Intel Core i5-2400 (SandyBridge) not supported anymore?

Ask Fedora
1

I recently found that my machine wasn’t using hardware accelerated graphics with the integrated GPU anymore; it is instead using llvmpipe. I’m sure it hasn’t always been like this, and I start thinking that a recent Fedora update removed the proper modules for this to work.

I opened a ticket in KDE’s Discuss, but it seems it’s more Fedora related: Missing hardware acceleration for rendering on Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2400 Sandybridge - #7 by Samuele - Help - KDE Discuss

I received some help in another thread (Fedora 41 Intel Hardware Acceleration Problem), but installing codecs for video hardware acceleration didn’t solve the situation.

After some digging, it seems like my iGPU could have been blacklisted because of unsteady performance. This is my system:

  • Operating System: Fedora Linux 43

  • KDE Plasma Version: 6.5.3

  • KDE Frameworks Version: 6.20.0

  • Qt Version: 6.10.1

  • Kernel Version: 6.17.10-300.fc43.x86_64 (64-bit)

  • Graphics Platform: X11

  • Processors: 4 × Intel® Core™ i5-2400 CPU @ 3.10GHz

  • Memory: 16 GiB of RAM (15.4 GiB usable)

  • Graphics Processor: llvmpipe

  • Manufacturer: LENOVO

  • Product Name: 7052A9G

  • System Version: ThinkCentre M91p

More precisely, this is my CPU:

Architecture:                            x86_64
CPU op-mode(s):                          32-bit, 64-bit
Address sizes:                           36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
Byte Order:                              Little Endian
CPU(s):                                  4
On-line CPU(s) list:                     0-3
Vendor ID:                               GenuineIntel
Model name:                              Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2400 CPU @ 3.10GHz
CPU family:                              6
Model:                                   42
Thread(s) per core:                      1
Core(s) per socket:                      4
Socket(s):                               1
Stepping:                                7
CPU(s) scaling MHz:                      91%
CPU max MHz:                             3400,0000
CPU min MHz:                             1600,0000
BogoMIPS:                                6186,02
Flags:                                   fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht tm pbe syscall nx rdtscp lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc cpuid aperfmperf pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx lahf_lm epb pti ssbd ibrs ibpb stibp tpr_shadow flexpriority ept vpid xsaveopt dtherm ida arat pln pts vnmi md_clear flush_l1d
Virtualization:                          VT-x
L1d cache:                               128 KiB (4 instances)
L1i cache:                               128 KiB (4 instances)
L2 cache:                                1 MiB (4 instances)
L3 cache:                                6 MiB (1 instance)
NUMA node(s):                            1
NUMA node0 CPU(s):                       0-3
Vulnerability Gather data sampling:      Not affected
Vulnerability Ghostwrite:                Not affected
Vulnerability Indirect target selection: Not affected
Vulnerability Itlb multihit:             KVM: Mitigation: Split huge pages
Vulnerability L1tf:                      Mitigation; PTE Inversion; VMX conditional cache flushes, SMT disabled
Vulnerability Mds:                       Mitigation; Clear CPU buffers; SMT disabled
Vulnerability Meltdown:                  Mitigation; PTI
Vulnerability Mmio stale data:           Not affected
Vulnerability Old microcode:             Not affected
Vulnerability Reg file data sampling:    Not affected
Vulnerability Retbleed:                  Not affected
Vulnerability Spec rstack overflow:      Not affected
Vulnerability Spec store bypass:         Mitigation; Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl
Vulnerability Spectre v1:                Mitigation; usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
Vulnerability Spectre v2:                Mitigation; Retpolines; IBPB conditional; IBRS_FW; STIBP disabled; RSB filling; PBRSB-eIBRS Not affected; BHI Not affected
Vulnerability Srbds:                     Not affected
Vulnerability Tsa:                       Not affected
Vulnerability Tsx async abort:           Not affected
Vulnerability Vmscape:                   Mitigation; IBPB before exit to userspace

