# Problem with graphics
**URL:** https://forums.suse.com/t/problem-with-graphics/21696
**Category:** SLED Hardware
**Created:** [November 18, 2011, 11:46am UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/problem-with-graphics/21696 "2011-11-18T11:46:02Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@System1](https://forums.suse.com/u/System1)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2011, 11:46am UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/problem-with-graphics/21696/1 "2011-11-18T11:46:02Z")
Hello everybody,
I’ve been experiencing some kind of graphics problem, happening mostly
when I move down the page in browser, pdf viewer, etc… with mouse
wheel. It doesn’t go smoothly. Some lines are cut and I can’t see whole
text clearly. It’s kind of hard to explain for me, so I took a
screenshot to show what exactly happens.
[image: [http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/4281/graphicsbug1.png]](http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/4281/graphicsbug1.png)
I have no idea, why that happens. I have the latest video drivers
installed I believe.
## – PauliusC
PauliusC’s Profile: [http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=116334](http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=116334)
View this thread: [http://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=448400](http://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=448400)
---
### Author:  [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2011, 12:16pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/problem-with-graphics/21696/2 "2011-11-18T12:16:02Z")
What version of SLED are you using?
## Code:
## $ cat /etc/novell-release
What video card do you have and what drive are you using?
## Code:
## $ /sbin/lspci -nn -k
When did the problem appear? (Did you just install SLED? Have you had
it installed a while and the problem occured after you installed updates
then rebooted? (If so look at /var/log/zypp/history to see what was
installed) Other?)
Do you have Desktop Effects enabled? Or to put it another way, are you
using metacity or compiz. With Desktop Effects enabled you’re using the
Compiz window manager, otherwise, metacity. You can look at the output
of
## Code:
$ ps U $USER | grep metacity
$ ps U $USER | grep compiz
* * *
## – mikewillis
mikewillis’s Profile: [http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=7510](http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=7510)
View this thread: [http://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=448400](http://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=448400)
---
### Author:  [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2011, 12:36pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/problem-with-graphics/21696/3 "2011-11-18T12:36:02Z")
## Code:
cat /etc/novell-release
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 (i586)
VERSION = 11
PATCHLEVEL = 1
* * *
## Code:
/sbin/lspci -nn -k
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Sandy Bridge DRAM Controller [8086:0104] (rev 09)
Kernel driver in use: agpgart-intel
Kernel modules: intel-agp
00:01.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation Sandy Bridge PCI Express Root Port [8086:0101] (rev 09)
Kernel driver in use: pcieport
Kernel modules: shpchp
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Device [8086:0116] (rev 09)
Kernel driver in use: i915
Kernel modules: i915
00:16.0 Communication controller [0780]: Intel Corporation Cougar Point HECI Controller #1 [8086:1c3a] (rev 04)
00:1a.0 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation Cougar Point USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 [8086:1c2d] (rev 04)
Kernel driver in use: ehci\_hcd
Kernel modules: ehci-hcd
00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation Cougar Point High Definition Audio Controller [8086:1c20] (rev 04)
Kernel driver in use: HDA Intel
Kernel modules: snd-hda-intel
00:1c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation Cougar Point PCI Express Root Port 1 [8086:1c10] (rev b4)
Kernel driver in use: pcieport
Kernel modules: shpchp
00:1c.1 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation Cougar Point PCI Express Root Port 2 [8086:1c12] (rev b4)
Kernel driver in use: pcieport
Kernel modules: shpchp
00:1c.2 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation Cougar Point PCI Express Root Port 3 [8086:1c14] (rev b4)
Kernel driver in use: pcieport
Kernel modules: shpchp
00:1c.3 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation Cougar Point PCI Express Root Port 4 [8086:1c16] (rev b4)
Kernel driver in use: pcieport
Kernel modules: shpchp
00:1c.5 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation Cougar Point PCI Express Root Port 6 [8086:1c1a] (rev b4)
Kernel driver in use: pcieport
Kernel modules: shpchp
00:1d.0 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation Cougar Point USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 [8086:1c26] (rev 04)
Kernel driver in use: ehci\_hcd
Kernel modules: ehci-hcd
