Re: Matrox G400 Dualhead

Re: Matrox G400 Dualhead

[Trevor Hemsley]

On Sat, 31 Mar 2001 07:17:19, "Rafael E. Herrera" 
<raffo@neuronet.pitt.edu> wrote:

> J Brook wrote:
> > 
> > >With 2.4.2 it was working just fine.
> > 
> > I have also noticed problems with the 2.4.3 release. I have a G450
> > 32Mb, that I use in single-head mode. The console framebuffer runs
> > fine at boot time, but when I load X (4.0.3 compiled with Matrox HAL
> > library) and then return to the console, I get a blank screen (signal
> > lost).
> 
> In my case, when lilo boots my G450 on any video mode other than
> 'normal', going into X and then back into console, leads to a blank
> screen. I've observed this behavior in 2.2 and 2.4. Otherwise, I've no
> problem using the card in single or dual head.

I get this as well on my G200. From observation it appears that the 
refresh rate is being doubled when you exit X and that's why the 
console appears blank. On my system I normally use

modprobe matroxfb vesa=263 fv=85

to give a large text console. On return from X, if I blindly type

fbset "640x480-60"

then I get a visible screen back but my monitor tells me that it's 
running at 640x480@119Hz. Same thing for 800x600-60 only this one says
120Hz.

Base system is SuSE 7.1 using XFree86 4.0.2. If I switch to 3.3.6 then
it works OK. If I don't load matroxfb then it also works OK.

-- 
Trevor Hemsley, Brighton, UK.
Trevor-Hemsley@dial.pipex.com

Re: Matrox G400 Dualhead

[Petr Vandrovec]

Trevor Hemsley wrote:

> I get this as well on my G200. From observation it appears that the
> refresh rate is being doubled when you exit X and that's why the
> console appears blank. On my system I normally use
> 
> modprobe matroxfb vesa=263 fv=85
> 
> to give a large text console. On return from X, if I blindly type
> 
> fbset "640x480-60"
> 
> then I get a visible screen back but my monitor tells me that it's
> running at 640x480@119Hz. Same thing for 800x600-60 only this one says
> 120Hz.

Unfortunately Matrox datasheet says that it is impossible :-( Can you
try 'fbset -depth 0; fbset -depth 8' ?
						Petr

Matrox G400 Dualhead

[mythos]

I have a serious problem when usind the second head of my Matrox with the
matroxfb driver.If I login to /dev/tty0 (fb0) and then to /dev/tty6(fb1)
and make fb1 to scroll,if I switch back to /dev/tty0 and make fb0 to
scroll while fb1 is still scrolling I get a segmentation fault.Also
sometimes I get a message like this:
INIT:Id "1" respawning too fast disabled for 5 minutes.
Can anyone help me ?

		Mythos

Re: Matrox G400 Dualhead

[Rafael Herrera]

It would help if you reported which version of kernel and XF86 you are
using. I had problems using the framebuffer in the console awhile back.

Currently, running 2.4.4+ and XFree86 4.0.3 + Matrox's drivers
(http://matrox.com/mga/support/drivers/files/linux_06.cfm) give me no
problem.

I don't run the frame buffer for X for dual head.
-- 
     Rafael

Re: Matrox G400 Dualhead

[mythos]

On Sun, 27 May 2001, Rafael Herrera wrote:

> It would help if you reported which version of kernel and XF86 you are
> using. I had problems using the framebuffer in the console awhile back.
>
> Currently, running 2.4.4+ and XFree86 4.0.3 + Matrox's drivers
> (http://matrox.com/mga/support/drivers/files/linux_06.cfm) give me no
> problem.
>
> I don't run the frame buffer for X for dual head.
> --
>      Rafael
>

I am using 2.4.5-ac1 and XFree-4.0.99.3.But I have no problem with my
X,except when I go from X to console.The problem I have is in the console
where I use Dualhead.I don't think it has to do anything with X.

		Mythos

Re: Matrox G400 Dualhead

[Rafael Herrera]

The problem reported here before was switching from X to the console.
The video signal would be lost and the computer would hang.