It seems like the module for hardware acceleration is there and is working, and the rendering is describer as “accelerated” even if I’m on llvmpipe:



samuele@192:~$ glxinfo -B
name of display: :0
display: :0  screen: 0
direct rendering: Yes
Extended renderer info (GLX_MESA_query_renderer):
    Vendor: Intel (0x8086)
    Device: Mesa Intel(R) HD Graphics 2000 (SNB GT1) (0x102)
    Version: 25.2.7
    Accelerated: yes
    Video memory: 1536MB
    Unified memory: yes
    Preferred profile: core (0x1)
    Max core profile version: 3.3
    Max compat profile version: 3.3
    Max GLES1 profile version: 1.1
    Max GLES[23] profile version: 3.0
OpenGL vendor string: Intel
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa Intel(R) HD Graphics 2000 (SNB GT1)
OpenGL core profile version string: 3.3 (Core Profile) Mesa 25.2.7
OpenGL core profile shading language version string: 3.30
OpenGL core profile context flags: (none)
OpenGL core profile profile mask: core profile

OpenGL version string: 3.3 (Compatibility Profile) Mesa 25.2.7
OpenGL shading language version string: 3.30
OpenGL context flags: (none)
OpenGL profile mask: compatibility profile

I tried this both on X11 and Wayland.

I found a guide that I might need following, but some of its steps I already tried: Intel Graphics - Best practices and settings for hardware acceleration? - #50 by vwbusguy

I tried adding the module

sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf

cat /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf
options i915 force_probe=*
options i915 enable_guc=2
options i915 enable_fbc=1
options i915 fastboot=1

sudo dracut --force
sudo reboot

But it seems it cannot be loaded at all?

samuele@192:~$ MESA_LOADER_DRIVER_OVERRIDE=i965 glxinfo | grep "OpenGL renderer"
glx: failed to create dri3 screen
failed to load driver: i965
MESA: error: ZINK: failed to choose pdev
glx: failed to create drisw screen
OpenGL renderer string: llvmpipe (LLVM 21.1.5, 256 bits)

I’m at a loss: is there anyone that has a broader understanding of how these things work and can point me to some resource?

Fedora 41 Intel Hardware Acceleration Problem
2

Hi,
I won’t be much of help here but I noted that you are forcing the old i965 driver for MESA. From what I recall, i965 is not active anymore has been replaced by the crocus Gallium3D driver.

Normally, I would expect Mesa to automatically make use of the “new” (2011??) Crocus driver.

can you undo the changes above and post

 lsof -p $(pidof kwin_wayland) | grep dri
3

I reverted the change: I removed the i915.conf then launched sudo dracut –-force then rebooted.

Here is the output:

samuele@192:~/Documenti$ sudo lsof -p $(pidof kwin_wayland) | grep dri
lsof: WARNING: can't stat() fuse.portal file system /run/user/1000/doc
      Output information may be incomplete.
kwin_wayl 5251 samuele  mem       REG               0,31          5548959 /usr/lib64/gbm/dri_gbm.so (path dev=0,33)
kwin_wayl 5251 samuele  mem       REG               0,31          4780567 /usr/lib64/libxcb-dri3.so.0.1.0 (path dev=0,33)
kwin_wayl 5251 samuele   19u      CHR              226,0      0t0     524 /dev/dri/card0
kwin_wayl 5251 samuele   20u      CHR              226,0      0t0     524 /dev/dri/card0
kwin_wayl 5251 samuele   21u      CHR              226,0      0t0     524 /dev/dri/card0
kwin_wayl 5251 samuele   22u      CHR              226,0      0t0     524 /dev/dri/card0
kwin_wayl 5251 samuele   23u      CHR              226,0      0t0     524 /dev/dri/card0
kwin_wayl 5251 samuele   39u      CHR              226,0      0t0     524 /dev/dri/card0
4

I was expecting a line

 /usr/lib64/dri/crocus_dri.so

Maybe also try sudo lsof -p $(pidof kwin_wayland) | grep crocus

It may actually be easier to go back to glxinfo -B. In your previous output it said

Accelerated: yes

Isn’t that what counts? Sorry my input isn’t of much help…

5

Your input is of help just because you are helping me going around with commands, thank you.

