Video woes

[flarefox]

I have more than one issue with different forms of video things...so I'll post them both here. If you want me to split them into separate threads, I can.

 

I don't know if this has been pointed out before, but someone needs to look into the installer. It doesn't detect if the graphics card is one of the newer series of graphics cards by nvidia. The newest ones do not support the X.org "virtual" line, or I've had a LOT of problems with it that way and I've tried about 5 different versions of their newer cards (the ones that support real-time HDRI and the like). They have to use modes "sizeXxsizeY". It's frustrating to have to do a live init 3 and edit the xorg.config file to vesa driver before you can even begin installation. Afterwards, you have to setup the driver manually. I'm still having problems getting X to start at boot automagically. That I can deal with, but it has direct rendering disabled as well and I'm not sure how to get that working. I tried editing my xfconfig to with option "dri" but that didn't load it. I don't know what to do... Here's my XFconfig file and everything I've done to it:

 

 

 

Section "Monitor"

Identifier "monitor1"

VendorName "Plug'n Play"

ModelName "PL201M"

HorizSync 30.0 - 82.0

VertRefresh 50.0 - 75.0

ModeLine "768x576" 50.0 768 832 846 1000 576 590 595 630

ModeLine "768x576" 63.1 768 800 960 1024 576 578 590 616

EndSection

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig

# nvidia-xconfig: version 1.0 (buildmeister@builder3) Mon May 15 13:23:42 PDT 2006

 

# File generated by XFdrake.

# **********************************************************************

# Refer to the XF86Config man page for details about the format of

# this file.

# **********************************************************************

 

Section "ServerLayout"

Identifier "layout1"

InputDevice "Keyboard1" "CoreKeyboard"

InputDevice "Mouse1" "CorePointer"

Screen "screen1" 0 0

EndSection

 

Section "Files"

# Multiple FontPath entries are allowed (they are concatenated together)

# By default, Mandrake 6.0 and later now use a font server independent of

# the X server to render fonts.

FontPath "unix/:-1"

EndSection

 

Section "Module"

Load "dbe" # Double-Buffering Extension

Load "v4l" # Video for Linux

Load "extmod"

Load "type1"

Load "freetype"

Load "glx"

Load "dri"

EndSection

 

Section "ServerFlags"

#DontZap # disable <Crtl><Alt><BS> (server abort)

#DontZoom # disable <Crtl><Alt><KP_+>/<KP_-> (resolution switching)

 

# allows the server to start up even if the mouse does not work

Option "allowmouseopenfail"

EndSection

 

Section "InputDevice"

Identifier "Keyboard1"

Driver "keyboard"

Option "XkbModel" "pc105"

Option "XkbLayout" "en_US"

Option "XkbOptions" "compose:rwin"

EndSection

 

Section "InputDevice"

Identifier "Mouse1"

Driver "mouse"

Option "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2"

Option "Device" "/dev/mouse"

Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"

EndSection

 

Section "Device"

Identifier "device1"

VendorName "nVidia Corporation"

BoardName "NVIDIA GeForce 7 Series"

Driver "nvidia"

Option "DPMS"

Option "RenderAccel" "1"

Option "UseEdidFreqs" "1"

Option "EnablePageFlip" "true"

Option "NoBandWidthTest" "1"

Option "DigitalVibrance" "3"

Option "NvAGP" "3"

Screen 0

EndSection

 

Section "Screen"

Identifier "screen1"

Device "device1"

Monitor "monitor1"

DefaultColorDepth 24

 

Subsection "Display"

Depth 8

Modes "1600x1200"

EndSubsection

 

Subsection "Display"

Depth 15

Modes "1600x1200"

EndSubsection

 

Subsection "Display"

Depth 16

Modes "1600x1200"

EndSubsection

 

Subsection "Display"

Depth 24

Modes "1600x1200"

EndSubsection

# Option "DPMS"

EndSection

 

Anyone know what my problem is?

 

 

The other problem is with my tv tuner card. I have the firmware loaded and everything, but it still doesn't work. It's like DVB has been disabled in the kernel or something. I'm using kernel 2.6.16-1mkdsmp from MDE on a 64-bit machine (but I have it in 32-bit mode because there are way too many problems with 64-bit kernels to make it useable at this time). I have an ATI HDTV Wonder Pro. I tried getting it to work by custom compiling a kernel a while back. I got part of it to work, yes, but the rest, no. For its main analog TV tuner, there doesn't seem to be a module to load, but the ATSC HDTV tuner has a module. It is just not working right. I have the firmware and everything, but it's a no go.

the page I used to configure the whole thing is here: http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/ATI_HDTV_Wonder

When I do modprobes for video and all the required devices, it seems to work. I mean, dmesg says most of what it says in the how to on there, but there is no /dev/dvb directory. When I compiled my own kernel, it loaded the dvb just fine. Can anyone point me in the right direction to find out what the problem is and how to fix it?