The responses pointed out the it was the switch of video modes; XFree
would change the internals of the video controller which the frame
buffer could not cope with. You were part of the discussion. The matrox
drivers have not changed since april, so its interactions with the frame
buffer may be still buggy. 
-- 
     Rafael

Re: Matrox G400 Dualhead

[Trevor Hemsley]

On Mon, 2 Apr 2001 17:43:42, Petr Vandrovec <vandrove@vc.cvut.cz> 
wrote:

> Trevor Hemsley wrote:
> 
> > I get this as well on my G200. From observation it appears that the
> > refresh rate is being doubled when you exit X and that's why the
> > console appears blank. On my system I normally use
> > 
> > modprobe matroxfb vesa=263 fv=85
> > 
> > to give a large text console. On return from X, if I blindly type
> > 
> > fbset "640x480-60"
> > 
> > then I get a visible screen back but my monitor tells me that it's
> > running at 640x480@119Hz. Same thing for 800x600-60 only this one says
> > 120Hz.
> 
> Unfortunately Matrox datasheet says that it is impossible :-( Can you
> try 'fbset -depth 0; fbset -depth 8' ?

Yes, that fixes it. Issuing the first fbset command brings me back 
some sort of display, all fsck'ed up but vaguely readable with 
shimmering bits of text all over it in the wrong places. The second 
fbset gets it back correctly at the right resolution and right refresh
rate. Thanks, a workaround at least.

-- 
Trevor Hemsley, Brighton, UK.
Trevor-Hemsley@dial.pipex.com

Re: Matrox G400 Dualhead

[mythos]

I solved the problem with dualhead!!!
Second head from 2.4.3 is /dev/fb2 rather than /dev/fb1.
Just had to look to the messages.
About matroxfb + X11 what I have seen is that if you use the same
resolution with the same number of colors as in X11 ,most of the times it will
work(except if I am in the login manager kdm!Then if I change to console
it will have the same screen).

P.S. Petr on the second head if I put mouse in the right-corner at the
bottom of the screen I will have a nice white border around the screen.
Also cursor blinks very strange if there is a lot of move on another
framebuffer on the first head and leaves some white blocks around.
I have used software and hardware cursor.

	Mythos

Re: Matrox G400 Dualhead

[Petr Vandrovec]

mythos wrote:
> 
> I solved the problem with dualhead!!!
> Second head from 2.4.3 is /dev/fb2 rather than /dev/fb1.
> Just had to look to the messages.

And who is /dev/fb1? You must change your configuration...

> P.S. Petr on the second head if I put mouse in the right-corner at the
> bottom of the screen I will have a nice white border around the screen.

It is feature. Secondary head does not have any blanking, it just
repeats
last 64bits (last memory fetch cycle) again and again through whole
vertical
blanking interval (try 'setterm -bgcolor red' and you'll see). There are
two possible workarounds:
(1) create screen with width = 648 instead of 640 (it must be visible
width!)
    and fill this column with black.
    This brokes too many apps because of they expect that they can
horizontally
    scroll for vxres - xres pixels :-( 
    This is what Windows drivers do.
(2) create screen with height = 481 instead of 480 and fill this line
with
    black. Unfortunately, you cannot use virtual scrolling then :-(
So I decided just to live with it... You can just try 'fbset -yres 481
-vyres 481'
- it should implement (2).

> Also cursor blinks very strange if there is a lot of move on another
> framebuffer on the first head and leaves some white blocks around.

You are not using 'video=scrollback:0', do you? You should... There were
some
changes in console_lock recently, maybe that someone now forgets to grab
lock
when doing scrolling/putcs?
									Petr

Re: Matrox G400 Dualhead

[J Brook]

> I have a similar problem with my G450, booting into the framebuffer,
> then loading xdm and working in X, and then switching back to the 
> console. I may have another detail to add in that when I switch back
> to the console from X, my monitor blanks and displays the warning 
> that the frequencies are out of range.

 I think I have a work around. Boot up 2.4.3 with the framebuffer
enabled as normal. Log in as root and use the fbset program to change
the settings for all the framebuffers.
eg.

fbset -a 1024x768-70

or whatever works for you. fbset has its own man page.

This makes everything hunky-dory for me, in that after running fbset
I
can go in and out of X without ever losing the video signal.

 Petr, I had a look at the drivers/video/matrox subdir and there's no
difference between 2.4.2 and 2.4.3, however there are differences in
the drivers/video dir to do with framebuffers. The files that have
been changed in drivers/video/ are:
  creatorfb.c
  fbmem.c
  fonts.c
  modedb.c
  sbus.c

 I know nothing about the nature of the changes that have been made
though!

 It does seem to be a kernel problem rather than a X4.0.3 problem
seeing as how 4.0.3 works fine under 2.4.2, and that using fbset on
the framebuffer console in 2.4.3 solves the problem.