Some more information:

samuele@192:~$ glxinfo | grep -i "opengl renderer"
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa Intel(R) HD Graphics 2000 (SNB GT1)
samuele@192:~$ vulkaninfo | grep -i "deviceName"
WARNING: [Loader Message] Code 0 : terminator_CreateInstance: Received return code -3 from call to vkCreateInstance in ICD /usr/lib64/libvulkan_dzn.so. Skipping this driver.
        deviceName        = llvmpipe (LLVM 21.1.5, 256 bits)
samuele@192:~$ LIBGL_DEBUG=verbose glxinfo 2>&1 | grep -i driver
using driver i915 for 4
pci id for fd 4: 8086:0102, driver crocus

What count is the acceleration, yes, but I don’t understand if this is working properly. From various sources I’m getting that for this old iGPU hardware acceleration is not really supported anymore; Kwin is running with llvmpipe. At the same time everything looks fine, apart from the slugginesh of the graphics, which wasn’t like this before.What KDE people suggested me was to look into the fact that my graphic processor seems to be llvmpipe, which means software rendering. This would fit with the fact that graphics is a lot sluggish lately.

I launched these commands and I see reference to crocus, but at the same time there are references to i915.

6

I think Crocus may be for Core Gen4 and above?

Edit: no, I’m wrong, it can run on Sandy Bridge too.

7

https://docs.mesa3d.org/amber.html has:

Users with Intel GPUs that were using i965 should migrate to either Iris or Crocus, depending on their GPU. These drivers generally speaking both perform better and have more features than i965 had, and due to sharing more code with the rest of the Mesa infrastructure, gets more bug fixes and features.

1 Like
8

It seems like I’m using Crocus, but at the same time my system runs on llvmpipe.

I have another machine where this section of the system information shows my integrated GPU instead of just “llvmpipe”.

I can’t find proof of me ever not having “llvmpipe” there on this machine, so it might be that the system was always running on llvmpipe? I guess I should see something else in the “Graphic Processor” field anyway, given that the integrated GPU exists and I have Crocus.

9

Hello,

I have two older Intel laptops, both running
Fedora 43 Workstation.

1*Acer 6293 (2009):** Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, and SSD.
2. HP ProBook 4540s: Intel i5 3210M, 8GB RAM, and SSD.

Please don’t hesitate to ask if you need me to check anything (logs, configurations, etc.).

10

I guess the only relevant information would be: can you run this on both?

LIBGL_DEBUG=verbose glxinfo 2>&1 | grep -i driver

What DE are you running there?

11

Only gnome!

12

check renderer settings with “Plasma Renderer”. Maybe it has reverted back to software rendering.

image
image562×434 34.3 KB

13

Oh, how to reach that setting?

14

with kde menu?

15

HP 4540s i5 3210M

mauro@fedora:~$ LIBGL_DEBUG=verbose glxinfo 2>&1 | grep -i driver

using driver i915 for 4

pci id for fd 4: 8086:0166, driver crocus

Acer 6293 Core 2 Duo 8400P

mauro@fedora:~$ LIBGL_DEBUG=verbose glxinfo 2>&1 | grep -i driver

using driver i915 for 4

pci id for fd 4: 8086:2a42, driver crocus

mauro@fedora:~

1 Like
16

I think you have HW acceleration working, it’s just not showing the GPU because it doesn’t support Vulkan.

See this bug :

1 Like
17

See, I’ve never seen this application in my life, I do not experience your problem, but in case it’s not clear still, you can just type plasma renderer in the KDE app menu and it’s the top result, which I only know now thanks to a little digging.

18

Seems like it’s only useful to set thing for QtQuick: nothing related to the DE in general. I asked where to find it before actually looking for it because, not having seen anything of the like in the System Settings application, I was already thinking that the solution couldn’t be so simple.

But thank you very much.

19

After a bit of research it seems like it, thank you.

I ended up reinstalling Fedora 43 from scratch and the slowness was gone (at least for some days), meaning the problem was elsewhere. The stack seems okay too: OpenGL is doing hardware acceleration, for my iGPU Vulkan is not supported in Wayland nor in X11. This means I met a wall, but at least the problem is not as big as I thought.

1 Like