[ianw1974]

If you have the kernel source as well from MDE, perhaps go to /usr/src/linux if it's pointing to the MDE kernel source, and then do a:

 

make menuconfig

 

make sure you can see all the kernel and kernel config files in /boot before doing this, as the above command will read the existing config for the running kernel (so make sure booted with 2.6.16 too). Then, check for the DVB options. If they are not enabled, you can enable them, and then go for a:

 

make && make modules_install && make install

 

this command will make the kernel, install the modules, and then create the relevant initrd, etc afterwards, install into /boot, and then modify your lilo/grub bootloader with a new menu entry I think. Unless it replaces the existing one.

[flarefox]

What about for the direct rendering video issues? Any ideas? I'll try recompiling the kernel like that. That honestly never occured to me. haha, thanks for that!

[ianw1974]

Unsure on that, as far as I remember though on my system with an NVIDIA Geforce TI 4400 I don't have the:

 

Load "dri"

 

in my config so maybe comment this out. But I'll have to check. Also, I heard that the:

 

Option "DPMS"

 

can also affect direct rendering, so maybe comment this out, and see if it helps. However, you'll lose power management for the monitor, but worth it just for a test. It may only affect in terms of speed performance.

 

Have you any error messages (EE) or warning (WW) from your xorg log file in /var/log to see if there is anything relating to direct rendering. Or have you anything you can provide from the console, eg:

 

glxinfo | grep direct

 

when running X to see if it's enabled. The errors and warnings can sometimes help me find out where the problem might be, in case it's wanting OpenGL libraries, like Mesa to be installed.

 

Also, check when X is running with an:

 

lsmod | grep nvidia

 

and see what it reports, if nothing, would suggest no module is being loaded. Or just a plain lsmod, to find out what links to agpgart.

[flarefox]

From what I've seen, DPMS is what gives you direct rendering with nvidia, but that was in 7676, so I'll look to see if anything changed in 8764.

 

Here's the output of all the things you told me to try, though:

[root@DeePC dee]# lsmod|grep nvidia

nvidia_agp 7004 0

nvidia 4530708 12

agpgart 27208 3 nvidia_agp,nvidia,amd64_agp

i2c_core 17728 12 nvidia,cx88_dvb,mt352,or51132,nxt200x,cx24123,lgdt330x,cx22702,tuner,cx88xx,i2c_

algo_bit,tveeprom

 

[root@DeePC dee]# glxinfo | grep direct

Xlib: extension "XFree86-DRI" missing on display ":0.0".

direct rendering: No

 

So, now my question becomes, how do I get the extention XFree86-DRI or the nvidia equivalent of it to load?

[ianw1974]

Nvidia uses glx, but of course would require that the opengl libraries are installed. Check the xorg log in /var/log and see if you have any errors (EE) or warnings (WW) relating to opengl driver loading problems.

[flarefox]

Nvidia uses glx, but of course would require that the opengl libraries are installed. Check the xorg log in /var/log and see if you have any errors (EE) or warnings (WW) relating to opengl driver loading problems.

 

Everything loads just fine. It looks to be perfect from the configuration I see in the log files, but when I try out cedega to test direct rendering as well as glxgears, direct rendering is disabled. It loads nv everything and seems to use 2d

 

(II) NVIDIA(0): Setting mode "1600x1200"

(II) Loading extension NV-GLX

(II) NVIDIA(0): NVIDIA 3D Acceleration Architecture Initialized

(II) NVIDIA(0): Using the NVIDIA 2D acceleration architecture

(==) NVIDIA(0): Backing store disabled

(==) NVIDIA(0): Silken mouse enabled

(**) Option "dpms"

(**) NVIDIA(0): DPMS enabled

(II) Loading extension NV-CONTROL

(WW) NVIDIA(0): Option "EnablePageFlip" is not used

(WW) NVIDIA(0): Option "DigitalVibrance" is not used

 

That's what is strange to me. I have nvidia installed, not NV. It does that by default when I install 2006. It uses nv instead of nvidia. Detects my card wrong. How do I force it to use nvidia-glx instead of nv-glx if there's a difference? Either that or just uninstall the nv driver alltogether. I tried checking if an rpm was installed, but it's not. The WW parts of that I don't think relate to what I'm using do they?

