Desktop cube problem on Mint 14 - Sony Vaio PCG-4V1W
 

Hi guys! I'm a Linux Newbie and just changed to Mint from Ubuntu.

I run Linux Mint 14 on my Sony Vaio PCG-4V1W laptop using my 16GB DT101 G2 USB memory stick. The Vaio has Windows 7 on its HDD but it runs terribly for obvious reasons. The USB drive is in ext2 format I believe. The laptop has 1GB ram and a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280. It can do 3D things like play minecraft (at 2fps), but I believe it has no form of graphics card. Intel Accelerated graphics perhaps.

The USB drive is not a live startup its a full installation from a second USB drive that was a live start up Mint 14 trial. I made a bootable USB drive from within Windows 7 then booted on that. I plugged in my 16GB USB stick and installed to that formatting it to ext2 with a 500MB swap area.

The issue is after installing Compiz it all works fine accept for the desktop cube. It doesn't lag, it turns smooth and changes from desktop to desktop. The problem is during the turning motion the cube is all distorted and visually messed up, so I assume thats a driver issue.

Other than this Linux Mint has run very well on this machine. Mint is only using 17% of it's RAM. All the other effects appear to work without a hitch, but I want to try and achieve 100% functionality so how can I go about fixing this problem? I don't know how to install drivers on Mint.

Cheers

Hi! Bradley-NZ:

And, welcome to Linux Questions!:)

This is a pretty good video for installing drivers in Linux Mint
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCIysLur7zw

Most drivers are included in the Linux kernel. Unless you have some specific device that isn't working or not working properly.

I have a Sony Vaio too. Just purchased it about 2 months ago. My graphics card is a AMD Radeon 1 GB HD-
To find out what graphics card you have you can run in the terminal this command:
The command 'lspci' is for information about all PCI buses in the system and all devices connected to them.
Useful when you want to diagnose problems or when you want to report bugs related to PCI devices.

When I had compiz fusion on my distribution I had to go through the Compiz Fusion Manager a few times till I set up all of the effects and boxes checked just right. Try going thru your Compiz Mgr and check on what you did.
If that doesn't help it could be that you need a driver-

I hear that the folks at the Mint Forum are nice folks to work with.
You could join if you want. Might be helpful for use in the future.

http://forums.linuxmint.com/

The command gives this output:

bradley@Bradley-Mint ~ $ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GSE Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GSE Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family PCI Express Port 2 (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB controller: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.3 USB controller: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 02)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7-M Family) SATA Controller [IDE mode] (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation NM10/ICH7 Family SMBus Controller (rev 02)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR8132 Fast Ethernet (rev c0)
03:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)
0a:09.0 SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 22)
0a:09.1 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 12)

I shall watch the video now.

Here's the spec's on your chipset, Integrated graphics and memory-

http://ark.intel.com/products/36549/...ory-Controller

The Intel page only has Windows drivers. I'll keep looking-

Here it is:
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Deta...adType=Drivers

Well I got as far as 17 seconds on the video only to discover I don't have the Additional Drivers option in Administration. Is there a command to launch it?

Screen shot:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6388f3m2tk...Screenshot.png

Found it never mind :)

It's in "Menu->Preferences->Software Sources" and click on the "Additional Drivers" tab.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/b27v4orqjy...%20Sources.png

I clicked through a couple of links and found this:
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v3.x/

I downloaded the 2013 files. But then what? The link says, "These drivers are intended for use by technical Linux developers". Can I still install them?

You should be able to install those drivers tho they are for Linux Dev's.

I'm headed to the Linux Mint site now to see if there is anymore information that I can find for you.

The Intel website might have the Linux driver you need too.
I'll check there again as well.

Here's your driver for your :
Mobile Intel 945 GM Express Chipset Family card.

Off to the right of the page is where you would download it.

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Deta...&DownloadType=

Since your driver is in the form of a tar.gz (package) Here are instructions on how to uppacd and unzip this type of file so you can install it. Read the "Read Me" file it will help you to understand.
http://www.rebol.com/docs/unpack-tar-gz.html