Intel Video troubleshooting/performance improvement link

[marcopl]

Re: Intel Video troubleshooting/performance improvement link

"ok. i have made fixmtrr.sh executable but it still cant write to /proc/mtrr?"

I don't run mine manually, no need really.

1. Navigate to System Settings/Advanced/Autostart
2. Click Add Script and make sure create symbolic link is checked in the dialog
4. Select the fixmtrr.sh script in /usr/local/bin if that's where you saved it.
3. Select Run On Startup

The steps above -exactly what i have done but...cant get 'write combining' due to that permission error.

[marcopl]

Re: Intel Video troubleshooting/performance improvement link

Not on version 4.2.4. It might be worth it to run a test. I was wondering the same thing about the the user running the startkde process. I never ran it manually when I optimized. I just discovered my mtrr (intel 965GM) is correct and did not require the script to execute. It was never updating /proc/mtrr so I never hit the permission problem. If it proves not to work, create a new group on your system, change the group ownership on /proc/mtrr to the new group you created (sudo chown root:newgroup /proc/mtrr), make the file writable for the new group (sudo chmod 664 /proc/mtrr), then add your user to the new group. That should fix any KDE Autostart issues with permissions.

can i just chown /proc/mtrr to my user name? any issues?

[ukchucktown]

Re: Intel Video troubleshooting/performance improvement link

Even easier, just do sudo chmod 666 /proc/mtrr. I generally don't advocate making OS files writable to the world but it won't really hurt anything in this case.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Intel Video troubleshooting/performance improvement link

I wouldn't recommend doing that. It makes /proc/mtrr readable and writable by everyone.

If the steps given for installing fixmrtt.sh have been followed correctly and doing

sudo /usr/local/bin/fixmtrr.sh

does not give the correct results then the problem lies elsewhere.

[ukchucktown]

Re: Intel Video troubleshooting/performance improvement link

Yes, as a general rule I agree making OS files writable to the world is not a good idea but in this case, what's the harm? Is it bad practice, sure, but not a big deal if it's his personal machine.

He wants to run the script as part of KDE Autostart. If the script actually updates the file it won't work without a wrapper script that does sudo (running sudo without a terminal will require changes to the /etc/sudoers file) or changes to permissions/group on /proc/mtrr. The right way is changing the group, adding write for the group on /proc/mtrr and adding your user to the new group. The lazy programmers way is chmod 666 /proc/mtrr.

[marcopl]

Re: Intel Video troubleshooting/performance improvement link

I wouldn't recommend doing that. It makes /proc/mtrr readable and writable by everyone.

If the steps given for installing fixmrtt.sh have been followed correctly and doing

sudo /usr/local/bin/fixmtrr.sh

does not give the correct results then the problem lies elsewhere.

greygeek , u must have misread one of my posts. when i execute manually using 'sudo /usr/local/bin/fixmtrr.sh' i can get the 'write-combining' line. its when i run it thru kde autostart that i dont get that line. when i execute './fixmtrr.sh' , i get the permission denied thing shown below;

./fixmtrr.sh: 43: cannot create /proc/mtrr: Permission denied
reg00: base=0x000000000 ( 0MB), size= 2048MB, count=1: write-back
reg01: base=0x080000000 ( 2048MB), size= 1024MB, count=1: write-back
reg02: base=0x0fff00000 ( 4095MB), size= 1MB, count=1: write-protect
reg03: base=0x0bc000000 ( 3008MB), size= 64MB, count=1: uncachable
reg04: base=0x0bbc00000 ( 3004MB), size= 4MB, count=1: uncachable

when its executed with sudo;

Supplying corrected MTRR ranges to /proc/mtrr
success
reg00: base=0x000000000 ( 0MB), size= 2048MB, count=1: write-back
reg01: base=0x080000000 ( 2048MB), size= 1024MB, count=1: write-back
reg02: base=0x0fff00000 ( 4095MB), size= 1MB, count=1: write-protect
reg03: base=0x0bc000000 ( 3008MB), size= 64MB, count=1: uncachable
reg04: base=0x0bbc00000 ( 3004MB), size= 4MB, count=1: uncachable
reg05: base=0x0c0000000 ( 3072MB), size= 256MB, count=1: write-combining

whereby i get the write-combining line.

[marcopl]

Re: Intel Video troubleshooting/performance improvement link

Yes, as a general rule I agree making OS files writable to the world is not a good idea but in this case, what's the harm? Is it bad practice, sure, but not a big deal if it's his personal machine.

He wants to run the script as part of KDE Autostart. If the script actually updates the file it won't work without a wrapper script that does sudo (running sudo without a terminal will require changes to the /etc/sudoers file) or changes to permissions/group on /proc/mtrr. The right way is changing the group, adding write for the group on /proc/mtrr and adding your user to the new group. The lazy programmers way is chmod 666 /proc/mtrr.

i have changed the ownership/group of /proc/mtrr to root.myusername and set the mod to 664. lets see what happens now....

