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40702
March 30th, 2015 08:00
Unable to modify xorg.conf
I just received my Dell M3800 Developer Edition laptop. I have installed all the updates for 14.04.2 LTS (still running the 3.13 kernel).
I went in to the nVidia settings (PRIME Profiles) to enable the nVidia card (performance mode). While this kind of worked, everything was extremely choppy and suffered from bad tearing. This is very noticeable when you drag something around on the screen - especially if you have wobbly windows enabled.
I decided to go back to the Intel GPU driver. Unfortunately, this too is very choppy. I have not had this problem on either of my other 2 Linux laptops (one with the Intel 4600, the other running with an Intel 4000).
I then remembered that on my other two laptops, I have the following xorg.conf:
Section "Device"
Identifier "intel"
Driver "intel"
#Option "AccelMethod" "uxa"
#Option "AccelMethod" "sna"
Option "AccelMethod" "glamor"
EndSection
Unfortunately, when I create an xorg.conf file containing the above and then reboot, my xorg.conf file disappears.
Any help would really be appreciated, as I can't stand a choppy desktop.
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VanessaDeagan
6 Posts
0
March 31st, 2015 02:00
I've managed to work around my problem by installing Ubuntu 15.04 beta. Everything seems to work, and everything's running fast and smooth. Sorry - one minor exception - when switching to nVidia mode, the tearing still exists. I'm only using the Intel HD for now (which is more than sufficient for the desktop with Compiz effects).
Finalfantasykid
37 Posts
1
April 1st, 2015 15:00
I checked the 14.04 repos and it looks like there is a glamor package for xorg (xserver-xorg-video-glamorgl). I'll maybe give that a try tonight and see what it does.
Also regarding the PRIME screen tearing. This is something that is a known problem with how NVIDIA handles the dual graphics. It might be something that gets improved with a newer driver, but like you say the intel graphics is more than enough for the desktop, and for everything else I use bumblebee.
UPDATE: Here is what I tried. I'm not positive if it worked on not though. I think you may also need to have the newer backported xorg and possibly the backported kernel for this to work though.
Edit the /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/glamor.conf file to say:
Section "Module"
# Disable "glamoregl"
Load "glamoregl"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "intel"
Driver "intel"
Option "AccelMethod" "glamor"
EndSection
My xorg.log shows the following:
[ 1885.601] (II) LoadModule: "glamoregl"
[ 1885.601] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/libglamoregl.so
[ 1885.603] (II) Module glamoregl: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[ 1885.604] (**) intel(0): Option "AccelMethod" "glamor"
So I'm not sure if it is actually running or not. What do you think?
UPDATE2: This broke bumblebee for me (probably because it was thinking it should be using the intel driver). I'm not an Xorg expert so I can't go much futher than this. If you don't use bumblebee then it might not be an issue.
VanessaDeagan
6 Posts
0
April 2nd, 2015 01:00
Thanks FinalfantasyKid. If it's showing up in your xorg.log file, it's probably working. The other way to test it is to enable one of the Compiz features, like Wobbly Windows, and see how it runs with Glamor (or UXA) and then without it (the difference will be very noticeable).
As mentioned in my previous post, I've since installed Ubuntu 15.04 beta, so I'd have to revert back to the Ubuntu image that came with the M3800. I might do this over the break if I have time, but to be honest, I'm extremely happy with 15.04. It "feels" like the new 3.19 kernel is faster and snappier.