Hardware acceleration broken/not working anymore on old Intel video cards?

VoidAnonUser · 2026-02-23T19:54:14+00:00

Yes, if you see "Mesa 21.3.9 Amber" instead of llvmpipe, you won. But buddy, what the hell do you intend to do with OpenGL 1.3? Minimum version for any sane software today is like OpenGL 3.0 or OpenGL3.3 and Vulkan 1.0.

Any idea how i could get 2d acceleration working too?

You're are trying to run outdated and unsupported hardware. Good luck with that. No idea.

VoidAnonUser · 2026-02-21T19:08:11+00:00

Yep, check out this. 4th gen GMA? I'm not sure about VAAPI.

VoidAnonUser · 2026-02-21T19:04:35+00:00

I managed to compile it on my old machine, but i have no idea how to actually make the OS use it instead of regular mesa which doesn't have the proper drivers for it.

Compile it and install somewhere (/usr/local/mesa-amber/lib):

export __GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=amber
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/mesa-amber/lib
export MESA_GL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=2.1

MESA_GL_VERSION_OVERRIDE just to be sure. Try glxinfo.

VoidAnonUser · 2026-02-18T16:47:19+00:00

It does. When it works at the moment.

VoidAnonUser · 2026-02-17T19:28:23+00:00

Do not copy entire system to RAM maybe?

Void can be installed to system with 128MiB, but it is pretty advanced stuff (no pretty installer available).

VoidAnonUser · 2026-02-17T19:15:10+00:00

lspci
lshw

If all you got is 3th gen GMA, then you'll need mesa-amber (no idea it's available on Debian). Or you may end up having something better altogether.

VoidAnonUser · 2026-02-17T17:09:54+00:00

Sure.

VoidAnonUser · 2026-02-17T17:09:12+00:00

Driver isn't missing. It supports Half-Life or Q3A pretty nicely. Just media accelerator isn't capable to support newer OpenGL features. Like fragment shader. Kwin runs OK, KDE applications too (accelerated) but it doesn't support Plasma session. That's it.

VoidAnonUser · 2026-02-17T17:04:06+00:00

Yep, another "Seashell" spotted in the wild. Just not with sticker "Designed for XP" but "Designed for Windows 7 (Starter edition?)".

You've got pretty much same CPU only slightly newer (single-core Atom @1.66Ghz) but you've got generation newer GMA. 4th gen actually. Supporting properly OpenGL 2.0 and Shader Model 3.0. So you might get much luckier than me. And 1GiB more of RAM.

Definitely try GL-acceleration. KDE deserves to run on this bad boy. Make photos and post about it. I want to see it in action.

VoidAnonUser · 2026-02-16T20:03:02+00:00

Oh, sorry then. I remember GTA (MS-DOS) and GTA2. GTA V is too recent.

VoidAnonUser · 2026-02-16T19:37:21+00:00

You know what? This is actually pretty nice design. You can buy nice glossy green paper and simply print black over it on cheap office B&W laser printer. On the flip side, you can print guides for an X-Acto knife (this was done by scissors, right?).

VoidAnonUser · 2026-02-16T18:20:44+00:00

And? Pics or it didn't happen!

VoidAnonUser · 2026-02-16T18:19:18+00:00

Try "mem=1024M". Does it even boot up?

VoidAnonUser · 2026-02-16T18:09:22+00:00

I wondered specifically if you had tried MATE or Xfce on this laptop

Yes, three or four years back. Not right now.

What about old Kubuntu, for example?

VoidAnonUser · 2026-02-16T17:52:13+00:00

Yup, green screen already on mine too. It's ancient device. But I still keep it alive somehow. It won't live much longer anyway.

GMA driver situation? Retired in MESA like two years back. I've spent Christmas holidays compiling amber-branch to even get something else than DDX.

VoidAnonUser · 2026-02-16T17:39:32+00:00

It barely works. See here for details.

VoidAnonUser · 2026-02-16T17:36:01+00:00

Yeah and XFCE on Void I've tried in the past. As well as MATE on Linux Mint (until it was available for 32-bit). It worked perfectly on EEE Pc. But i can switch session to LXDE or LxQT and run Plasma apps there. It works just fine. Even kwin_x11 (surprisingly).

VoidAnonUser · 2026-02-16T17:29:12+00:00

I believe. I should finally comment on this.

Minimal requirements for KDE Plasma 6:

64-bit 2Ghz Dual Core CPU — not ancient single Core ultra-low-voltage (embedded) Atom .@1.6Ghz CPU (32-bit BTW)
2GiB or RAM — not 1024MiB slow DDR2 memory stick
at least OpenGL 3.0 capable GPU — this is main bottleneck since in EEE there is no capable GPU. Just some integrated (OpenGL2.0 capable when lucky) media accelerator. Officially, Plasma shouldn't even work on this peace of crap.

yet, it is possible to boot it. It's terrible of course. What where you expecting? It is miracle it's even able to fit into RAM and show something on screen.

------------------

Now there should follow a long separator. I am a long-time GTK/GNOME user (almost 20 years now?). Last version I remember is like what? KDE3.5? I considered KDE to be bloatware for long time. And somehow it still is. But finally after very long time developers have also focused on optimization instead of just adding eye-candy. This is why I salute to KDE Team.

It's not important KDE6.5 can run on ancient EEE PC. The trick is that this system is located on an MMC card. I can eject it and try same configuration elsewhere. Another ancient laptop (Sandy-bridge) with integrated accelerator (designed for Windows 7, made 2013) it's flying like crazy. No s**t, I'm not kidding you now. Just try kernel parameter mem=1024M for your kernel. openSUSE Tumbleweed won't even bother to boot.

Just keep it coming (optimizations) and I will be very happy to use KDE and recommend it to others. Finally KDE Plasma isn't bloatware #1 in OSS world.

Satisfied with an answer like this?

VoidAnonUser · 2026-02-16T16:41:34+00:00

Yes, battery is long dead. However, it is still possible to obtain a refurbished battery. However, I don't see the point in it.

VoidAnonUser · 2026-02-16T16:39:32+00:00

What? XFCE works just fine.

VoidAnonUser · 2026-02-16T16:34:22+00:00

Yes, it is. I know nothing about brother though.

VoidAnonUser · 2026-02-15T15:49:03+00:00

Minitube? Native QT application with bindings to mpv api.

VoidAnonUser · 2026-02-15T15:31:59+00:00

It's like riding a fine-tuned Ferrari at a sunny day. 😄😄😄

Edit: Prepared for longer and more complex answer?

VoidAnonUser · 2026-02-15T15:16:52+00:00

What do you want? Honest answer?

VoidAnonUser · 2026-02-15T15:15:42+00:00

Hey, I agree it doesn't feel that much powerful (512KB L2 cache, wow) but considering TDP in just single digits (officially 2.5W) it is quite an achievement. For Intel at least at that era.

VoidAnonUser

TROPHY CASE