G400 & Yoper Linux

[englishpremier]

I dual boot with win xp and Yoper linux. I have down loaded the linux drivers and powerdesk from the matrox site and read the instructions on installation very carefully.

I can extract the drivers but when trying installing them it says they will not run on this version of xfree86.

With PowerDesk, i can install it but it will not run stating that XF86Config-4 is not a valid configuration file.

Does any know of or can anyone provide a complete guide to installing this in Yoper please?

[englishpremier]

Come on someone must be running a Matrox G400 under linux

[albatorsk]

First of all; please refrain from using the Power Desk for Linux. It's severly outdated, and frankly, I don't know why Matrox is still carrying it on their website.

Secondly; can you please check what X server Yoper is using by issuing the command "X -version". When you've done that, please post your xorg.conf or XF86Config here and I'll see if I can spot any errors.

[Ribbit]

If Yoper is already using a G400 driver, then there's no point in using the Matrox drivers - they're exactly the same as the XFree86/X.org drivers (in fact they're probably older).

[englishpremier]

Ok here is the version data:

XFree86 Version 4.3.99.902 (4.4.0 RC 2)
Release Date: 29 February 2004
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0, Release 6.6
Build Operating System: Linux 2.6.7-smp5 i686 [ELF]
Current Operating System: Linux linux 2.6.8.1-3 #1 SMP Wed Aug 25 11:18:30 Pacific/Auckland 2004 i686
Build Date: 07 August 2004
Changelog Date: 29 February 2004
Before reporting problems, check http://www.XFree86.Org/
to make sure that you have the latest version.
Module Loader present

Here is my XF86Config, its quite long so i'll just post the stuff starting from screen:

Section "Monitor"
Option "CalcAlgorithm" "CheckDesktopGeometry"
HorizSync 30-65
Identifier "Monitor[0]"
ModelName "GT770"
VendorName "VIEWSONIC"
VertRefresh 50-120
UseModes "Modes[0]"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
HorizSync 29-32
Identifier "Monitor[1]"
ModelName "Unknown"
VendorName "Unknown"
VertRefresh 50-62
UseModes "Modes[1]"
EndSection

Section "Modes"
Identifier "Modes[0]"
Modeline "1024x768" 78.80 1024 1048 1144 1312 768 769 772 800
EndSection

Section "Modes"
Identifier "Modes[1]"
Modeline "640x480" 23.86 640 656 720 800 480 481 484 497
EndSection

Section "Screen"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 32
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
Device "Device[0]"
Identifier "Screen[0]"
Monitor "Monitor[0]"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 32
Modes "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "640x480"
EndSubSection
Device "Device[1]"
Identifier "Screen[1]"
Monitor "Monitor[1]"
EndSection

Section "Device"
BoardName "MGA G400 AGP"
BusID "3:0:0"
Driver "mga"
Identifier "Device[0]"
Screen 0
VendorName "Matrox"
EndSection

Section "Device"
BoardName "MGA G400 AGP"
BusID "3:0:0"
Driver "mga"
Identifier "Device[1]"
Screen 1
VendorName "Matrox"
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout[all]"
InputDevice "Keyboard[0]" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse[1]" "CorePointer"
Option "Clone" "off"
Option "Xinerama" "off"
Screen "Screen[0]"
Screen "Screen[1]" RightOf "Screen[0]"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Group "video"
Mode 0660
EndSection

[Ribbit]

Is your reason for wanting the Matrox drivers that you want to use both heads? If that's the case, just copy the mgahal_drv.o file (I forget the exact name, but it's got "hal" in it) from the Matrox package to /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/. That's all you should need.

[englishpremier]

yes the only reason i want this is so i can out put in RGB scart to my TV. Will copying this work then.. I'll try it now in a minute.

After doing that how do i enable TV out and also change the mode i.e clone, extend desktop etc...

I did that and tried using SAX-2 display setup to set up TV out, but its done absplutly nothing at all.

Is there anyone out there using linux and running a G400 outputting a picture to a TV via RGB Scart?????

[albatorsk]

[i]Is there anyone out there using linux and running a G400 outputting a picture to a TV via RGB Scart????? [/B]

I do, but just for watching movies, not for doing "actual work" For that, I don't need an X server, hence I don't use Matrox' own drivers. Instead I use the kernel framebuffer in conjunction with DirectFB. I use MPlayer for playing the movies.