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation Cougar Point LPC Controller [8086:1c49] (rev 04)
Kernel modules: iTCO\_wdt
00:1f.2 SATA controller [0106]: Intel Corporation Cougar Point 6 port SATA AHCI Controller [8086:1c03] (rev 04)
Kernel driver in use: ahci
Kernel modules: ahci
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ATI Technologies Inc Device [1002:6760]
Kernel driver in use: fglrx\_pci
Kernel modules: fglrx
24:00.0 System peripheral [0880]: JMicron Technology Corp. SD/MMC Host Controller [197b:2392] (rev 30)
Kernel driver in use: sdhci-pci
Kernel modules: sdhci-pci
24:00.2 SD Host controller [0805]: JMicron Technology Corp. Standard SD Host Controller [197b:2391] (rev 30)
Kernel modules: sdhci-pci
24:00.3 System peripheral [0880]: JMicron Technology Corp. MS Host Controller [197b:2393] (rev 30)
Kernel driver in use: jmb38x\_ms
Kernel modules: jmb38x\_ms
25:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) [168c:002b] (rev 01)
Kernel driver in use: ath9k
Kernel modules: ath9k
26:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller [10ec:8168] (rev 06)
Kernel driver in use: r8169
Kernel modules: r8169
* * *
## Code:
ps U $USER | grep metacity
5083 ? S 0:04 /usr/bin/metacity
7642 pts/0 S+ 0:00 grep metacity
ps U $USER | grep compiz
7646 pts/0 S+ 0:00 grep compiz
* * *
I’m not sure, when did it start. But I suppose this might have started
when I installed those new drivers (not sure though).
## – PauliusC
PauliusC’s Profile: [http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=116334](http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=116334)
View this thread: [http://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=448400](http://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=448400)
---
### Author:  [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2011, 12:56pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/problem-with-graphics/21696/4 "2011-11-18T12:56:02Z")
PauliusC;2154895 Wrote:[color=blue]
> I’m not sure, when did it start. But I suppose this might have started
> when I installed those new drivers (not sure though).[/color]
Sounds like a likely candidate. What new drivers did you install and
where did you get them from? Have you tried reverting to whatever driver
you had before?
You have two VGA cards listed in the output of lscpi, what looks like
an onboard Intel and an ATI (from the vendor/model number looks like AMD
Radeon HD 6470M is that right?). I’ve never seen that myself but maybe
that’s fine. My machine has onboard Intel graphics and a discrete Nvidia
card. I use the Nvidia card and the onboard Intel graphics does not show
up in the output of lspci. Are you using both graphics cards?
What does this say?
## Code:
## $ glxinfo | head
## – mikewillis
mikewillis’s Profile: [http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=7510](http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=7510)
View this thread: [http://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=448400](http://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=448400)
---
### Author:  [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2011, 1:06pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/problem-with-graphics/21696/5 "2011-11-18T13:06:02Z")
You use Adobe Reader for PDF files. It’s very buggy and it’s not a SLED
problem since it’s a proprietary software and supported only by it’s
vendor - Adobe.
It has the same behavior not only in SLED but in any other Linux
distribution. You may consider using free PDF readers when possible.
Evince looks much more stable.
It doesn’t depend on distribution or hardware. On my computers it works
with the same behavior on different hardware and different
distributions.
## – AlexDudko
AlexDudko’s Profile: [http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=100476](http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=100476)
View this thread: [http://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=448400](http://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=448400)
---
### Author:  [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2011, 1:26pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/problem-with-graphics/21696/6 "2011-11-18T13:26:02Z")
mikewillis:
## Code:
glxinfo | head
name of display: :0.0
display: :0 screen: 0
direct rendering: Yes
server glx vendor string: ATI
server glx version string: 1.4
server glx extensions:
GLX\_ARB\_multisample, GLX\_EXT\_import\_context, GLX\_EXT\_texture\_from\_pixmap,
GLX\_EXT\_visual\_info, GLX\_EXT\_visual\_rating, GLX\_OML\_swap\_method,
GLX\_SGI\_make\_current\_read, GLX\_SGI\_swap\_control, GLX\_SGIS\_multisample,
GLX\_SGIX\_fbconfig, GLX\_SGIX\_pbuffer, GLX\_SGIX\_visual\_select\_group
* * *
I got the drivers from ati ‘ATI Catalyst’
([http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/linux/Pages/radeon\_linux.aspx](http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/linux/Pages/radeon_linux.aspx)) .
Well actually, I see that my drivers are not latest now. AMD catalyst
shows that I have 2 cards, but I have high performance GPU (my card is
radeon 6470M I believe) selected over intel.
