UM 16.10 Beta 2 and Intel GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controllers

Development Discussion
#1

I’ve been running 16.10 on several different machines since the first alpha and have generally had good experiences. Then along came Beta 2 and the introduction of the 4.8 kernel…

The two desktops are spinning along quite happily with their Nvidia cards and the older one especially (an early P4 with a GeForce 6100 card) has never run better. The problem is my Sony FZ laptop with the GM965 graphics. At login, it freezes the entire system just as he desktop begins to load unless booted with nomodeset. This works, but the performance is somewhat lacking and when resuming from sleep, there’s no video at all.

I installed 16.04.1 and all was fine. I tried various other kernels from kernel.ubuntu.com and found that using either the 4.8 or 4.8.1 caused the same problem. All the rest through 4.7.7 work wonderfully. I’ve also tried it with the Unity desktop with the same results.

To finally get to the point (sorry for all the background), I was wondering if anyone else has experienced this and, if so, have you found a solution? From what little I’ve been able to discover, it has something to do with Intel’s DRM and atomic watermark (subjects far beyond my understanding). Also, would it be worth trying to run Beta 2 with the 4.7.7 kernel, even if only to further isolate the problem?

#2

As far as Google can tell me this is an Intel GPU, isn’t it?

According a Phoronix article adding intel_idle.max_cstate=1 to the kernel boot options should work.

#3

Thank you, @wizd3m, that seems to have done the trick. It takes a bit longer to boot, and even longer to load the desktop, but it does seem to work perfectly, otherwise. As I seldom do other than close the lid and put it to sleep, the extra 15 or 20 seconds are irrelevant.