This guide is for people getting stuttery or jerky playback of videos, full screen or not, using Ubunutu 14.x or derivatives ( Linux Mint 17.x etc ) and using an AMD video card

Firstly make sure you are using the propriety drivers:

sudo apt-get install fglrx-updates fglrx-amdcccle-updates

and reboot

Install vainfo:

sudo apt-get install vainfo

Now look at the vainfo output, it will probably look like:


# sudo vainfo
error: XDG_RUNTIME_DIR not set in the environment.
libva info: VA-API version 0.35.0
libva info: va_getDriverName() returns 0
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/fglrx_drv_video.so
libva info: va_openDriver() returns -1
vaInitialize failed with error code -1 (unknown libva error),exit


So your missing the link to the acceleration driver. Do:

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libXvBAW.so.1.0 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/fglrx_drv_video.so

Now your vainfo should look like:


# sudo vainfo
error: XDG_RUNTIME_DIR not set in the environment.
libva info: VA-API version 0.35.0
libva info: va_getDriverName() returns 0
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/fglrx_drv_video.so
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_0_33
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0
vainfo: VA-API version: 0.35 (libva 1.3.0)
vainfo: Driver version: AMD MMD 1.0
vainfo: Supported profile and entrypoints
VAProfileMPEG2Simple : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileMPEG2Main : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileMPEG4Simple : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileMPEG4AdvancedSimple : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileMPEG4Main : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileH264Baseline : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileH264Main : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileH264High : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileVC1Simple : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileVC1Main : VAEntrypointVLD
VAProfileVC1Advanced : VAEntrypointVLD


Your all set. Video should now play smoothly. IF your still experiencing poor video and you are using Totem player – read on.

I don’t find Totem enough for my needs as a video player so I suggest installing mplayer/smplayer:

sudo apt-get install mplayer smplayer

You can make this your default player for video files from the right click menu of any of your videos.

Some also prefer VLC player.

Seems Centos (thus RH) have changed the way things work slightly. Especially if you have multiple interfaces (NIC’s).

If your having problems with VPN not forwarding correctly, or your openVPN stopped working since updating from Centos 5, then this will most likely be what your looking for.

nano /etc/sysctl.conf

change

net.ipv4.conf.default.rp_filter = 1

to

net.ipv4.conf.default.rp_filter = 2

now reboot and enjoy.

BaDboD

This mainly applies to 970 chipset mainboards, so your mileage may vary.

Symptom, no USB 3 , or Network, or USB 2 using Ubutnu 14.04 (actually from 12.04 up) 64 bit editions. As this is a kernel problem this should affect most 64 bit linux distros, not just Ubuntu.

There seems to be a problem with all recent 64 bit linux distros and 970 chipset mainboards.

There are 3 options.

1) Use a 32 bit distro.

2) In your BIOS enable IOMMU. This will fix your network and USB 2. You probably wont have USB 3 though 🙁

3) Enable IOMMU in BIOS and add iommu=soft to your grub config. This gets rid of the stream of warnings you get at boot with IOMMU enabled in BIOS. USBB 3 should work too.

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

Change the line

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

to:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash iommu=soft"

Then do

sudo update-grub

and reboot.

This should make the USB 2 and 3 work as well as networking.

Let me know what chipsets/mainboards this helped you with.

[updated]
Changed option 3 as noted by Anthony Barnett. Many hanks for the feedback Anthony.
[/updated]

BaDboD