I installed the latest Mint Linux on the Compulab z510, and I have some observations about it. I think that running a video benchmark using its xf86 system can burn out the sound chip, only a suspicion. At any rate, if you read Xorg.0.log, you discover that the Mint designers found a way to use modesetting.so and vesa.so to get around the gma500_gfx kernel module completely. In other words, /dev/fb0 and /dev/dri are there, but not in use. Instead, if you dislike the resolution in use, you use the "Appearance" app to change to, say, 1440x900 without any command line interaction that the use of fbdev_drv.so would call for.
The consequence of doing this is that streaming video on the z510 is very poor, even in partial-screen mode, and, although the Peacekeeper Benchmark score remains roughly the same as for other distributions, the actual performance is poor. And, as I mentioned, things heat up.
Another thing revealed in Xorg.0.log is that the "pre-configured xorg.conf" calls for psb_drv and fbdev_drv, both of which are not in the installation and can't be gotten using the software packages manager. Maybe I could use the fbdev_drv.so source code and get it to work on the system, haven't tried to. I did manage to download a precompiled .rpm version of psb_drv and test it on RIP. Since it wasn't compiled for the RIP version of xf86, it ran in "debug" mode and might actually have done something except it did not know how to communicate with the vga/hdmi setup on the fit-pc2. Some enthusiast in Israel might see about finding any more evolved versions of psb_drv. At any rate, the Ubuntu people decided that the ppa in charge of developing this graphics driver was "untrustworthy" and closed it down. Which brings us to the question of why the folks at Mint Central set up the latest Mint to use, but not use, psb_drv. There is an old saying in the US state of Texas: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." I think that applies here.
I think that Mint Maya Plisetskaya is still probably the best bet for the z5xx series of Compulab computers. Followed by Slackware-Current and RIP with fbdev.
As for Windows 8, it installs with roughly 500 megabytes of ram to spare for the z510 on first run, then goes down to 100 megabytes to spare when the gma500 graphics driver is installed (successfully). If you turn off Windows Update and run Windows Defender to get it shut off, all the background activity that keeps CPU usage at 99% slowly shuts off, but it takes hours of run Time to get to where it runs at 58% or whatever. And, if you uninstall the gma500 driver, the spare memory available does not change.
Latest version of Mint on the z510
Jump to
- Announcements
- ↳ Read me first
- ↳ News
- ↳ Ordering
- Tensor-PC
- ↳ General Tensor-PC questions
- ↳ Tensor-PC Hardware
- ↳ Tensor-PC Software
- fitlet3
- ↳ General fitlet3 questions
- ↳ fitlet3 hardware
- ↳ fitlet3 software
- ↳ fitlet3 FACET Cards
- Airtop3
- ↳ General Airtop3 questions
- ↳ Airtop3 Hardware
- ↳ Airtop3 Software
- ↳ Airtop3 I3M
- fitlet2 and MBM2
- ↳ General fitlet2 questions
- ↳ fitlet2 hardware
- ↳ fitlet2 software
- ↳ fitlet2 FACET Cards
- ↳ Cool stuff with fitlet2
- Airtop2
- ↳ General Airtop2 questions
- ↳ Airtop2 Software