AlexDudko:
Adobe acrobat is not the only one causing problems. The same happens
with mozilla (which, by the way, was included in SLED, is version 3.6 at
the moment and I can’t find how to update it).
## – PauliusC
PauliusC’s Profile: [http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=116334](http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=116334)
View this thread: [http://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=448400](http://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=448400)
---
### Author:  [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2011, 1:46pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/problem-with-graphics/21696/7 "2011-11-18T13:46:02Z")
Well direct rendering is enabled, so that’s good.
PauliusC;2154904 Wrote:[color=blue]
> I got the drivers from ati ‘ATI Catalyst’
> ([http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/linux/Pages/radeon\_linux.aspx](http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/linux/Pages/radeon_linux.aspx)) .
> Well actually, I see that my drivers are not latest now. AMD catalyst
> shows that I have 2 cards, but I have high performance GPU (my card is
> radeon 6470M I believe) selected over intel.
> [/color]
> When you registered your machine the repos that get set up should have
> included one for ATI graphics drivers. Is there a reason you’re not
> using the drivers from that?
My only experience with ATI graphics and Linux was about 8 years ago.
PauliusC;2154904 Wrote:[color=blue]
> The same happens with mozilla (which, by the way, was included in SLED,
> is version 3.6 at the moment and I can’t find how to update it).[/color]
> I assuming you mean Firefox rather than Mozilla. (Firefox being the web
> browser, Mozilla being the company that makes it.) The 3.6.xx branch of
> Firefox is still being supported by Mozilla so it’s still OK to be using
> it.
> If you want to use the latest Firefox with it’s rapidly increasing
> major version number insanity you can just ‘download it’
> ([https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/](https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/)), unpack it in your home
> directory and run it from there. If you create a symbolic link called
> firefox in ~/bin then it’ll get run when you use the Firefox icon on the
> GNOME menu. (The GNOME menu entry is provided by
> /usr/share/applications/MozillaFirefox.desktop which doesn’t specify a
> full path for firefox, so it’ll run the first executable thing called
> firefox it finds in your $PATH. If you create ~/bin then that gets added
> to the start of your $PATH automatically, though you may need to log out
> and in before it’s added to the $PATH than gets looked at when you click
> a menu entry)
Alternatively, if you are willing to replace lots of packages provided
with SLED with third party ones and deal with any issues that result
from doing that, you could try adding ‘this repo’
([http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/mozilla/SLE\_11/](http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/mozilla/SLE_11/)).
## – mikewillis
mikewillis’s Profile: [http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=7510](http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=7510)
View this thread: [http://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=448400](http://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=448400)
---
### Author:  [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2011, 1:46pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/problem-with-graphics/21696/8 "2011-11-18T13:46:02Z")
I don’t use mouse (only touchpad), I’ve seen something similar in
Firefox in different distributions (white spots over text while
scrolling), but I can’t reproduce it at the moment.
## – AlexDudko
AlexDudko’s Profile: [http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=100476](http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=100476)
View this thread: [http://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=448400](http://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=448400)
---
### Author:  [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2011, 1:56pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/problem-with-graphics/21696/9 "2011-11-18T13:56:02Z")
Yes, I meant firefox, sorry about that.
As for why I changed drivers, I tried to get minecraft working in
browser at least, so I also updated my java to latest version, but that
didn’t help. Then I tried to install new drivers (however, they didn’t
solve the problem). And that’s the only reason why I’m thinking about
updating firefox, too.
At some other forum, people suggested using open source ATI drivers,
but I have no idea what they are and how to install them. Do you know
whether they are good and ok to use?
## – PauliusC
PauliusC’s Profile: [http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=116334](http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=116334)
View this thread: [http://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=448400](http://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=448400)
---
### Author:  [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2011, 3:06pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/problem-with-graphics/21696/10 "2011-11-18T15:06:02Z")
‘Here’ ([http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Radeon](http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Radeon)) you can find information
about ATI open source drivers and there is a link to download source
code. I think you’d rather compile it than install a binary package.
## – AlexDudko
AlexDudko’s Profile: [http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=100476](http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=100476)
View this thread: [http://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=448400](http://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=448400)
---
### Author:  [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2011, 5:46pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/problem-with-graphics/21696/11 "2011-11-18T17:46:02Z")
Thanks, I’ll read about them. By the way, how do I do some kind of
backup in case something goes wrong? I’m relatively new to linux, so I’m
not sure if I’d be able to fix it and I’d rather not lose my files.
