Xfce spin Beta RC3 validation pass

[Philip Rhoades]

Adam,


On 2010-09-28 08:23, Adam Williamson wrote:
> On Mon, 2010-09-27 at 09:32 +0100, Ron Leach wrote:
>> Philip Rhoades wrote:
>>> Guys,
>>>
>>>
>>> On 2010-09-22 17:58, Adam Williamson wrote:
>>>> On Wed, 2010-09-22 at 14:29 +1000, Philip Rhoades wrote:
>>>>> People,
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> I find it boots OK with qemu and from a USB stick and, in fact, seems to
>>>>> install OK to a HD but when running the resulting install, I find it is
>>>>> deadly slow and unusable (I am using F13 on the same machine - a Gateway
>>>>> LT30 netbook - with no problems).
>>>> Like OtherAdam, I can't reproduce; I did all that validation testing
>>>> from an installed copy of the live image (I installed it to a USB stick,
>>>> in fact, on a Dell Inspiron 6400, so it's not exactly a fast
>>>> environment, but it ran fine).
>>>>
>>
>>>
>>> Using top I found it is Xorg - taking up nearly 100% of CPU time . .
>>>
>>
>> Phil, I realise you've already entered a bug for this, but I noticed
>> that your machine
>>
>> http://support.gateway.com/s/notebook/2009/gateway/lt/lt30/LT30sp2.shtml
>>
>> uses the Intel GMA500 chipset, with a quite modern screen geometry of
>> 1366 x 768.  So?
>>
>> A recent post on the laptop list from another user with a GMA500
>>
>> http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/laptop/2010-September/000926.html
>>
>> is reporting 'slow performance' with F13 as well, suspected due to the
>> drivers.
>>
>> I wonder whether F14 is running ok on other GMA500 machines, or
>> whether the chipset is causing problems?
>
> Nice catch, Ron. This applies to Phillip and also the people from that
> thread:
>
> GMA 500 has no native driver in Fedora, for long and boring reasons. A
> reasonably well working driver is available in the RPM Fusion
> repository; note that the 3D and video playback acceleration functions
> in this driver are enabled by a non-free X library which is installed by
> default (if software freedom is an issue for you, you may choose to
> forcibly remove the xpsb-glx package; this will mean you now have a
> fully F/OSS driver, but you will lose 3D and video playback
> acceleration). There is no legal issue with using this driver in any
> jurisdiction of which I'm aware.
>
> Instructions for installing the driver can be found at
> http://www.happyassassin.net/2009/08/10/intel-gma500-poulsbo-on-fedora-11-repository-with-working-3d-compiz-support/ - though that post's name references F11, the repository should provide working packages for F12 and F13 too (and soon for F14). I run F13 on my own Poulsbo-based system.
>
> This driver should provide reasonable performance, definitely better
> than the default, which is to use the utterly unoptimised 'vesa' driver.


I am having trouble installing this driver but in any case I don't think 
that is what the problem is - I have been running F13 quite happily for 
some time without having to use any extra drivers (it is a bit slower 
than say PCLinuxOS2010 but still quite usable).

Thanks,

Phil.
-- 
Philip Rhoades

GPO Box 3411
Sydney NSW	2001
Australia
E-mail:  phil at pricom.com.au