# kernel 3.10.7, nvidia, EFI boot

## splurben

Hey, has anyone got the proprietary kernel working properly (no tearing on OpenGL playback)? I've tried a ton of different U/EFI booting scenarios and I'm still having nVidia performance problems. I see a lot of people apparently are because of EFI frame buffer situation.

This hardware combination was fine when booting with GRUB2 on MBR, with EFI booting the best performance I can get is in 'blind mode' EFI Stub. I can switch it back to MBR/GRUB2 but I want to make sure there isn't a solution forward rather than back.

```
# lspci

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub to ESI Port (rev 13)

00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev 13)

00:03.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub PCI Express Root Port 3 (rev 13)

00:07.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub PCI Express Root Port 7 (rev 13)

00:10.0 PIC: Intel Corporation 7500/5520/5500/X58 Physical and Link Layer Registers Port 0 (rev 13)

00:10.1 PIC: Intel Corporation 7500/5520/5500/X58 Routing and Protocol Layer Registers Port 0 (rev 13)

00:14.0 PIC: Intel Corporation 7500/5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub System Management Registers (rev 13)

00:14.1 PIC: Intel Corporation 7500/5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub GPIO and Scratch Pad Registers (rev 13)

00:14.2 PIC: Intel Corporation 7500/5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub Control Status and RAS Registers (rev 13)

00:14.3 PIC: Intel Corporation 7500/5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub Throttle Registers (rev 13)

00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82567LM-2 Gigabit Network Connection

00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4

00:1a.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5

00:1a.2 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6

00:1a.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) HD Audio Controller

00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) PCI Express Root Port 1

00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) PCI Express Port 2

00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) PCI Express Root Port 5

00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1

00:1d.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2

00:1d.2 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3

00:1d.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1

00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 90)

00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JIR (ICH10R) LPC Interface Controller

00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) SATA AHCI Controller

00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) SMBus Controller

01:00.0 Multimedia video controller: Conexant Systems, Inc. CX23885 PCI Video and Audio Decoder (rev 02)

02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GT218 [GeForce 210] (rev a2)

02:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation High Definition Audio Controller (rev a1)

03:00.0 RAID bus controller: Adaptec Serial ATA II RAID 1430SA (rev 02)

05:00.0 Multimedia video controller: Conexant Systems, Inc. CX23885 PCI Video and Audio Decoder (rev 02)

06:00.0 IDE interface: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88SE6121 SATA II / PATA Controller (rev b2)

07:02.0 Multimedia controller: Philips Semiconductors SAA7131/SAA7133/SAA7135 Video Broadcast Decoder (rev d0)

07:03.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments TSB43AB22A IEEE-1394a-2000 Controller (PHY/Link) [iOHCI-Lynx]
```

```
# uname -a

Linux thialfi2 3.10.7-gentoo #1 SMP Tue Aug 20 15:20:24 WST 2013 x86_64 Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 950 @ 3.07GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux
```

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## srs5694

I can't speak to your nVidia problems directly, but I can say this:

It's usually possible to boot in BIOS mode from a GPT disk. Some computers require jumping through some extra hoops, but it can usually be done.

My rEFInd boot manager may be of interest, since it can simplify setting kernel options (including on a boot-by-boot basis) when using the EFI stub loader.

rEFInd can also transfer control to a BIOS-mode boot loader on most systems, although you must uncomment the "scanfor" item in refind.conf and ensure that "hdbios" is among the options to do this.

In all, it's possible to switch between BIOS-mode and EFI-mode boots on one computer, although the level of difficulty varies from one system to another. At best, using rEFInd and its BIOS-mode boot support, you may be able to switch by selecting the appropriate rEFInd boot option. At worst, though, some lame EFI implementations require futzing with the partition table or the ESP to switch boot modes. Still, switching should be possible.

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## Aonoa

I'm booting with GRUB2 using UEFI, nvidia-drivers and got rid of the OpenGL screen tearing. The very latest compton compositor fixed it for me.

```
compton --opengl --vsync opengl-swc -b
```

 I hope this was in line with what you were asking about, and that it may help you.   :Smile: 

----------

## splurben

 *Aonoa wrote:*   

> I'm booting with GRUB2 using UEFI, nvidia-drivers and got rid of the OpenGL screen tearing. The very latest compton compositor fixed it for me.
> 
> ```
> compton --opengl --vsync opengl-swc -b
> ```
> ...

 

At this point, I went back to PC BIOS boot on a thumb-drive with my manual kernel, and discovered that after much embarrassment that my desktop implementation, which I had reset to default, had desktop compositing enabled. Video is clean now on OpenGL High Quality in MythTV 0.26 with nVidia drivers 325.15 ~amd64.

I'll try going back to EFI/GPT next and check your suggestion as I go and post here when I know more.

Cheers,

Kirk

----------