## – PauliusC
PauliusC’s Profile: [http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=116334](http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=116334)
View this thread: [http://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=448400](http://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=448400)
---
### Author:  [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2011, 4:06pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/problem-with-graphics/21696/12 "2011-11-22T16:06:02Z")
I could reproduce your Firefox behavior when flash is running (usually I
have Flashblock plugin enabled). Have you tried to disable flash in
browser or use some other browser (Epiphany, Google Chrome, etc.)?
## – AlexDudko
AlexDudko’s Profile: [http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=100476](http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=100476)
View this thread: [http://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=448400](http://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=448400)
---
### Author:  [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2011, 3:26am UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/problem-with-graphics/21696/13 "2011-12-02T03:26:01Z")
AlexDudko;2155567 Wrote:[color=blue]
> I could reproduce your Firefox behavior when flash is running (usually I
> have Flashblock plugin enabled). Have you tried to disable flash in
> browser or use some other browser (Epiphany, Google Chrome, etc.)?[/color]
Just tried to turn it off for a while and everything seemed to be
normal. However, I use flash to watch videos, etc., so it doesn’t really
solve the problem. Besides, I don’t like the idea of turning some
functionalities of program off. I didn’t notice such problem in
epiphany, though I hardly ever use it. Talking about google chrome, I’m
not using it at all. Firefox’s been the best one for me.
By the way, I checked those open source drivers and it seems that they
don’t support my GPU.
mikewillis:
Actually, I told you the wrong name of my GPU. I believe it is Radeon
HD 6490M.
I also tried watching movies in my laptop, but the video doesn’t always
run smoothly and I’m not sure if the problem is with GPU, software
(totem), or even CPU. I have the feeling that my laptop should perform
better.
In addition, I’d like to ask about these third party repositories.
Basically, what are the disadvantages of being not supported by SUSE?
Because, the ones which are supported, are also heavily outdated, take
firefox for instance. So is it really worth to have everything supported
by SUSE?
## – PauliusC
PauliusC’s Profile: [http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=116334](http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=116334)
View this thread: [http://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=448400](http://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=448400)
---
### Author:  [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2011, 1:26pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/problem-with-graphics/21696/14 "2011-12-02T13:26:02Z")
From what you’ve said I’m thinking that this graphics problem that you
started this thread about was not present when you bought the machine.
Is that correct? If so, then have you considered or tried returning your
machine to the state it was in when you bought it? (I assume HP provide
you with some way of doing this. If not, contact them and request that
they do so.)
PauliusC;2158053 Wrote:[color=blue]
> I also tried watching movies in my laptop, but the video doesn’t always
> run smoothly and I’m not sure if the problem is with GPU, software
> (totem), or even CPU. I have the feeling that my laptop should perform
> better.
> [/color]
> Video playback can require quite a lot of processing power, especially
> if it’s HD video. There’s two ways of decoding video, in software or in
> hardware. With the software method it’s your CPU that does all the work,
> so you need to have a CPU that is sufficiently powerful to decode the
> video. With the hardware method it’s your graphics card that’s doing the
> work and you need to have a graphics card that’s capable of decoding the
> video plus graphics drivers and a media player (e.g. totem) that is
> capable of utilising video decoding capabilities of the graphics card.
I can play H264/AAC encoded 720p video in software on my machine Intel
Core 2 Quad machine, it uses about ~50% of one core. I have a small
touchscreen device that has an single core Intel Atom Z series CPU that
runs at about 1.2Ghz. That CPU is obviously nowhere near powerful enough
for playing H264/AAC encoded 720p, but the Intel graphics chip in the
device can decode it. So with the right graphics driver and media player
I can get that device to play a H264/AAC encoded 720p video. I have an
Asus EeePC with a single core Atom processor. It’s a few years old and
the graphics chip in it can’t do H264 decoding, so that machine is
incapable of playing H264/AAC encoded 720p video in a manner which is
watchable.
Support for hardware video decoding with Linux is still quite patchy
and inconsistent. Right now your best bet is to have a CPU powerful
enough to decode whatever you’re trying to watch.
PauliusC;2158053 Wrote:[color=blue]
> In addition, I’d like to ask about these third party repositories.
> Basically, what are the disadvantages of being not supported by SUSE?
> Because, the ones which are supported, are also heavily outdated, take
> firefox for instance. So is it really worth to have everything supported
> by SUSE?[/color]
My understanding is that your machine shipped in a state where it’s not
supported by Novell/SUSE because it ships with a version of SLED that
has things added and possibly altered by HP.
