OS recommendation for pinebook?
#1
Hi,

I just received my new pinebook (it is a "1080P Pinebook"), and I am trying to setup an usable OS...
The OS that comes pre-installed on the pinebook (KDE plasma something) does not seem to be too usable (the graphical interface is soooo slow... When I click something with the mouse, the corresponding window needs some seconds to open --- does this "KDE plasma" use the GPU?).

So, I am wondering if anyone has any advice on better distributions to install (I plan to use the pinebook for presenting some slides and reading emails, so I need a working graphical interface, a working HDMI output, and working network). Or some configuration I can use to make the pre-installed KDE plasma faster...

What do people generally use?

Before asking, I tried some options, but I had no luck:
1) I see that when I login I can select a KDE plasma session based on wayland... I tried it, and the system froze (I had to reboot)
2) I see that this KDE plasma is really a modified version of ubuntu, so I tried "sudo apt-get install xfce4" and I started an xfce session... This is much faster (really usable, I'd say), but I lost the network connection (looks like the xfce session is not starting network-manager, or whatever is needed to connect to wifi). I tried to install wicd, but it is not able to connect to the network.


Any suggestions?


Thanks,
Luca
#2
(05-30-2019, 06:54 AM)lucabe72 Wrote: ...When I click something with the mouse, the corresponding window needs some seconds to open --- does this "KDE plasma" use the GPU?).

On my pinebook 1080p with KDE neon, the plasma used software rendering (XRenderer) in compositor. I experienced a slight performance boost, by setting rendering to OpenGL 3.1 in compositor settings.
#3
(05-30-2019, 09:27 AM)jezek Wrote:
(05-30-2019, 06:54 AM)lucabe72 Wrote: ...When I click something with the mouse, the corresponding window needs some seconds to open --- does this "KDE plasma" use the GPU?).

On my pinebook 1080p with KDE neon, the plasma used software rendering (XRenderer) in compositor. I experienced a slight performance boost, by setting rendering to OpenGL 3.1 in compositor settings.

Thanks for the hint!
I'll test the OpenGL 3.1 rendering today.

Is this setup (KDE plasma with OpenGL 3.1 rendering) something you recommend? (or do you think there are better options?)

Thanks,
Luca
#4
(05-31-2019, 04:09 AM)lucabe72 Wrote: Is this setup (KDE plasma with OpenGL 3.1 rendering) something you recommend? (or do you think there are better options?)[/color]

I've fast tested some other images. Didn't do any serious fixing attempts, just to see, what you get out of the box.

I tried a couple of ayufan's images. They are faster than KDE neon, but I couldn't make hw acceleration work.

The DietPi image is the fastest among these tested images, but I failed to make internet connection work for my router (WPA2), so I didn't even bother to see if hw acceleration works.

The Manjaro KDE and LXQT versions are lacking hw acceleration support too.

Now I'm on latest KDE neon image, here (and also on the default shipped version) GPU acceleration is somehow working. I also managed to set up MPV player, to use video GPU acceleration using vdpau, but currently without OSD support, so no subtitles or GUI playback elements (this I have to try to make work yet). Sadly the video cannot be currently accelerated in browsers, so in firefox I use send to SMplayer plugin, to open HTML5 video streams in MPV player.
#5
(05-31-2019, 09:00 AM)jezek Wrote: The Manjaro KDE and LXQT versions are lacking hw acceleration support too.

Are you sure about that? I know that it says "No?" in the Pinebook 11,6" 1080p OS table but that one hasn't been updated since December 2018.

What could possibly be the reason that KDE Neon supports GPU acceleration and Manjaro KDE not?
#6
(06-21-2019, 03:24 AM)SKG Wrote:
(05-31-2019, 09:00 AM)jezek Wrote: The Manjaro KDE and LXQT versions are lacking hw acceleration support too.

Are you sure about that? I know that it says "No?" in the Pinebook 11,6" 1080p OS table but that one hasn't been updated since December 2018.

What could possibly be the reason that KDE Neon supports GPU acceleration and Manjaro KDE not?

I have tried them, used some test videos and could not get it to work. I do not know the reason why, I am talking about my "out of box" experience. Maybe there is a way, how to make it work, but I could not. Although there is some small probability I did something wrong. ;D


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