old intel graphics works better (without uxa acceleration tweak)

[Eric Bradshaw]

From: Nio Wiklund <nio.wiklund at gmail.com>

Hi everybody,

Old intel graphics works again (without the uxa acceleration tweak), at
least it works better from pictures.

Somewhere along the development path of Trusty, it started to render
pictures well again, for example the background picture of Lubuntu.

Those of us who had problems in Saucy and also in the beginning of
Trusty have fixed it with the uxa acceleration tweak (introduced to us
by John)

-----
Edit (or create) /etc/X11/xorg.conf as follows: (ugh, can't format,
should be a tab before each line except the first and the last).

Section "Device"
	Identifier "Intel Graphics"
	Driver "intel"
	Option "AccelMethod" "uxa"
EndSection
-----

This is not necessary in the current daily build in our IBM Thinkcentre
with the following Intel graphics:

VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82865G Integrated Graphics
Controller (rev 02)

-o-

But there is another problem too. Video clips are rendered with too
bright colours. This problem appeared at the same time as the jagged
contours in pictures. And this problem remains in our Thinkcentre.

-o-

I suggest that you try too, if you are/were affected by this regression.

Please check the rendering of pictures (jagged contours) and also
playing video clips (which might have too bright colours) and let us
know how it works for you!

Best regards
Nio

-- 

Many thanks to John. We completely ripped-off his instructions because 
it works for so many of the machines we get. I followed his advise to 
make Flash work on all Dell OptiPlex 160Ls, Dell Dimension 4600s and I 
believe a Dell OptiPlex GX620. Thought I'd share (back) what we've now 
added to our C4C chapters guide for 13.10 installs as it's step-by-step:

If you installed Adobe Flash [sudo apt-get install 
flashplugin-installer] on a machine with an Intel video card and Flash 
isn't working; try XorgEdgers.

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa && sudo apt-get update && 
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Then make an xorg.conf file with the VideoRam buffer size;

sudo lspci -vv | grep Region

and you'll see something like:

Region 0: Memory at d8000000
(32-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
Region 1: Memory at e0380000
(32-bit, non-prefetchable)
[size=512K]

Convert the first value in Kb (in this example 256*1024=262144) then 
subtract the non-prefetchable value (the largest you find if more than one)

256*1024=262144 then 262144-512= 261632
or
128*1024=131072 then 131072-512= 130560

gksu leafpad /etc/X11/xorg.conf

and type in one of the following for UXA:

Section "Device"
Identifier "Intel Graphics"
Driver "intel"
Option "AccelMethod" "uxa"
VideoRam 261632
EndSection

or

Section "Device"
Identifier "Intel Graphics"
Driver "intel"
Option "AccelMethod" "uxa"
VideoRam 130560
EndSection

or for SNA, just change AccelMethod:

Section "Device"
Identifier "intel"
Driver "intel"
Option "AccelMethod" "sna"
VideoRam 130560
EndSection

Save file. Reboot. Flash should work.

If the AccelMethod is wrong (UXA instead of SNA, or vice-versa), you'll 
end up with a black screen (or just a cursor) on reboot because X cannot 
render the Desktop. If that happens, drop to a Root Shell Prompt.

Drop to a Root Shell Prompt (to fix AccelMethod, or your math)
1. Upon booting, or re-booting the computer; hold the [Shift] key down 
until you see the Boot Menu (GRUB). The C4C Lubuntu ReSpin is referred 
to in GRUB as just "Ubuntu."
2. Arrow down to Advanced Options for Ubuntu [Enter]
3. On the second GRUB page, arrow down to
Ubuntu, with Linux X.X.XX-XX-generic (recovery mode) [Enter]
If there is more than one, select the top (latest) one.
4. Arrow-down to
Drop to root shell prompt [Enter]
The Recovery Menu will still be visible on the screen and
the "#" prompt (root) will appear directly below it.
5. Type: mount -o rw,remount / [Enter]
This makes the drive read-write instead of read-only.
6. Then type: sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf [Enter]
This will show the xorg.conf file you made earlier. Change "uxa" to 
"sna" (or vice-versa) – or, the VideoRam number if you did your math wrong.
control+O [Enter] to Save, control+X [Enter] to exit Nano. Back at the 
"#" prompt,
type: exit [Enter]. Back at the Recovery Screen, select Resume Normal Boot.

Eric
Thank You,
God Bless,
Computers4Christians
http://www.Computers4Christians.org/