SLED currently has Firefox 3.6.24. That was released by Mozilla on 8th
November, a little over 3 weeks ago. Firefox 3.6 is an old branch, but
it is still being supported. I expect that when Mozilla stop supporting
Firefox 3.6.x then Firefox then we’ll see the very latest version of
Firefox appear in SLED along with rapidly incrementing major version
number madness. I refer you to my comments on Firefox earlier in the
thread on how you can get the latest Firefox now.
SLED does not contain the very latest versions of packages. That’s sort
of the point. It aims more for stability than ‘look new shiny!’. The
only things I can think of in SLED 11 SP 1 that I would class as being
‘heavily outdated’ t would be TexLive and ntfs-3g. ntfs-3g is being
updated in SLED 11 SP2 (Which I’d like to think is a result at least in
part of my submiting an enhancement request for it.)
Whether support is worth it is up to you. The way I see it is if you
don’t care about having support from SUSE then there is no point in
using SLED. I think the clue to the circumstances under which you would
use SLED are in it’s name. SUSE Linux _Enterprise_ Desktop. I manage
machines that are used by other people. I need a version of Linux with a
life cycle that doesn’t force me to upgrade every 12 months to a version
which has completely different versions of everything. I like to be able
to get support from Novell/SUSE when I encounter problems that I cannot
solve myself. There have been times I have found a bug, raised a Service
Request with Novell and they have subsequently provided a fixed version
of the relevant package. Sure you can open bugs against
openSUSE/Ubuntu/whatever, but if you’re paying someone for support they
actually have an obligation to fix the issue, and sooner rather than
later, or at least help you to work around it.
Personally I like SLED for the environment which in which I use it but
I wouldn’t use it on my own machine at home. I use openSUSE on that. I
do not care about paid support for a machine which only I use and
openSUSE has newer versions of GNOME, Firefox, etc which are interesting
to see.
If you want the latest version of everything and don’t care about being
able to get support from someone that is obligated to help you because
you’re paying them, then don’t use SLED. Use openSUSE. Or Ubuntu. Or
Fedora. If you want to be on the bleeding edge, check out Gentoo. 😉
## – mikewillis
mikewillis’s Profile: [http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=7510](http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=7510)
View this thread: [http://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=448400](http://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=448400)
---
### Author:  [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2011, 2:36pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/problem-with-graphics/21696/15 "2011-12-02T14:36:03Z")
mikewillis;2158136 Wrote:[color=blue]
> From what you’ve said I’m thinking that this graphics problem that you
> started this thread about was not present when you bought the machine.
> Is that correct? If so, then have you considered or tried returning your
> machine to the state it was in when you bought it? (I assume HP provide
> you with some way of doing this. If not, contact them and request that
> they do so.)
> [/color]
Yes, I believe that problem wasn’t present when I bought my pc. I’ve
installed new graphics drivers from amd site, when I wanted to be able
to play minecraft (I think I wrote topic about that in this forum, too).
I have HP factory image CD, but right now, I don’t want to restore in
order not to lose my files. I guess I’ll just have to deal with this
problem…
mikewillis;2158136 Wrote:[color=blue]
> Video playback can require quite a lot of processing power, especially
> if it’s HD video. There’s two ways of decoding video, in software or in
> hardware. With the software method it’s your CPU that does all the work,
> so you need to have a CPU that is sufficiently powerful to decode the
> video. With the hardware method it’s your graphics card that’s doing the
> work and you need to have a graphics card that’s capable of decoding the
> video plus graphics drivers and a media player (e.g. totem) that is
> capable of utilising video decoding capabilities of the graphics card.
>
> I can play H264/AAC encoded 720p video in software on my machine Intel
> Core 2 Quad machine, it uses about ~50% of one core. I have a small
> touchscreen device that has an single core Intel Atom Z series CPU that
> runs at about 1.2Ghz. That CPU is obviously nowhere near powerful enough
> for playing H264/AAC encoded 720p, but the Intel graphics chip in the
> device can decode it. So with the right graphics driver and media player
> I can get that device to play a H264/AAC encoded 720p video. I have an
> Asus EeePC with a single core Atom processor. It’s a few years old and
> the graphics chip in it can’t do H264 decoding, so that machine is
> incapable of playing H264/AAC encoded 720p video in a manner which is
> watchable.