[marcopl]

Re: Intel Video troubleshooting/performance improvement link

i have changed the ownership/group of /proc/mtrr to root.myusername and set the mod to 664. lets see what happens now....

hei..a little odd... after reboot, the ownership changed back...

ls -al /proc/mtrr
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 2009-07-19 11:06 /proc/mtrr

in a distro like mandriva, there is a program called msec that changes file permissions back to 'secure' levels ( even though the use has changed it to something else.)

Is there something similar in kubuntu?

[lmilano]

Re: Intel Video troubleshooting/performance improvement link

Ok, let's get this over with

I would just write a script (in your home directory), and call it run_fixmtrr.sh. As contents, just use

#!/bin/bash
kdesudo /the/path/to/fixmttr.sh

(of course replace the proper path )Then you add it to autologin. This will popup the KDE authetication for sudo at login, you enter your password and this is run. That easy. If you don't want to enter a password, simply install GDM (as I did), follow the instructions from the original post and you are done. Life is too short to get stuck with this

[marcopl]

Re: Intel Video troubleshooting/performance improvement link

Ok, let's get this over with

I would just write a script (in your home directory), and call it run_fixmtrr.sh. As contents, just use

#!/bin/bash
kdesudo /the/path/to/fixmttr.sh

(of course replace the proper path )Then you add it to autologin. This will popup the KDE authetication for sudo at login, you enter your password and this is run. That easy. If you don't want to enter a password, simply install GDM (as I did), follow the instructions from the original post and you are done. Life is too short to get stuck with this

i rather install gdm. what's the impact of having gdm? in kubuntu JJ , we are using KDM right?
also , i know where is autostart but dont really know where is autologin... so gdm is my choice right now...

[lmilano]

Re: Intel Video troubleshooting/performance improvement link

(ha, I meant to say Autostart, no Autologin)

No issue with using GDM. When you install it it will ask whether you want to use KDM or GDM, just select GDM. You can customize it with "kdesudo gdmsetup".

Tip: do not uninstall KDM, as it will crash when you logout- Install GDM side by side and reboot

[tnorris]

Re: Intel Video troubleshooting/performance improvement link

I don't know why this didn't occur to me before when we were discussing this but if you just make sure the fixmtrr.sh script is owned by root and then make it suid then it can be run using kde autostart and it will have write access to /proc/mtrr (since the script will run as root).

For those that aren't clear what I mean, you can do:

sudo chown root /usr/local/bin/fixmtrr.sh
sudo chgrp root /usr/local/bin/fixmtrr.sh
sudo chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/fixmtrr.sh
sudo chmod u+s /usr/local/bin/fixmtrr.sh

I think I prefer this solution. It's not quite as secure as doing the sudo every time you login, but it's better than making /proc/mtrr group writable.

[marcopl]

Re: Intel Video troubleshooting/performance improvement link

I don't know why this didn't occur to me before when we were discussing this but if you just make sure the fixmtrr.sh script is owned by root and then make it suid then it can be run using kde autostart and it will have write access to /proc/mtrr (since the script will run as root).

For those that aren't clear what I mean, you can do:

sudo chown root /usr/local/bin/fixmtrr.sh
sudo chgrp root /usr/local/bin/fixmtrr.sh
sudo chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/fixmtrr.sh
sudo chmod u+s /usr/local/bin/fixmtrr.sh

I think I prefer this solution. It's not quite as secure as doing the sudo every time you login, but it's better than making /proc/mtrr group writable.

ok. lets try this ( i did not try the gdm thingy ). lets see what happens.

[tnorris]

Re: Intel Video troubleshooting/performance improvement link

I don't know why this didn't occur to me before when we were discussing this but if you just make sure the fixmtrr.sh script is owned by root and then make it suid then it can be run using kde autostart and it will have write access to /proc/mtrr (since the script will run as root).

For those that aren't clear what I mean, you can do:

sudo chown root /usr/local/bin/fixmtrr.sh
sudo chgrp root /usr/local/bin/fixmtrr.sh
sudo chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/fixmtrr.sh
sudo chmod u+s /usr/local/bin/fixmtrr.sh

I think I prefer this solution. It's not quite as secure as doing the sudo every time you login, but it's better than making /proc/mtrr group writable.

ok. lets try this ( i did not try the gdm thingy ). lets see what happens.

Ugh. nevermind. It appears ubuntu (and most other distros) ignores setuid permissions on shell scripts...

[GreyGeek]

Re: Intel Video troubleshooting/performance improvement link

All I did was copy fixmtrr.sh from my download directory to /usr/local/bin using "kdesudo Dolphin" and then right mouse on it and click the "Properties" option from the dialog that popped up. Then I clicked on the Permissions tab in that dialog, and on it I checked the execute checkbox.

Then I opened KMenu --> System --> System settings. On that dialog I chose the "Advanced" tab. Under it I clicked on the "AutoStart" Icon. On it's dialog I clicked on the "Add Script" button and then browsed to /usr/local/bin/fixmtrr.sh and selected it. On the combo box to the right of the script file I selected I selected "Pre-KDE startup".

No problems.