     John
----------------
jbk@postmark.net

Re: Matrox G400 Dualhead

[J Brook]

> Does anyone know why fualhead is not working anymore?
> I just get a screen with rubbish on the second head.
> Also when kernel loads and and registers fb1 I lose signal
> on the second head.

...

>With 2.4.2 it was working just fine. 

I have also noticed problems with the 2.4.3 release. I have a G450
32Mb, that I use in single-head mode. The console framebuffer runs
fine at boot time, but when I load X (4.0.3 compiled with Matrox HAL
library) and then return to the console, I get a blank screen (signal
lost).

I don't know what the problem is. I can confirm with Mythos that
under
2.4.2 it was working just fine :-)

Petr Vandrovec is the man who knows... what do you say Petr?!

    John
----------------
jbk@postmark.net

Re: Matrox G400 Dualhead

[Petr Vandrovec]

J Brook wrote:
> 
> > Does anyone know why fualhead is not working anymore?
> > I just get a screen with rubbish on the second head.
> > Also when kernel loads and and registers fb1 I lose signal
> > on the second head.

On G400 there is no signal on second head after poweron. So you cannot
lose it ;-) On G450 there is same signal on both heads - but you are
talking about G400. Or no? They are very different (they have different
everything except PCI device ID register :-( ). You should add
'Option "UseFBDev"' into your XF86Config-4 - probably together with 
'Option "NoHWCursor"'.

> ...
> 
> >With 2.4.2 it was working just fine.
> 
> I have also noticed problems with the 2.4.3 release. I have a G450
> 32Mb, that I use in single-head mode. The console framebuffer runs
> fine at boot time, but when I load X (4.0.3 compiled with Matrox HAL
> library) and then return to the console, I get a blank screen (signal
> lost).

It is easy - do not do that. Matroxfb really does not expect that
someone
will powerdown parts of chip which matroxfb needs, but which XFree does
not use (for example clock source for secondary head) or that it will
change
some undocumented registers (for example Matrox HAL driver changes
memory
clock speed).
 
> I don't know what the problem is. I can confirm with Mythos that
> under
> 2.4.2 it was working just fine :-)

I have no idea what changed between 2.4.2 and 2.4.3 - I do not
remember that I was doing some changes into the matroxfb during
last few weeks - so maybe that source of these problems is in XFree
4.0.3 ?
					Petr Vandrovec
					vandrove@vc.cvut.cz

Re: Matrox G400 Dualhead

[Rafael E. Herrera]

J Brook wrote:
> 
> >With 2.4.2 it was working just fine.
> 
> I have also noticed problems with the 2.4.3 release. I have a G450
> 32Mb, that I use in single-head mode. The console framebuffer runs
> fine at boot time, but when I load X (4.0.3 compiled with Matrox HAL
> library) and then return to the console, I get a blank screen (signal
> lost).

In my case, when lilo boots my G450 on any video mode other than
'normal', going into X and then back into console, leads to a blank
screen. I've observed this behavior in 2.2 and 2.4. Otherwise, I've no
problem using the card in single or dual head.

Since the HAL lib is a binary, we might have to wait for Matrox to fix
this problem.

-- 
     Rafael

Matrox G400 Dualhead

[mythos]

Does anyone know why fualhead is not working anymore?
I just get a screen with rubbish on the second head.
Also when kernel loads and and registers fb1 I lose signal
on the second head.

	Thanks for your help.

Re: Matrox G400 Dualhead

[Alan Olsen]

On Fri, 30 Mar 2001, mythos wrote:

> Does anyone know why fualhead is not working anymore?
> I just get a screen with rubbish on the second head.
> Also when kernel loads and and registers fb1 I lose signal
> on the second head.

Probably a question for the xpert list (xpert@xfree86.org)...

What kernel version are you using?

Kernel compile options?

Version of XFree86?

Have to looked for error messages in /var/log/XFree86.0.log?

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Alan Olsen            | to my mail, just hit the ctrl, alt and del keys.
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Re: Matrox G400 Dualhead

[mythos]

Dualhead is not working with the current kernel(2.4.3).
With 2.4.2 it was working just fine.
I have not used any special compiler flags,just the usual ones
and I am not loading XFree.
Also does anyone know why when I change from Xfree to console
most of the times the console is corrupted..?
This is a problem which I have noticed from Xfree-4.0 and after.

Thanks in advance.