>
> Support for hardware video decoding with Linux is still quite patchy
> and inconsistent. Right now your best bet is to have a CPU powerful
> enough to decode whatever you’re trying to watch.
>
> My understanding is that your machine shipped in a state where it’s not
> supported by Novell/SUSE because it ships with a version of SLED that
> has things added and possibly altered by HP.
>
> SLED currently has Firefox 3.6.24. That was released by Mozilla on 8th
> November, a little over 3 weeks ago. Firefox 3.6 is an old branch, but
> it is still being supported. I expect that when Mozilla stop supporting
> Firefox 3.6.x then Firefox then we’ll see the very latest version of
> Firefox appear in SLED along with rapidly incrementing major version
> number madness. I refer you to my comments on Firefox earlier in the
> thread on how you can get the latest Firefox now.
>
> SLED does not contain the very latest versions of packages. That’s sort
> of the point. It aims more for stability than ‘look new shiny!’. The
> only things I can think of in SLED 11 SP 1 that I would class as being
> ‘heavily outdated’ t would be TexLive and ntfs-3g. ntfs-3g is being
> updated in SLED 11 SP2 (Which I’d like to think is a result at least in
> part of my submiting an enhancement request for it.)
>
> Whether support is worth it is up to you. The way I see it is if you
> don’t care about having support from SUSE then there is no point in
> using SLED. I think the clue to the circumstances under which you would
> use SLED are in it’s name. SUSE Linux _Enterprise_ Desktop. I manage
> machines that are used by other people. I need a version of Linux with a
> life cycle that doesn’t force me to upgrade every 12 months to a version
> which has completely different versions of everything. I like to be able
> to get support from Novell/SUSE when I encounter problems that I cannot
> solve myself. There have been times I have found a bug, raised a Service
> Request with Novell and they have subsequently provided a fixed version
> of the relevant package. Sure you can open bugs against
> openSUSE/Ubuntu/whatever, but if you’re paying someone for support they
> actually have an obligation to fix the issue, and sooner rather than
> later, or at least help you to work around it.
>
> Personally I like SLED for the environment which in which I use it but
> I wouldn’t use it on my own machine at home. I use openSUSE on that. I
> do not care about paid support for a machine which only I use and
> openSUSE has newer versions of GNOME, Firefox, etc which are interesting
> to see.
>
> If you want the latest version of everything and don’t care about being
> able to get support from someone that is obligated to help you because
> you’re paying them, then don’t use SLED. Use openSUSE. Or Ubuntu. Or
> Fedora. If you want to be on the bleeding edge, check out Gentoo. ;)[/color]
It’s not that I really don’t care about the support. The thing is, I’d
been using Windows before, so all the stuff (especially related with
installing, repositories, etc.) is still hard for me to understand. I
just got SLED with my laptop, so I thought I should try something new.
However, I’m still not capable to deal with, for instance, such graphics
problems in Linux as well as I could in Windows myself. By the way, is
there any documentation specifically about configuration of graphics?
It’d be useful to read.
## – PauliusC
PauliusC’s Profile: [http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=116334](http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=116334)
View this thread: [http://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=448400](http://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=448400)
---
### Author:  [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2011, 6:26pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/problem-with-graphics/21696/16 "2011-12-02T18:26:01Z")
PauliusC;2158152 Wrote:[color=blue]
> Yes, I believe that problem wasn’t present when I bought my pc. I’ve
> installed new graphics drivers from amd site, when I wanted to be able
> to play minecraft (I think I wrote topic about that in this forum,
> too).
> [/color]
> Yes, I recall that thread. At the time I decided to see if I could
> recreate your problem with Minecraft but I couldn’t because I don’t have
> a Minecraft account. I could only get as far as Minecraft asking me for
> a username/password and your problem occurs after that. Skimming through
> that thread I don’t see anyone else indicating that they’re tried
> playing Minecraft themselves. If people can’t recreate your problem
> themselves then any attempts to help you solve it are just guesswork.
> Guesswork which hopefully has some degree of education behind it, but
> still guesswork.
This and the last thread you started here all stem from your having a
problem playing Minecraft. Have you tried asking for help on the
Minecraft forums?
PauliusC;2158152 Wrote:[color=blue]
> I have HP factory image CD, but right now, I don’t want to restore in
> order not to lose my files. I guess I’ll just have to deal with this
> problem…
> [/color]
> So back up your files. You should have a back up of all your files
> anyway. What if your laptop was lost or stolen, of it the harddisk
> broke? Far too many people never think about backing up their files
> until after something’s happened that’s caused them to lose them.
