Ubuntu Wiki

This page details support for the Intel GMA500 "Poulsbo" video hardware in various Ubuntu releases. The table below shows the current status of the driver.

Maverick (10.10)

Drivers are available in the Gma500 PPA repository

Open a terminal and type:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gma500/ppa && sudo aptitude update

this command will add the repository and update the database

sudo aptitude install poulsbo-driver-2d poulsbo-driver-3d poulsbo-config

reboot for the changes to take effect.

Current status

* XV Video playback is broken (it means totem, skype, cheese, flash-plugin full-screen and other applications show only a black screen)

* Hardware Video Acceleration is currently working using libva 0.31 instead of 1.0.1-3 provided by maverick repositories.

* Plymouth splash screen doesn't show high resolution ubuntu-logo, only text version

* This PPA repository also ships mplayer, gnome-mplayer and vlc with enabled vaapi backend.

Suspend

Suspend is broken in some netbooks with GMA500 chipset.

This workaround could help:

sudo mv /usr/lib/pm-utils/sleep.d/99video /root/99video

Brightness hotkeys

Brightness hotkeys don't work in some netbooks with GMA500 chipset.

Temporary workaround: add the following parameters to grub configuation:

"acpi_backlight=vendor acpi_skip_timer_override acpi_osi=Linux"

Compiz

Compiz doesn't work properly due to an old binary blob.

Temporary workaround:

* add the following option to /etc/X11/xorg.xconf

Option "ExaNoComposite" "true"

* install this updated poulsbo-config package: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1338581/poulsbo/poulsbo-config_0.1.2%7E1004um3_all.deb

* install compiz

Flash plugin replacement for Firefox

* install gnome-mplayer and gecko-mediaplayer

* tune gnome-mplayer settings like the following screenshots: http://lukaszklich.pl/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/vaapi_output.png http://lukaszklich.pl/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/vaapi_va.png

* install this firefox addons: http://flvideoreplacer-extension.blogspot.com/

Lucid (10.04)

An unofficial iso image with gma500 support and mplayer-vaapi is available for downloading over bittorrent.

Thanks lucazade! torrent link

Visit the gma500 thread on ubuntuforums.org for more info and support.

If you wish to use the official Ubuntu 10.04 iso, follow the steps below.

Open a terminal and type:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gma500/ppa && sudo aptitude update

this command will add 'GMA500 PPA' repository and update database

sudo aptitude install poulsbo-driver-2d poulsbo-driver-3d poulsbo-config

reboot for the changes to take effect.

Notes:

• Compiz doesn't work and will be removed.
• Xv video output doesn't work (Totem, webcam, skype, etc). Use mplayer-vaapi to get decent video playback.

• On Sony Vaio add the following workaround:

  sudo nano /etc/default/grub

  find correct line and update to below

  GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash mem=1900mb nohz=off"

  Then update your grub config

  sudo update-grub

• On Acer 751h to fix battery status add to session startup:

  cat /proc/acpi/battery/BAT1/info

• On Asus Eeepc for brightness keys to work you should the edit the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX line in /etc/default/grub to look like:

  GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="acpi_osi=Linux acpi_backlight=vendor"

• Reported by users:
  • An asus eeepc 1101HA from Karmic to Lucid, following the instructions there and it didn't work out of the box. In short, the problem was just that, for some reason, I didn't have the package libdrm-poulsbo1 installed. After installing it it works again.
  • On my 751h suspend/resume worked really bad (it either didnt start up or when adding workarounds found vbetool got stuck at 100% CPU). The solution was to remove the package vbetool, install uswsusp and suspend using the command: sudo s2ram --force To make it easy to use I just put that command in a textfile, made the file +X and then placed an application shortcut icon on the toolbar leading to to this file.
  • The following workaround, reported originally for Maverick, seems to work fine on my 751h running lucid:

    sudo mv /usr/lib/pm-utils/sleep.d/99video /root/99video

Karmic (9.10)

Open a terminal and type:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gma500/ppa && sudo aptitude update

this command will add 'GMA500 PPA' repository and update database

sudo aptitude install poulsbo-config poulsbo-driver-2d poulsbo-driver-3d psb-firmware psb-kernel-headers psb-kernel-source

edit your xorg.conf (if it doesn't exist, the command below will create it)

gksudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

and paste in the following:

Section "Device"
        Identifier      "GMA500"
        Driver          "psb"
        Option          "IgnoreACPI" "true"
        Option          "MigrationHeuristic" "greedy"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
        Mode    0666
EndSection

reboot for the changes to take effect.

Intrepid (8.10) and Jaunty (9.04)

The drivers for the Poulsbo chipset are shipped in the ubuntu-mobile PPA.

Add the ubuntu-mobile PPA

Edit a file called /etc/apt/sources.list/psb.list, and add the following line to it, for Intrepid: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mobile/ppa/ubuntu intrepid main for Jaunty: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mobile/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main

You may also wish to add the key to the keyring by following the instructions here.

Which kernel are you running?

If you are using a kernel that you have compiled yourself, or are not using the latest kernel provided by either Intrepid or Jaunty, install the psb-kernel-source package (and make sure the headers for your kernel are available!) and then remove psb-modules.

Install packages

Install poulsbo-driver-2d if you only require 2D, and poulsbo-driver-3d if you also require 3D acceleration to work. Make sure your user is a member of the video group before using 3D.

Hardy (8.04)

The Poulsbo hardware is not supported in the community version of Ubuntu. However, it is reputed to "just work" on Hardy version shipped by a netbook manufacturer.

For example, the support for GMA 500 hardware by Dell Ubuntu Hardy 8.04 is provided by the following repository

deb http://dell-mini.archive.canonical.com/updates hardy-dell-mini public

Contribution

The Ubuntu community is a great example of free software community in action, and is arguable one of the greatest examples of free software community in the world. To make Ubuntu better, You would like to take a look on new project Intel GMA500 'Poulsbo' and provide any help.

Common problems

X doesn't start

Double check that the psb kernel module can be loaded into the running kernel by running modprobe psb.

3D Graphics (OpenGL) does not work after suspend and resume

This is a known bug with psb kernel driver. Due to partial close nature of the driver, because Intel has not released an open source driver, the bug fix is currently no available. There are reports² that a new driver will be available shortly.

Additional Reading

Why GMA 500 hardware doesn't work out of the box? Read "How To Kick Your Friends in the Face: GMA500" by Shawn Powers and the Intel "apology" "Blaming Intel for how the world is" by Henry Kingman

Other problems?

If you're still having problems, please mail ubuntu-mobile@lists.ubuntu.com, and do not submit bug reports.