New linux kernel, what do you think?

[simonced]

Hi all, I start this topic to share a problem really annoying i encounter.
All the last distros i try use new kernels 2.6.28. I have a strange video card on my laptop that's a i815 (plesase don't laugh).
I'm stuck with my distro and can't update some packages and especially the kernel.
I tryed the linux mint 7 and ubuntu 9.04 and the problems are the same.
The problem itself is not too big, just the blender interface is totally unusable.
I can run any other stuff normally (even compiz), but I don't want to stop using blender because of a kernel or driver messing arround with my video card.
I also had some problem with gimp and inkscape, even if they were usable.
Does anyone heard some things about it, or had and solved similar problems?

Why do I think the problem comes from the kernel? Because my last update on ubuntu made blender stop from working properly, I used then a previous version by the grub menu and it worked. I re-installed then all my system (thinking of an uncompatibility between 2 upgrades), but nothing worked better about blender, so is fedora core 11.
The only distro working well i found was linuxmint6. I tryed the live cd of the version 7 and the problem is still there.
I also tried all the x11 tweaks as described on the ubuntu info page (the stuff about DRI off and all...).

Thank you for your help.

[b0rland]

This might be completely unrelated to your problems, but it's a known fact that Ubuntu 9.04 (new xserver + 2.6.28 combined) don't really work well on intel video cards. You can read about that a lot on the web. Much of it can be fixed by upgrading to 2.6.30 (e.g. http://beranger.org/v3/wordpress/2009/05/04/jaunty-kernel-2630-fixes-the-intel-video/ and further links). Or you can consider switching to Karmic Koala. It's already mostly usable and I've seen live people who did that.

I'm among the unlucky ones too, but gladly I don't use the laptop much except for console stuff and reading emails. Since the laptop is mostly used for work, I didn't risk either of the possible fixes, so I can't give you first-hand info.

Hope this helps.

[simonced]

Seems interresting, I'll give it a try maybe.
Thanks for the info.