problem with ubuntu

Hi all

First of all, let me say I'm a newbie with Linux.

Just installed Ubuntu, and I have a weird problem with it. Every time I want to play a DivX file, the brightness of the LCD is automatically set to the lowest possible, and the file I'm playing has contrast at max, I mean the colors are too strong. When I open the same file again, it plays with completely normal contrast. So I have two instances of VLC player running the same file, the first I start is always with contrast maxed, the second is normal.
So in this situation, if I want to watch divx, I have to run the file twice and adjust the brightness of the LCD every time..
I tried to make a screenshot but at the screenshot the player with the corrupted image is blank?! I'm sorry can't explain it better, poor english.

P.S. I'll attach the screenshot anyway..

 

The first thing to check is video drivers...
Did you install them?

 

The driver was installed by default. Reinstalled it just in case. No change..

X.Org X server -- Intel i8xx, i9xx display driver
This package provides the driver for the Intel i8xx and i9xx family
of chipsets, including i810, i815, i830, i845, i855, i865, i915, i945
and i965 series chips.
ver. 2.2.2.1

EDIT: Restarted Ubuntu various times, and tried to play the divx files with MPlayer/SMPlayer/Movie Player, all players do the same thing.

 

I did that already

 

OK, so you're having a general system issue w/ video playback (could have something to do w/ drivers, codecs, etc....)

Do you have the following installed?

-> gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg
-> gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad
-> gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly

 

I don't have 'gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad' installed...I'll install it and report back.

EDIT: No change..

 

If you look at the screenshot, he's already playing the file w/ VLC...

 

Erm..What?

 

Oh, I was referring to someone's post, but I guess he deleted it... Does the problem still occur after installing all of those gstreamer plugins?

 

Yes. I had just one missing the 'bad' one. Installed it, no change.

 

Did you make sure to try the video w/ both mPlayer as well as VLC again? I actually had to install VLC for myself to further investigate into your problem (I use mPlayer for all my videos).... I don't know if this will help, but if you go to VLC, press Ctrl+G for the extended GUI, and then go over the settings in the "Video" tab, do you see any discrepancies b/t the normal video and the one w/ low contrast?

 

Yeah, I tried both players..

Nope, lowering the contrast didn't make it but when I lower the 'Saturation' it goes better..but still looking like a movie from the 50's...
Update: In my first post I said that running a divx file set the LCD brightness to the lowest level...Now it's in reverse. When I start a divx file the brightness of the LCD is automatically set to the max possible..Weird..
I guess I'll try to wipe out the hdd and install Ubuntu again..Although I don't think this will solve my problem because this installation is like 3 hours old..Hmm I wonder if the 220 upgrades I did when installed Ubuntu could've done this..Will reinstall tomorrow and report back...Thanks for your help so far

 

OK, go for the reinstall, BUT DON'T INSTALL THE UPDATES. Just go ahead and install VLC (w/ those gstreamer codecs too) and try the video files again. Glad I could help so far, but I'd really like to see this through...

 

Ubuntu reinstalled. I didn't install the updates. DivX files are played ok now, but the problem with the autoset lowest brightness of LCD persist..

Edit: I installed the Ubuntu updates just now, no sign of the corrupted picture problem..but the brightness problem persist. Actually, the brightness is changing when I just start any video player. If I start the player, adjust the brightness let say at medium, when I close the player, the brightness is lowered again. Another thing with the stupid brightness: Ubuntu ALWAYS starts with the LCD brightness set to the lowest possible.

 

umm.. dont have a solution for you (*sorry*).. but i'm thinking this is a specific hardware problem.. quite a few acer notebooks have been facing this same problem.. have you tried searching in the ubuntu forums?

heres something i found. dont knw if it may help. - Link

 

Yeah, editing the blacklist seems to fixed it, thanks. One minor problem though, the fix disabled the LCD brightness OSD info, but I guess I can live without it..

 

I might have to give up and try another distro..Last night I had to reinstall Ubuntu again(I messed up something), and this video problem is back. I reinstalled Ubuntu like..5 more times and no luck, the video is always screwed. I found a partial solution - change the 'Output Video Driver' in any player from xv(set by default) to x11. It fix the colors but with this driver I can't resize the video(no full screen, no aspect-ratio changes).
So I'm kinda hopeless now and tired of reinstalling Ubuntu. It seems like it's this damn laptop's fault, because I had Ubuntu installed on my Asus Z94L 2 months ago, had no such problems..
But, now that I think of, if it's a (video) driver related problem, I'll have this problem with any distro right?

