VIA CN700/P4M800 Pro/P4M800 CE/VN800 Graphics

[pemartins]

I'm having a video display issue, i.e. fullscreen display on Youtube having choppy image even at 144p and Vlc video having what looks like a blue filter. It's an old pc so of course I'm not expecting to watch HD or something alike, I'd just like to ask for your help to check if something could be done to improve. If not no problem at all, Linux Lite brought this old machine back to life so I really couldn't ask for more.

I already updated mesa to the latest 17.1.2 but it didn't help. Here is the output of inxi -Fxxx:

Code:

$ inxi -Fxxx
System:    Host: melo-pc Kernel: 4.4.0-82-generic i686 (32 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
           Desktop: Xfce 4.12.3 (Gtk 2.24.28) info: xfce4-panel dm: lightdm
           Distro: Ubuntu 16.04 xenial
Machine:   Mobo: MICRO-STAR model: MS-7222 v: 2.00
           Bios: Phoenix v: 6.00 PG date: 07/25/2006
CPU:       Single core Intel Pentium 4 (-HT-) cache: 1024 KB
           flags: (lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3) bmips: 5999
           clock speeds: max: 2999 MHz 1: 2999 MHz 2: 2999 MHz
Graphics:  Card: VIA CN700/P4M800 Pro/P4M800 CE/VN800 Graphics [S3 UniChrome Pro]
           bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 1106:3344
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: openchrome (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
           Resolution: [email protected]
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 4.0, 128 bits)
           GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 17.1.2 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card VIA VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller
           driver: snd_via82xx port: e400 bus-ID: 00:11.5 chip-ID: 1106:3059
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.4.0-82-generic
Network:   Card: VIA VT6102/VT6103 [Rhine-II]
           driver: via-rhine port: e000 bus-ID: 00:12.0 chip-ID: 1106:3065
           IF: enp0s18 state: unknown speed: 10 Mbps duplex: half
           mac: 00:16:17:c6:41:79
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 40.0GB (54.9% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: ST340014A size: 40.0GB serial: 5JX157XQ
Partition: ID-1: / size: 37G used: 21G (59%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 0.47GB used: 0.19GB (40%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda5
RAID:      System: supported: N/A
           No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
           Unused Devices: none
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 55.0C mobo: N/A
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 157 Uptime: 37 min Memory: 255.8/428.2MB
           Init: systemd v: 229 runlevel: 5 default: 2 Gcc sys: 5.4.0 alt: 4.8
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.481 running in x-terminal-emul) inxi: 2.2.35

I'm attaching a report. I read in the forum posting guidelines that only txt files could be attached but since when I was about to post I noticed that more file types where available and html format was much easier to read, I'm posting the generated html file. I apologize in advance if I'm doing wrong and if so let me know so I can remove it.

Thank you in advance.

[Valtam]

Give Minitube a go for Youtube videos - http://flavio.tordini.org/minitube
For VLC, trying changing the video output type, Tools, Preferences, Video, Output (Save).

[sanmayjoshi]

Hello [member=6995]pemartins[/member] ,

    I would also like to suggest you to check if you have updated Linux Lite. In case you have, you may as well want to check if the proprietary drivers are available for your Graphics Card, sometimes that may fix the issue.

How to check proprietary drivers:
1. Open Whisker menu.
2. Hover over [tt]Settings[/tt].
3. Click on [tt]Install Drivers[/tt].
      It should open a window of [tt]Software & Updates[/tt] with tab [tt] Additional Drivers[/tt]. It would also automatically check for any proprietary drivers available for the type of hardware you have.
4. Tick the radio button under the Graphics Card(VIA CN700/P4M800 Pro/P4M800 CE/VN800 Graphics) which should state [tt]Using VIA CN700/P4M800 Pro/P4M800 CE/VN800 Graphics[/tt] in your case. And, click apply. Restart and test the problem again.

Hope it helps a bit.

[pemartins]

Thank you both very much for your help!

[member=2]Jerry[/member] my focus is fullscreen video while browsing, not exactly having a separated application but thank you very much for the suggestion.

In Vlc I was indeed able to choose a video output mode that played just fine in windowed mode which was X11 (XCB), thank you so much for the tip. However in fullscreen mode I have the same problem I have on Youtube.

[member=6959]sanmayjoshi[/member] all is up to date. There are no proprietary drivers available for the video card, it's an old piece of hardware so no luck there.

So basically everything plays fine in windowed mode, only in fullscreen something is not being processed correctly. What about changing the video driver, could it help?