PauliusC;2158152 Wrote:[color=blue]
> It’s not that I really don’t care about the support. The thing is, I’d
> been using Windows before, so all the stuff (especially related with
> installing, repositories, etc.) is still hard for me to understand. I
> just got SLED with my laptop, so I thought I should try something new.
> However, I’m still not capable to deal with, for instance, such graphics
> problems in Linux as well as I could in Windows myself. By the way, is
> there any documentation specifically about configuration of graphics?
> It’d be useful to read.[/color]
> I can’t think of any off hand, there’s various documentation at ‘Novell
> Doc: SUSE linux Enterprise Desktop 11 - Table of Contents’
> ([http://www.novell.com/documentation/sled11/](http://www.novell.com/documentation/sled11/)) and of course if you’re
> trying to install some drivers you got from AMD they should come with
> instructions on how to use them.
## – mikewillis
mikewillis’s Profile: [http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=7510](http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=7510)
View this thread: [http://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=448400](http://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=448400)
---
### Author:  [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2011, 7:56pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/problem-with-graphics/21696/17 "2011-12-02T19:56:02Z")
mikewillis;2158237 Wrote:[color=blue]
> Yes, I recall that thread. At the time I decided to see if I could
> recreate your problem with Minecraft but I couldn’t because I don’t have
> a Minecraft account. I could only get as far as Minecraft asking me for
> a username/password and your problem occurs after that. Skimming through
> that thread I don’t see anyone else indicating that they’re tried
> playing Minecraft themselves. If people can’t recreate your problem
> themselves then any attempts to help you solve it are just guesswork.
> Guesswork which hopefully has some degree of education behind it, but
> still guesswork.
>
> This and the last thread you started here all stem from your having a
> problem playing Minecraft. Have you tried asking for help on the
> Minecraft forums?
>
> So back up your files. You should have a back up of all your files
> anyway. What if your laptop was lost or stolen, of it the harddisk
> broke? Far too many people never think about backing up their files
> until after something’s happened that’s caused them to lose them.
>
> I can’t think of any off hand, there’s various documentation at ‘Novell
> Doc: SUSE linux Enterprise Desktop 11 - Table of Contents’
> ([http://www.novell.com/documentation/sled11/](http://www.novell.com/documentation/sled11/)) and of course if you’re
> trying to install some drivers you got from AMD they should come with
> instructions on how to use them.[/color]
Well, there’s a free version of minecraft, which is accessible to
everyone, though the results are the same for me. It’s not that I cannot
live without minecraft, in fact, I might not need it at all. I just
don’t like when things don’t work how they are supposed to.
Yes, I tried asking for help on minecraft forums several times,
however, all they could tell me was to update my java and drivers or
probably use open source drivers (the reason I asked about them here,
since I didn’t know what they were).
You’re right about the back-up. I’m not used to doing it. It can be
done by “Backup Manager Settings” application in the Tools tab?
As for the drivers, I even asked for help in this forum and they seem
to have installed correctly (as far as I understand). However, I can see
in YaST, that original drivers are also still installed. Should I remove
them?
## – PauliusC
PauliusC’s Profile: [http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=116334](http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=116334)
View this thread: [http://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=448400](http://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=448400)
---
### Author:  [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [December 3, 2011, 12:36am UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/problem-with-graphics/21696/18 "2011-12-03T00:36:02Z")
PauliusC;2158053 Wrote:[color=blue]
> Just tried to turn it off for a while and everything seemed to be
> normal. However, I use flash to watch videos, etc., so it doesn’t really
> solve the problem. Besides, I don’t like the idea of turning some
> functionalities of program off. I didn’t notice such problem in
> epiphany, though I hardly ever use it. Talking about google chrome, I’m
> not using it at all. Firefox’s been the best one for me.
>
> [/color]
So it’s not a driver problem and installing any drivers won’t solve it.
It’s definitely an Adobe’s issue. You don’t need to turn it off
completely. Install Flashblock extension and flash will be blocked
automatically, but you could easily watch a video simply clicking on it.
## – AlexDudko
AlexDudko’s Profile: [http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=100476](http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=100476)
View this thread: [http://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=448400](http://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=448400)
---
### Author:  [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [December 3, 2011, 2:06am UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/problem-with-graphics/21696/19 "2011-12-03T02:06:01Z")
AlexDudko;2158333 Wrote:[color=blue]
> So it’s not a driver problem and installing any drivers won’t solve it.