Edit: I suppose this has nothing to do with the previous problem but something is not right at all, Ubuntu is freezing more than Windows here, can't restart X, I have to force power off. It's a fresh install, maybe 3 hours old. I have mouse movement but can't click on anything, the keyboard doesn't respond.

 

wow... sorry you'v faced so many problems..

 

Yeah well..there is nothing I can do but install another distro
I just installed Linux Mint, no brightness problem here, but the video problem is still present.

 

Correct. This is a known problem. Using the Intel GPU, (like the GMA X3100 in your laptop), with Compiz, or Compiz-Fusion, is problematic especially when it comes to playing videos. Some folks are looking for fixes in updated drivers from Intel. (Intel develops the open source Linux drivers for their video hardware)

The only thing you can try, if you want to continue using Compiz/Compiz-Fusion, is the following;

1) Make sure you are not using XGL, the X3100 GPU works with AIGLX

2) Perform the following command in a terminal window as your user account, (not as root or super user);

Code:

mkdir -p ~/.config/compiz/ && echo SKIP_CHECKS=yes >> ~/.config/compiz/compiz-manager

3) Reboot

You can read here, that the Intel GPU hardware is blacklisted from the Compiz-Fusion developers, and it explains this workaround. I don't think changing distros will help you much.

Good Luck..

 

Thank you for your detailed response. I knew that x3100 will screw me up again...

1. Not using XGL, checked
2. Done
3. Done.

No change..

I know about the open source Linux drivers, but I can't install them. I get this error:

Code:

/usr/include/GL/glxint.h:95: error: expected specifier-qualifier-list before ‘GLboolean’

I don't know how to pass through this error, I did a bit of research around but I got nothing..

 

Building the Intel drivers from the latest sources is pretty complex. Kudos for trying. Intel has some pretty sparse instructions for doing it here, which I assume you to be following. I've never done it so I can't help much, although I'm sure there are forums on the net with people who have, like maybe this one at Phoronix, or you could consider the [email protected] mailing list.

In regards to your error, you're probably missing some mesa headers files. You can look for a package called something like mesa-libGL-devel or mesa-devel for your distro, and try installing that to see if it gets you past that error. You may end up with another, and have to hunt until you get all of the components necessary to build the driver from scratch. However, once you've done all that, it still may not fix your problem.

As a last simpler step, if you tried seeing if these problems exist without running Compiz/Compiz-Fusion, and they don't, you may want to consider living with Linux without Compiz, until Intel releases driver updates, and then they get fed into the normal Linux distribution frameworks. It may even require an update to Compiz/Compiz-Fusion as well.

Anyway, it sounds like you know everything that anyone else can tell you about this. If it helps at all, in principle I really like Intel building GPUs that they go ahead and build open source drivers for, ATI as well. I seriously considered getting an Intel GPU equipped laptop, the last time I bought one. The downside of course is that these driver development efforts by Intel and ATI, are much younger than say nVidia's, and these kinds of problems are bound to occur until they get a bit older. Hang in there.

Good Luck..

 

Fixed!

Man I'm so stupid. Linux Mint and Ubuntu installs xserver-xorg-video-intel 2.2.2.1. And I found xserver-xorg-video-intel 2.3.2.2 here listed as unstable but got fixed all my problems so far!
Damn it, I'm sure I've seen this package before, don't know why I didn't give it a shot..

I want to thank you again @jas you've been most helpful.

 

Isn't that in hardy proposed? You could have just enabled the hardy proposed repo's and you would have gotten it.

 

I didn't know that... 3 days with linux so far so still learning...and still a newbie Good to know though thank you.

Note: 2.3.2.2 will crash the system randomly if any visual effects are enabled.

 

Ah, i didn't know you were a newbie at this. I didn't notice.

 

Thanks

 

it's entirely my fault for not reading the "Hi all

First of all, let me say I'm a newbie with Linux. " part of the first post.

 

Glad you got your problem fixed gates.... if you've got any more issues, just post 'em here