[rokytnji]

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=ne...e-Progress

https://cgit.freedesktop.org/openchrome/drm-openchrome/

https://cgit.freedesktop.org/openchrome/...me/commit/

If you wanna roll with a different driver. My recommend is roll with vesa. You are already running with OpenChrome driver though. Google is your friend for forcing use of vesa vs Open Chrome if you wish. I roll with Vesa on my P3 IBM T23 because Savage graphics driver does not play well with newer Xorg installs than 1.10.  You will notice yours is

Code:

Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4

[quote]Problem: Video card not supported by driver

Determine the PCI ID of the chip:

lspci -nn | grep VGA

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ATI Technologies Inc RV535 [Radeon X1650 Series] [1002:71c7] (rev 9e)

Here, the PCI ID is 1002:71c7.

Now look in the PCI ID registry to see which driver is used. (Drop the colon ':' when doing this.)

grep -i 100271c7 /usr/share/xserver-xorg/pci/*.ids

/usr/share/xserver-xorg/pci/radeon.ids:100271C7

This indicates that X would pick the -radeon driver for me. If you did not get output, then your chip is not currently supported by any driver. There could be several reasons:

1. If you have newer hardware (such as if you're an OEM and testing hardware that is not yet released) then it may simply be the case that support for your chip has not been added to the driver, or was added only recently and is not available in the released driver.

You can try appending your pci id to the /usr/share/xserver-xorg/pci/*.ids file. This will tell X to load the driver anyway. *Sometimes* this works; more often it does not.

You can also try a newer version of the video driver by installing from upstream git. See Freedesktop Git Usage for directions on using git.

2. On the other hand, if you have older hardware, then if your hardware used to work with a non-vesa driver in the past, possibly support for your hardware has been dropped from the video driver. Check that driver's mailing list for more information.

3. If you have unusual hardware, such as a video card from a minor vendor, then a third possibility is that it needs a driver not available in the standard distribution (or perhaps not available at all). In this case, you'll need to locate and install the necessary driver. [/code]

from:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Troubleshootin...rDetection

I am not a real active member on this forum. I have other commits on other distro's that are Debian based.
Just giving you a idea on what you are dealing with.

[pemartins]

Thank you so much for the help.

As soon as I get the the chance, probably tomorrow, I'll mess around a bit with Openchrome driver (the one I have installed, right?) and will also test Vesa and see how it goes.

Gimme just a hand on this so I can understand a bit of the scenario: so there's someone developing a driver (Openchrome), is it the same I am using now? I'm asking this because the package's names seem to differ.
If not, how can I install it to test? I believe I should get it from here, but should I get 0.6.0's tar.bz or tar.bz2? And how could I install it and set it to be used?
If it is the same that I have now, is mine up to date? If it isn't up to date, how can I update it, even if it is for a nightly version?

I apologise if I'm being too noob but this is a subject I know very few (closer to nothing) about.

Thank you very much once again.

[rokytnji]

Gimme just a hand on this so I can understand a bit of the scenario: so there's someone developing a driver (Openchrome), is it the same I am using now?

Code:

harry@harry-Latitude-XT2:~$ sudo -i
[sudo] password for harry:
root@harry-Latitude-XT2:~# lshw -c video

Will supply what version OpenChrome you are running presently.  ( Edit: Maybe not. Just read where unsupported chips and drivers may not show a version number)

Note: This does not work in every case!
For a SiS 65x/M650/740 PCI/AGP VGA Display Adapter, there is no "Kernel driver in use" line:

Might have to use sysinfo instead.

Code:

harry@harry-Latitude-XT2:~$ sysinfo
The program 'sysinfo' is currently not installed. You can install it by typing:
sudo apt-get install sysinfo
harry@harry-Latitude-XT2:~$

Being older unsupported gear though. Like Via, Sis, and Savage chips. One has a lot of hoop jumping to go through.
it took me days and weeks to learn on how Xorg and The developer for SIS,VIA,Savage drivers don't even communicate and how Xorg just breaks driver compatibility.

I was just educating you on what you have. I'd roll with SMTube or MiniTube like Jerry suggested and call it day myself. 

[pemartins]

So I tried lots of tweaks on Openchrome driver but did not have much success. Also tried lowering the screen resolution but strangely either I have the default monitor resolution (1920x1280 if I'm not mistaken) or the pc just won't boot. No need to say that I had to rename or delete

Code:

~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/displays.xml

a lot of times from Ctrl+Alt+F1 command line access.

And weirdly with Vesa driver things work much better. So I set the driver to Vesa by creating the file

Code:

/etc/X11/xorg.conf

with these contents:

Code:

Section "Device"
        Identifier      "Configured Video Device"
        Driver          "vesa"
EndSection

Then I set screen resolution to 1280x800 and the final result was very satisfactory indeed. I.e. I can browse on Facebook without any freezing problem, no problems on Youtube and fast video loading and normal playback. It's still not perfect in fullscreen video playback but it is satisfactory and perfectly watchable.

And it's from far the best performance on a P4 with 512 MB of ram that I have ever seen!

Thank you all for your help.