[englishpremier]

I've been trying to follow two guides:

http://www.flashdance.cx/tv-out-mga-fb.html

http://freevo.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/moin.cgi/DocumentationPage_2fMatroxInfo

In the first guide everything went fine up till:

Enter TVout/matroxset and type make, install it in /usr/local/bin/
Enter TVout/fbset and type make, install it in /usr/local/bin/
Enter TVout and run ./matroxtv script. Press 2 and enter.

How do i install this things in /usr/local/bin after running make i tried copying them there but "./matroxtv" still says they need to be installed.

on the second guide everything is fine untill:

matroxset -f /dev/fb1 -m 0 # this disconnects fb1 from outputs
matroxset -f /dev/fb0 -m 3 # this connects fb0 to both outputs
matroxset -f /dev/fb0 -o 1 1 # this sets fb0 to PAL output

whenever i run "matroxset -f /dev/fb1 -m 0" I get "root@yos carl # matroxset -f /dev/fb1 -m 0
ioctl failed: Invalid argument"

[Ribbit]

Originally posted by englishpremier
How do i install this things in /usr/local/bin after running make i tried copying them there but "./matroxtv" still says they need to be installed.

I couldn't reach the guides for some reason, but they probably mean you run make install - if you haven't changed anything then they should be set up to install into /usr/local/whatever. (If you want to check, you can type make -n install, and that will show you what make install will do.)

whenever i run "matroxset -f /dev/fb1 -m 0" I get "root@yos carl # matroxset -f /dev/fb1 -m 0
ioctl failed: Invalid argument"

Sounds to me like the kernel doesn't have the Matrox FB support in it. There's hopefully a module you can load, or worst case you'll have to build yourself a kernel. Sorry I can't be more helpful, but I've never used matroxfb or the TV output.

[englishpremier]

I ran make install and it installed the stuff to the same directory the source was in.


You could be right on the kernel as i'm told if framebuffer support is on then you will see a little penguin in the left hand corner.

Despite rebuilding the kernel i never saw this.

[englishpremier]

rebuilt the kernel but i still don't see that penguin.

anyway whenever i run "matroxset -f /dev/fb1 -m 0" (as recommended in guide 2) i lose all display on my monitor.

[albatorsk]

Try this instead:

Ok. Here's a quick guide to get DirectFB up and running.
For the 2.6 kernel, do the following:
Start by enabling the following as modules: Device drivers --> I2C support, and I2C device interface. Then, enable Device drivers --> Graphics support --> Support for frame buffer devices. After that you need to enable G100/G200/G400/G450/G550 support. Then, select the following as modules: Matrox acceleration, Matrox I2C support, G400 second head support.

Make sure vga is set to normal in your lilo.conf (vga=normal). Rerun /sbin/lilo as root.

Now, I don't know exactly how Yoper linux is set up, but I assume that there is some kind of initialization scripts in /etc/init.d/ or /etc/rc.d/. If there is no script called rc.local in one of the above directories, create a new script and call it, for example, matroxfb, and put the following in it:

#!/bin/sh
echo "Modprobing Matrox TV-out..."
/sbin/modprobe i2c-core
/sbin/modprobe i2c-dev
/sbin/modprobe i2c-algo-bit
/sbin/modprobe i2c-matroxfb
/sbin/modprobe matroxfb_Ti3026
/sbin/modprobe matroxfb_crtc2

The above is an extremely simple script that lacks an ability to shut it down. That is, however, not really nessecary. Make sure the script is run at bootup (unless you wish to run it your self everytime you want to watch a movie on your TV). Every distribution has it own set of tools for accomplishing this.

Now, either run the above script as root, or if you made it autorun at bootup and wish to try out that method, reboot your computer.

Now, it's time to install DirectFB. Either download a CVS snapshot from the official site (the latest stable version doesn't support kernel 2.6, so you need to download from the CVS), or just grab this file from my server if you trust me enough not to have embedded a trojan in the sources

Unarchive, ./configure, make, make install. Copy fb.modes from the DirectFB-source directory to /etc, unless there is already a file with the same name there. Also, put the following in /etc/directfbrc:

matrox-tv-standard=pal
matrox-crtc2
primary-layer=02
memcpy=sse

Exchange pal for ntsc if that is what your TV expects.