- ↳ Airtop2 Hardware
- ↳ Airtop2 I3M
- Mature products
- ↳ Airtop
- ↳ General Airtop questions
- ↳ I3M
- ↳ IPC2 (Intense PC2)
- ↳ General IPC2 questions
- ↳ IPC2 availability
- ↳ IPC2 Hardware
- ↳ Linux on IPC2
- ↳ Windows on IPC2
- ↳ Other operating systems on IPC2
- ↳ IPC2 BIOS
- ↳ IPC2 faults and troubleshooting
- ↳ Intense PC and MintBox 2
- ↳ General Intense PC questions
- ↳ Intense PC hardware
- ↳ CPU & Chipset
- ↳ Display interface
- ↳ Memory
- ↳ Storage
- ↳ Ethernet
- ↳ WLAN and miniPCI-e
- ↳ Audio
- ↳ USB
- ↳ Power and heat
- ↳ Linux on Intense PC
- ↳ Linux Mint
- ↳ Other distributions
- ↳ Windows on Intense PC
- ↳ Win7 on Intense PC
- ↳ Win8 on Intense PC
- ↳ Audio
- ↳ Intense PC BIOS
- ↳ Android on Intense PC
- ↳ Intense PC faults and troubleshooting
- ↳ fitlet and MintBox Mini
- ↳ General fitlet questions
- ↳ fitlet performance
- ↳ fitlet hardware
- ↳ Memory
- ↳ Storage
- ↳ Power and heat
- ↳ Mechanical
- ↳ fitlet BIOS
- ↳ Linux on MintBox Mini / Linux on fitlet
- ↳ Windows on fitlet
- ↳ Other operating systems on fitlet
- ↳ FACET Cards
- ↳ fitlet compatible devices
- ↳ Cool stuff with fitlet
- ↳ fitlet faults and troubleshooting
- ↳ fit-PC4
- ↳ General fit-PC4 questions
- ↳ fit-PC4 hardware
- ↳ Windows on fit-PC4
- ↳ Linux on fit-PC4
- ↳ Other operating systems on fit-PC4
- ↳ fit-PC4 BIOS
- ↳ fit-PC4 faults and troubleshooting
- ↳ fit-PC3
- ↳ General fit-PC3 questions
- ↳ fit-PC3 hardware
- ↳ Display interface
- ↳ Storage
- ↳ Audio
- ↳ WLAN and miniPCI-e
- ↳ USB
- ↳ Power and Heat
- ↳ Ethernet
- ↳ Windows on fit-PC3
- ↳ Linux on fit-PC3
- ↳ Other operating systems on fit-PC3
- ↳ fit-PC3 BIOS
- ↳ fit-PC3 accessories
- ↳ Using fit-PC3
- ↳ fit-PC3 faults and troubleshooting
- ↳ fit-PC2
- ↳ General fit-PC2 questions
- ↳ Buying fit-PC2
- ↳ Linux on fit-PC2
- ↳ Linux Mint
- ↳ Ubuntu 9.10
- ↳ Ubuntu 10.04
- ↳ Ubuntu 10.10
- ↳ Ubuntu 11.04
- ↳ Other Linux distributions
- ↳ Ubuntu 8.04
- ↳ Ubuntu 9.04
- ↳ Display driver
- ↳ Multimedia in Linux
- ↳ Multimedia in Mint
- ↳ Windows on fit-PC2
- ↳ Windows 7
- ↳ Windows 7 display driver
- ↳ Audio in Win7
- ↳ Windows XP
- ↳ XP installation
- ↳ Display driver
- ↳ Video playback
- ↳ Audio in XP
- ↳ Other Windows versions
- ↳ Other operating systems on fit-PC2
- ↳ FreeBSD
- ↳ fit-PC2 hardware
- ↳ fit-PC2i hardware
- ↳ Display interface
- ↳ Storage
- ↳ Audio
- ↳ WLAN and miniPCI-e
- ↳ USB
- ↳ Auto-ON
- ↳ Power and Heat
- ↳ Ethernet
- ↳ RTC & System clock
- ↳ fit-PC2 BIOS
- ↳ BIOS updates fit-PC2
- ↳ BIOS updates fit-PC2i
- ↳ fit-PC2 accessories
- ↳ Using fit-PC2
- ↳ HTPC
- ↳ Server
- ↳ Control
- ↳ Verified displays
- ↳ Car PC
- ↳ fit-PC1 questions
- ↳ fit-PC Slim questions
- ↳ uSVR
- ↳ General uSVR questions
- ↳ IPC3
- ↳ General IPC3 questions
- ↳ IPC3 Software
- ↳ IPC3 Hardware
- ↳ FACE modules
- ↳ FACE Modules
- ↳ General FACE Module questions
- Compulab accessories
- ↳ fit-Headless and fit-Headless 4K
- ↳ fit-Uptime
- ↳ fit-statUSB
- ECN/PCN
- ↳ fitlet3 ECN/PCN
- ↳ Tensor-I20 ECN/PCN
- ↳ Tensor-I22 ECN/PCN
- ↳ fitlet2 ECN/PCN
- ↳ Airtop3 ECN/PCN
- ↳ IPC3 ECN
- ↳ fitlet1 ECN
- ↳ IPC2 ECN
- ↳ IPC1 ECN
- ↳ Airtop2 ECN
- ↳ Airtop1 ECN
- ↳ fit-PC4 ECN
- ↳ fit-PC3 ECN
- ↳ fit-PC2 ECN
- ↳ FACE Modules ECN
- ↳ FACET Cards ECN
- Wish list
- ↳ Addressed requests