 that has a 64 bit Atom N450 and a max of 2 GB of RAM. It was a total dog with Windows 7 Starter so I got it for free. With MX-16 and a cheap 120 GB SSD it is quite tolerable as a travel computer and the battery is still pretty good.

[abarbarian]

$ inxi -G
Graphics:  Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] RV730 XT [Radeon HD 4670]
	   Display Server: X.Org 1.16.4 drivers: ati,radeon (unloaded: modesetting,fbdev,vesa)
	   Resolution: 1280x1024@60.02hz, 1280x1024@60.02hz
	   GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on AMD RV730 (DRM 2.39.0 / 3.16.0-4-686-pae, LLVM 3.8.1)
	   GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 12.0.3
$ inxi -C
CPU:	   Single core Intel Pentium 4 (-HT-) cache: 1024 KB
	   clock speeds: max: 2992 MHz 1: 2992 MHz 2: 2992 MHz

 

That is the output of my old Dell. Video outputs to a 42" tv and looks great. Had no problems whatsoever. Am running MX-16 32bit.

 

[raymac46]

ray@ray-basement-SSD ~ $ inxi -G
Graphics:  Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Tobago PRO [Radeon R7 360 / R9 360 OEM]
	   Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: ati,radeon (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
	   Resolution: 1920x1080@60.00hz
	   GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on AMD BONAIRE (DRM 2.43.0, LLVM 3.8.0)
	   GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 11.2.0
ray@ray-basement-SSD ~ $

 

Interesting. You have an older version of Xorg, an older kernel but a newer version of Mesa. But you run the same driver I do which supports a lot of cards quite well. The HD 4XXX cards should be very good with the radeon driver which likely has supported them for a few years.

[mhbell]

Here is mine:

1. Main computer with 16 GB ram, AMD kaveri 3.1 Ghz Radion 7600 R-7 Graphics, !ea 250 GB 2.5 inch SSD Disk and a 750 GB Sata 2.5 inch 5400 Hard drive. Both drives are UEFI and GPT partitioned. The main 250 GB SSD Disk has Windows 10 and Mint 18.1 on it. The Second Sata drive Has 20 Primary Partitions with with the following Linux Distro's on it LXLE, Lubuntu, Siduction Cinnamon, Siduction LXQT, Gecko, MX-16, Linux Lite, All of then Booted from Grub on the SSD Disk including windows 10.

 

2. Traveling Computer HP Pavilion E-17 Laptop (Very Proprietary) 8 GB Ram, intel core 2.6 Ghz i-3, Intel HD 4000 Graphics, 250 GB SSD Disk.

Windows 10, Mint 18.1 LXLE RC.

 

3. HP USFF Elite 8000 ULtra small form factor computer, Intel GMA 4500 Dynamic Video Memory Technology 5.0

Windows 10 Pro, LXLE RC, Mint 18.1

 

4. My Wifes

Compaq Presario Desktop CQ5320F, AMD Athlon ll 2.4 Ghz, 3 GB ram, Nvidia Integrated Graphics GE Force 6150SE,

Mint 18.1

Mel

Edited April 5, 2017 by mhbell

[raymac46]

@Mel let me guess how your video works:

1. Kaveri desktop should use the radeon FOSS driver in LM 18.1 and it's a good solution.

2. Travel laptop is Intel - no problem

3.SFF also Intel - should work well.

4. Wife's desktop probably uses Nouveau as I think the video is pretty old and may not use the Nvidia driver now unless the legacy one works.

[mhbell]

@Mel let me guess how your video works:

1. Kaveri desktop should use the radeon FOSS driver in LM 18.1 and it's a good solution.

2. Travel laptop is Intel - no problem

3.SFF also Intel - should work well.

4. Wife's desktop probably uses Nouveau as I think the video is pretty old and may not use the Nvidia driver now unless the legacy one works.

You are mostly correct except that If I use Debian I have to use a Firmware-nonfree Upgrade for the video on the main computer. The HP Laptop has always been a bearcat, because of the proprietary nature of the beast. You can choose and reset the boot order, but on the next reboot it reverts back to windows a real pita. There is a work around but on the next windows update you are right back where you started. so I just press F-8 on bootup and choose the OS I want. With newer kernels I don't have a problem with video, but I did in the past.

Mel

[raymac46]

I am not surprised you need a linux-firmware upgrade for Debian. I have that package installed in Linux Mint 18.1 where I'm using the radeon driver with my AMD card.

Edited April 5, 2017 by raymac46

[raymac46]

There are two basic issues that must be dealt with to use the AMD radeon driver in Debian:

1. Will the radeon driver work at all?
   
2. Does the accompanying video stack recognize and support your video card?
   

To solve issue 1 you have to install the firmware-linux-nonfree package just as you would need to for certain wifi adapters. Issue 2 needs you to have the right combination of kernel-X-Mesa graphics stack to work with "newer" AMD cards (by "newer" I mean 77XX and later.)

 

Now the current Jessie release does not satisfy Issue #2 so even if you install the firmware you won't get the radeon driver to work. The newer Stretch release does fix issue #2 but you still need to install the firmware or the driver won't work. That is the nature of the Debian beast.

If you use the netinstall CD that already contains the required firmware for Stretch than at the end of it you'll have a working Debian system - with the radeon driver doing its thing.

Other distros like Mint and Ubuntu come with the proper non-free firmware packaged in.