intel GM965 chipset flip_done timed out error and related issues

sysrpl · 10-23-2018, 04:43 PM

I have a few Dell Latitude D630 laptops with Intel Crestline GM965 graphics upon which I would like to install Linux. All these laptops exhibit the same problem when installing and running Linux, and that is:

1) Very long boot times with text message error flip_done timed out appearing during boot
2) Terrible performance in google chrome
3) Abnormal amount of video frame dropped when playing youtube at all resolutions
4) vainfo reports an error on initialization
5) Occasional xserver message about running in low graphics mode

I've googled a workaround to problem number #1 and that is to add video=SVIDEO-1:d to the default grub command line, but in researching this problem I've found many other people talking about this same issue with their GM965 graphics laptops. The other problems still persist. In my research no one has posted anything related to a proper fix. Also, I believe all these problems are related.

My question is what is this problem all about and what can I do to try fixing the issues above?

I have this problem on Ubuntu 18.04.1, Ubuntu 16.04.5, and the newly released Elementary OS. I have not tested my problem on non Debian based distributions yet.

mrmazda · 10-23-2018, 06:07 PM

Which DE are you using, Gnome? Xorg, or Wayland? Gnome is a very demanding DE, probably ill-suited to any 965, and I'm guessing scant testing with Wayland.

How long is "very long"? What does systemd-analyze critical-chain look like?

You should provide Xorg.0.log from a distro at least as new as 18.04.1. Also would help to have a little context from dmesg and/or journal showing what else is going on when that flip_done message appears.

I have no laptops, but neither do I have any video trouble from a Dell Optiplex 745 that uses Intel Q965 gfx. I did

Code:

dmesg | grep -i flip
journalctl | grep -i flip

on Debian Buster and got null output, critical-chain 29.7s to multi-user, 29.9s to graphical (TDE greeter). With i965-va-driver, libva-drm2, libva-wayland2 & libva-x11 installed, vainfo produces failure opening i965_drv_video.so, but DE seems to work normally, as does Firefox.

sysrpl · 10-23-2018, 06:46 PM

I was running the Untuntu 18.04.1 desktop with gnome on wayland, gnome on x11, and unity on x11. All expereince a slow boot time of about 5 minutes, but the boot time is sped up dramatically with the video=SVIDEO-1:d in the grub command line.

Similar to:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/8938...-helper-errors
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=93782#c30
https://www.mail-archive.com/ubuntu-...sg5447763.html

The problem is, even with the line added to grub, chrome drops 50% of all the frames at any resolution with stats for nerd displayed on youtube. Also the video is very choppy at all resolutions. Firefox seems to work okay with youtube, but the highest I can go is 720p without a lot of chop. I am using a T8300 cpu with 4GB of ram and no other applications open.

Again, vainfo errors on initialization like you've confirmed.

I've since removed the installation and am trying an Arch based distributions, so I'm unable to provide a copy of the exact log message. I'll post back here with the results and possibly further information when I finish the install attempt.

mrmazda · 10-23-2018, 07:24 PM

Something else to try if you haven't already. Those URLs are too voluminous for me to dig through just to see if this could possibly apply. NAICT, the GM965 and Q965 were among the first Intel gfxchips to have two competent X drivers to choose from. Most people don't seem to know about the second. Upstream for the well known is https://cgit.freedesktop.org/xorg/dr...6-video-intel/. The other has been integrated into the X server since 1.17.x, known as modesetting, but appearing in Xorg.#.log just as modeset. When supported by the hardware, and not blacklisted or otherwise blocked (e.g. nomodeset), X will use the integrated driver automatically if xf86-video-intel is not installed. I don't do games, so modeset is the only X driver I use routinely on supported hardware.

sysrpl · 10-24-2018, 05:28 PM

Okay, after a bit of research and some tests I've found a few facts. The GM965 bug seems to effect a lot of people with kernels released in the last few years. Adding "video=SVIDEO-1:d" after quiet or nosplash in the grub boots fixes the problem of long boot times. It also fixes the low graphics mode warning which I assume is generated by X windows.

Regarding frames dropped in youtube or overall bad performance in Google the Chrome browser, I installed a Chromium build with support for vaapi and this still doesn't fix the problem. I believe the dropped frames are related to the VP9 codec used by youtube, but limited to Chrome or Chromium. What's probably happening is that vaapi for GM965 does not use hardware acceleration for the VP9 codec, and both Chrome and Chromium as using a decode that is not as optimized as the decoder Firefox is using for VP9. I say this because Firefox is able to handle up to 720p60 on youtube without dropping frames, while Chrome and Chromium sporadically drop 50% of the frames at 480p.

So in summary, my problems at this point seem to be effecting only Chrome and Chromium and I assume the problem lies somewhere in the shared code base for those two projects.