How to force software rendering

Haenzl · 02-10-2016, 02:18 AM

Hi,

I have a new laptop with a skylake processor, and have a dual boot of windows 10 with Linux Mint 17.3.

Under Linux, the screen flickers like a madman. I had the same with Ubuntu (both 14 LTS and 15). Tried a lot with changing drivers etc. After a while I found out that there is no support (yet) for my system (specifically skylake processor with the integrated intel graphics).

However, when I boot in recovery mode, the screen runs in 'software rendering mode', and the flickering is gone. But, I also don't have sound and wifi in recovery mode...

So, my question is:
How can I force to have software rendering mode with normal boot?

There's a million posts on how to get rid of software rendering mode (install the right drivers), but I could find nothing about enabling or forcing it...
I know (and accept) that my CPU will have to work a lot more with software rendering mode. Then in a few months I will see if there is some fix for this.

ardvark71 · 02-10-2016, 12:31 PM

Hi....

Welcome to the forum

Please open a terminal and post the results of...

Code:

lspci -nnk | grep VGA -A 12

This should first tell us the graphics chip and driver you're using.

Regards...

Haenzl · 02-10-2016, 12:52 PM

Here it is:

Quote:

hans@HansLinuxMint ~ $ lspci -nnk | grep VGA -A 12
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Device [8086:191b] (rev 06)
Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:103b]
Kernel driver in use: i915_bpo
00:14.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation Device [8086:a12f] (rev 31)
Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:103b]
Kernel driver in use: xhci_hcd
00:14.2 Signal processing controller [1180]: Intel Corporation Device [8086:a131] (rev 31)
Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:103b]
00:15.0 Signal processing controller [1180]: Intel Corporation Device [8086:a160] (rev 31)
Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:103b]
00:15.1 Signal processing controller [1180]: Intel Corporation Device [8086:a161] (rev 31)
Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:103b]
00:16.0 Communication controller [0780]: Intel Corporation Device [8086:a13a] (rev 31)
hans@HansLinuxMint ~ $

beachboy2 · 02-10-2016, 01:06 PM

Haenzl,

I would hazard a guess that you are using Mint 17.3 Cinnamon.

Software rendering problems often arise with using Cinnamon and, generally speaking, it is advisable to use MATE or Xfce instead.

There is no need to do a fresh installation.

In Terminal type (for MATE):

Code:

sudo apt-get update && apt-get install mint-meta-mate

Then follow the instructions on this link:

http://winaero.com/blog/how-to-insta...namon-edition/

Alternatively, for Xfce:

Code:

Code:

sudo apt-get install mint-meta-xfce4

*I am not sure about support for the Skylake CPU, but you could try checking that you have the latest Linux kernel.

You could try changing from your current kernel to the most recent current stable one.

* According to this article, the 4.3 kernel gives support to Skylake CPUs:
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/...nvidia-support

More info:

https://mintguide.org/system/553-ins...inux-mint.html

The latest stable kernel is 4.4.1:

https://www.kernel.org/