HardwareSupportComponentsVideoCardsPoulsbo
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, supported 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.
Ubuntu 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.
- Switch to a console - Ctrl-Alt-F1
- 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_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
Add console=tty1 in between the quotes, the end result looking as follows
- GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash console=tty1"
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
First, know what your desired resolution is. On many devices this is 1366x768, so we'll use that in the examples below. Be sure to change it to your desired 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:
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=1366x768x32
Then update grub.
sudo update-grub
NOTE: some gma500 users may have to switch to a different tty and then back to tty7 even after performing the above modification to have a correct desktop. To do this press Ctrl-Alt-F6 then press Ctrl-Alt-F7.
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
If suspend does not work for you, there are various quirk options you can try. See the manpage for pm-suspend for a list of them all. One that has been reported to help is quirk-vbemode-restore, which saves and restores the current VESA mode.
To test it, open a terminal and use the following commands
- sudo pm-suspend --quirk-vbemode-restore
That should suspend your system. If you are able to resume, you'll want to configure UBuntu to use this option every time you suspend. To do this oOpen 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'
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"
For the Acer AO751h, try blacklisting acer_wmi.
- GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="acpi_backlight=vendor acpi_osi=Linux acer_wmi.blacklist=yes""
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