> It’s definitely an Adobe’s issue. You don’t need to turn it off
> completely. Install Flashblock extension and flash will be blocked
> automatically, but you could easily watch a video simply clicking on it.[/color]
Thanks, I’ll try it.
## – PauliusC
PauliusC’s Profile: [http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=116334](http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=116334)
View this thread: [http://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=448400](http://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=448400)
---
### Author:  [@system](https://forums.suse.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2011, 10:46pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/problem-with-graphics/21696/20 "2011-12-07T22:46:01Z")
PauliusC;2158276 Wrote:[color=blue]
> Well, there’s a free version of minecraft, which is accessible to
> everyone,[/color]
> Ah, so there is. I’d missed that.
> Well attempting to play the free version in browser works fine for me
> on a copy of SLED 11 SP1 that I have installed in Virtual Box, the only
> copy of SLED I currently have access to. Well I say fine, it’s rather
> slow to respond to input but I think that’s due to the meager CPU/RAM
> the virtual machine has been allocated. Everything looks OK though. No
> black screen problem.
> If I put about:plugins in to Firefox it says “Java™ Plug-in
> 1.6.0\_26”. If I look at it in more detail:
## Code:
mike@localhost:/usr/lib/browser-plugins\> ls -l java\*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 28 2011-04-02 20:29 javaplugin.so → /etc/alternatives/javaplugin
mike@localhost:/usr/lib/browser-plugins\> ls -l /etc/alternatives/javaplugin
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 58 2011-06-28 17:39 /etc/alternatives/javaplugin → /usr/lib/jvm/java-1.6.0-sun-1.6.0/jre/lib/i386/libnpjp2.so
mike@localhost:/usr/lib/browser-plugins\> rpm -qf /usr/lib/jvm/java-1.6.0-sun-1.6.0/jre/lib/i386/libnpjp2.so
java-1\_6\_0-sun-plugin-1.6.0.u26-0.2.1
* * *
I don’t have access to any machines with ATI graphics cards to try
with.
PauliusC;2158276 Wrote:[color=blue]
> You’re right about the back-up. I’m not used to doing it. It can be
> done by “Backup Manager Settings” application in the Tools tab?
> [/color]
> I’d presume as much, but to be honest I wasn’t aware that Backup
> Manager thing existed until you mentioned it.
If I were you I’d just plug in an external harddisk and copy any files
you care about on to it. It needn’t be any more complicated than that.
The easiest thing to do would be to navigate to /home then you can
select your entire home directory and copy that.
Note that settings/configuration are usually in hidden
files/directories. In Linux a file/directory is considered hidden if
it’s name starts with a a . E.g. a file called bob is not hidden a file
called .bob is hidden. It’s not done with attributes like it is in
DOS/Windows. In Nautilus there’s an option on the View menu to show/hide
hidden files.
For my machine at home I mirror my home directory to an external
harddisk using rysnc about once a week. E.g. in my home directory I run
## Code:
## $ rsync -av --delete --progress --exclude .cache --exclude .local/share/Trash . /media/WDPassport/linuxhome/
rsync only copies what isn’t already on the external harddisk rather.
E.g. If I had 450GB the last time I backed up and have created 10GB of
files since then, rsync only copies 10GB not 460GB.
.cache is as the name suggests, just cache so I don’t bother backing it
up. .local/share/Trash is what is referred to in SLED as Wastebasket, at
least when language is set to English (UK) don’t know what it’s called
in other language settings.
rsync is a great tool. It works across ssh connections too so you can
use it to sync files between any two machines regardless of their
location.
PauliusC;2158276 Wrote:[color=blue]
> As for the drivers, I even asked for help in this forum and they seem
> to have installed correctly (as far as I understand). However, I can see
> in YaST, that original drivers are also still installed. Should I remove
> them?[/color]
> So long as all the drivers are installed as rpm packages then in theory
> at least they shouldn’t conflict. But if you’re not using them then
> removing them shouldn’t hurt. But like I said before I’d consider
> putting your machine back to factory state given how much you have
> apparently changed.Sometimes if you’ve been tinkering and changing
> things and aren’t 100% sure what exactly it is you’ve done and think
> you’re in a bit of a mess the easiest solution is to just blow it all
> away rather than sit around spending hours trying to fix it.
## – mikewillis
mikewillis’s Profile: [http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=7510](http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=7510)
View this thread: [http://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=448400](http://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=448400)