Driver overview

This page details support for the Intel GMA500 "Poulsbo" video hardware with Ubuntu 12.04 and higher.

Unfortunately the support for this hardware is extremely limited on Linux. There are several drivers, but all lacking certain basic features, future and current maintenance or support for things like suspend.

Currently Ubuntu supports the gma500_gfx driver

For older drivers see GMA500 Obsolete Drivers

GMA500_GFX driver

With kernel 2.6.39, a new psb_gfx module appeared in the kernel source developed by Alan Cox to support Poulsbo hardware.

As of kernel 3.3.rc1 the driver has left staging and been renamed gma500_gfx and is thus the default, suported driver for Ubuntu 12.04 and higher.

Starting with kernel 3.3.4 , the gma500_gfx driver works without adding any boot options.

The gma500_gfx does not (yet) support 3d graphics and it is unclear if it will in the future.

12.04

Live (Desktop) CD

The problem with 12.04 is that the default kernel included on the desktop CD (all variants) is 3.3.2. This kernel works, but requires some custom boot parameters. Without these parameters you will either get a black screen or distortion.

1. Switch to a console - Ctrl-Alt-F1
2. Restart X with 'sudo service lightdm restart'

That should bring you back to a functional graphical desktop, so that you can proceed testing or installing.

Post installation

With the default 3.3.2 kernel, you need to add some options to the grub boot options or you will get a black screen.

Starting with kernel 3.3.4 , the gma500_gfx driver works without adding any boot options.

There are several potential solutions for this console=tty1, disable splash, or 915 Resolution

Option 1 - console=tty1

Perhaps the easiest method is to use "console=tty1" as a boot option.

• gksudo gedit /etc/default/grub

Find the following line: GRUB_CMDLINE_DEAULT="quiet splash"

Add console=tty1 in between the quotes, the end result looking as follows

Generic options

• GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet console=tty1 acpi_backlight=vendor acpi_osi=Linux mem=896mb"

Acer AO751h

• GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash console=tty1 acpi_backlight=vendor acpi_osi=Linux acer_wmi.blacklist=yes mem=1920mb""

save and exit, then update grub with

• sudo update-grub

Option 2 - Disable splash

Some people find they need to disable the splash.

Essentially the same as above, just remove splash from the GRUB_CMDLINE_DEFAULT options.

Option 3 - 915 Resolution

Using any editor, create a file /etc/grub.d/01_915resolution , add in lines

• echo insmod 915resolution
  echo 915resolution 58 1366 768 32

Make the file executable

sudo chmod a+x /etc/grub.d/01_915resolution

Next, edit /etc/default/grub, assign value 1366x768x32 to variables GRUB_GFXMODE and GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX (be sure to change “1366×768″ to your desired resolution):

GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=1366x768x32

Then update grub.

sudo update-grub

NOTE: some gma500 users may have to switch to tty1 and back to tty7 even after the above modification to have a correct desktop.

Problem solving

Most of the problems and workarounds listed are BIOS and Vendor specific. If your hardware is not listed, you may need to experiment.

Fix suspend

Open a terminal and use the following commands:

• gksu gedit /etc/pm/config.d/gma500

Add in the following code and save the file:

• ADD_PARAMETERS='--quirk-vbemode-restore'

Note: originally, this fix was "ADD_PARAMETERS='-quirk-vbemode-restore'" with only one dash before quirk but the fix did not work for some users. Using two dashes was found to work for them (which makes sense as single dash is often used for one character options and two for longer ones). However, on a Dell Mini 12, the double dash caused the fix not to work. Going back to a single did allow it to resume from suspend. So, if the double does not work for you, try it with just one.

Reference: bodhi.zazen's blog : gma500 boot options

Memory allocation optimization

You can often improve performance by limiting the amount of RAM used by the system so that there will be more available for the videocard:

sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

Add the following parameters to grub configuation if you have for example 1GB RAM:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="mem=896mb"

or if you have 2GB RAM:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="mem=1920mb"

Update GRUB:

sudo update-grub

Brightness hotkeys

Problems with brightness keys are most often vendor and bios dependent.

Acer

sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

Add the following parameters to grub configuration:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="acpi_osi=Linux acpi_backlight=vendor"

Update Grub:

sudo update-grub

After adding the parameters to grub, functional keys such as wireless and volume also work.

Ubuntu 11.10

The default 3.0.x kernel does not work.

The linux-libre 3.3.x kernel is working. You can obtain it from This repository

After adding the repository,

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install linux-image-3.3.2-gnu-686 

CategoryHardware