 

 

On the video HDTV card thing, too, I tried recompiling the kernel, but it errors out on this:

386/boot/bzImage System.map "/boot"

Looking for deps of module initramfs

Looking for deps of module sata_nv

libata

Looking for deps of module libata

Looking for deps of module sd_mod

No module sd_mod found for kernel 2.6.16-1mdkcustom, aborting.

mkinitrd failed:

(mkinitrd -v -f /boot/initrd-2.6.16-1mdkcustom.img --ifneeded 2.6.16-1mdkcustom)) at /usr/lib/libDrakX/bootloader.pm line 119.

make[1]: *** [install] Error 2

make: *** [install] Error 2

 

I tried looking for an sd_mod or something like it in there, but I dont' see it.

Edited July 3, 2006 by flarefox

[flarefox]

I got the HDTV card working. The mde kernel had dvb installed, but it wasn't loading for some reason. It just froze on loading the firmware, but when I redownloaded the firmware and tried it...looks like the 12th time's the charm! :D It works!

 

Still no dri, though. :(

[ianw1974]

Dunno if it'll work but you can also try uncommenting the:

 

Load "dri"

 

and then add this section somewhere unless it already exists:

 

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection

 

I've never required this for nvidia cards, but hey, it's worth a shot :P

[flarefox]

Even with that, every time I try I get the error:

Xlib: extension "XFree86-DRI" missing on display ":0.0".

 

And, it never let me add that section without crashing. :(

[ianw1974]

Have you got mesa installed? It's an opengl library:

 

urpmi Mesa

 

type it as I did above, it's case sensitive. Or, check if it's installed with:

 

rpm -qa | grep Mesa

[tyme]

Don't use any DRI with NVIDIA cards. If you have:

Load "dri"

comment it out. Also comment out:

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection

Neither of these are used if you are using the NVIDIA drivers and can cause problems. Now, looking at your xorg.conf:

Section "Device"
Identifier "device1"
VendorName "nVidia Corporation"
BoardName "NVIDIA GeForce 7 Series"
Driver "nvidia"
Option "DPMS"
Option "RenderAccel" "1"
Option "UseEdidFreqs" "1"
Option "EnablePageFlip" "true"
Option "NoBandWidthTest" "1"
Option "DigitalVibrance" "3"
Option "NvAGP" "3"
Screen 0
EndSection

Why do you have all these options? Specifically, why the RenderAccel? This is only useful if you are using Composite or XGL. I would remove it. Setting NvAGP to 3 is redundant, as that's the default. Also, remove the DPMS - this doesn't belong in the Device section, it belongs in the Screen section - and it has to do with power saving modes, not direct rendering. That is, I would suggest this:

Section "Device"
Identifier "device1"
VendorName "nVidia Corporation"
BoardName "NVIDIA GeForce 7 Series"
Driver "nvidia"
Option "UseEdidFreqs" "1"
Option "EnablePageFlip" "true"
Option "NoBandWidthTest" "1"
Option "DigitalVibrance" "3"
EndSection

Also, you shouldn't need mesa if the nvidia drivers are installed.

[flarefox]

I've been reading up on what I needed to do. The kernel that was on the cd didn't have direct rendering on it apparently and the kernel that I downloaded from mde didn't have it in the source so I couldn't compile it into the thing. I need to get drm and dri enabled and the drivers/modules that it needs, but I'm a newbie at compiling my own x.org. I'll probably just download an rpm and go to the last release. Or maybe my install was just faulty and it didn't install drm/dri? I also found that it should be in the kernel source. But, xfree86-dri was in neither the one on the core updates cd or the mde kernel I downloaded. Maybe it's looking for either a new or old one that isn't in there anymore because there's a better one now? In that case, I need to know how to load a specific one and override its defaults. Does anyone know how to do that or where to go to find out? The dri/drm web sites are lacking in instructions and just say, "The kernel should automatically do it for you."

Edited July 9, 2006 by flarefox

[flarefox]

Ok, so it seems that in both the kernel sources that I have for the stock kernel from the mandriva cds and the mde kernel have something done strange so that the nvidia kernel won't compile. I uninstalled the sources and reinstalled them and redownloaded and reinstalled and the nvidia kernel never compiles all the way. The last bit (I'm guessing GL libraries) always fail to compile. It says that the nvidia kernel module was unable to be completely compiled because my running kernel is not the same as the kernel source, yet they are the same. Everything else compiles, but not nvidia. I tried all versions from 7676 and up. None of them work. :( I'd go back to 2005 but I can't now because my motherboard is new and my hard drives are a new sata type that the others wouldn't recognize. :unsure:

[ianw1974]

Can you post the contents from this command:

 

uname -a
ls -l /usr/src

 

just so I can double check no symlinks are pointing to the wrong place.