Now, let's install MPlayer for actually watching the movies. Go get MPlayer and build it as you did DirectFB. Read what is says when the configure script is done checking your system. Did it enable support for DirectFB as a Video out plugin?

Great. Now, it's time to see if it all works as expected. By now, the framebuffer should be active, DirectFB should be installed and so should MPlayer with support for it.

Test it by playing a movie with the dfbmga plugin; mplayer -vo dfbmga movie.avi

To make dfbmga the default output plugin, set vo=dfbmga in /usr/local/mplayer/mplayer.conf.

Ok. So this wasn't really a quick guide. But anyway...

EDIT: Changed the order or a few things and fixed sum spellang errers.

[englishpremier]

Ok i've tried this and it didn't work, but i'm not sure on a few things so that probably why.

1) I extracted the DriectFB from your server and then entered the directory. I typed "ls" and for some reason some of the files were flashing red (install-sh was one of them). Anyway i typed "./configure" and got this:

root@yos DirectFB # ./configure
configure: error: cannot find install-sh or install.sh in . ./.. ./../..
root@yos DirectFB #

2) I have both /etc/init.d and /etc/rc.d and no file called "rc.local" local existed, so i created one using nano and named it matroxfb (in /etc/rc.d). Now should i make this file executable by typing "chmod +x matroxfb"? Anyway i did that and when typing "./matroxfb" i get the following:

[/i]root@yos rc.d # ./matroxfb
Modprobing Matrox TV-out...
FATAL: Module i2c_core not found.
FATAL: Module i2c_dev not found.
FATAL: Module i2c_algo_bit not found.
root@yos rc.d #
[/i]

3) there was already a file called fb.modes in /etc and as it was much larger i left it there.

4) there was no file called directfbrc in /etc/ so i created one in nano.

5) Mplayer compiled fine but there was a problem playing the file, here:

root@yos MPlayer-1.0pre5 # mplayer -vo dfbmga /home/carl/clf.avi
MPlayer 1.0pre5-3.4.1 (C) 2000-2004 MPlayer Team

CPU: Advanced Micro Devices Athlon MP/XP/XP-M Barton 2205 MHz (Family: 6, Ste
Detected cache-line size is 64 bytes
MMX supported but disabled
MMX2 supported but disabled
SSE supported but disabled
3DNow supported but disabled
3DNowExt supported but disabled
CPUflags: MMX: 0 MMX2: 0 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 0 SSE2: 0
Compiled for x86 CPU with extensions:

Reading config file /etc/mplayer/mplayer.conf
Reading config file /root/.mplayer/config
Reading /root/.mplayer/codecs.conf: This codecs.conf is too old and incompatiyer release! at line 6
Reading /etc/mplayer/codecs.conf: 73 audio & 180 video codecs
Using Linux hardware RTC timing (1024Hz).
Can't open input config file /root/.mplayer/input.conf: No such file or direc
Input config file /etc/mplayer/input.conf parsed: 53 binds

Playing /home/carl/clf.avi.
Cache fill: 0.00% (0 bytes) AVI: Missing video stream!? Contact the autho
MPEG-PS file format detected.
VIDEO: MPEG1 352x240 (aspect 12) 29.970 fps 1150.0 kbps (143.8 kbyte/s)
================================================== ========================
Opening audio decoder: [mp3lib] MPEG layer-2, layer-3
MP3lib: init layer2&3 finished, tables done
AUDIO: 44100 Hz, 2 ch, 16 bit (0x10), ratio: 28000->176400 (224.0 kbit)
Selected audio codec: [mp3] afm:mp3lib (mp3lib MPEG layer-2, layer-3)
================================================== ========================
Error opening/initializing the selected video_out (-vo) device.


Exiting... (End of file)

It feels like i will never have this working. If you would please look at this and address these points i'd be most greatful. Thank you.

[albatorsk]

Yes, in order for MPlayer to be able to use DirectFB, it has to be installed.

I forgot that you have to run ./autogen.sh first in the DirectFB directory, since it's a CVS snapshot.

Oh, and the kernel. You have to actually compile it too after enabling what to compile. I took it for granted that you knew how to do that. Try "make modules_install" in the kernel source directory and run the matroxfb script again.