800x480 SUCCESS in Linux with VIA onboard video!

**Change** · 04-24-2005, 09:04 PM

IT WORKS!!!!

First off, I want to thank Ivor (orv on these forums) of the Unichrome open-source driver project (http://unichrome.sf.net) for his work on the project and his pointers in the right direction.

Now, here's how I got this working under Debian Sarge:

From this site I got the basic info on how to get the X source package downloaded and building (which you must do to get this working).
Make sure you've run apt-get update and apt-get dist-upgrade recently to get everything up-to-date. Then (I did this in /usr/local/src) run "apt-get source xfree86" followed by "apt-get build-dep xfree86". Change into the xfree86 directory that was created by the source package download, and run "dpkg-buildpackage". This doesn't need to complete, but it has to get pretty far along. Grab a sandwich and a nice glass of water, and a cookie. I reccomend oatmeal with chocolate chips, but this isn't critical to the build process.

In another shell, changedir to /usr/local/src/xfree86-blahblah/build-tree/xc/programs/Xserver/hw/xfree86/drivers/via
When you can successfully run "make" in this directory with no errors, the X build process is far enough along, and you can terminate it.

Next, I followed the directions on this page to get the latest CVS source.
Back up one directory level to /usr/local/src/xfree86-blablah/build-tree/xc/programs/Xserver/hw/xfree86/drivers
Run "cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/unichrome co xfree86"
Then "rm -rf via" and "mv xfree86 via" (or "ln -s xfree86 via" as is listed in the directions...up to you).
Go into the via directory, edit "via_mode.h" and search for the ViaDotClocks section. Add the following line (not sure if it has to be in order, I inserted it into the appropriate place just in case): "{ 31746, 0x1733, 0 },". This sets up the correct dot clock register for the modeline Xenarc reccomends in their FAQ.
Now save and exit the editor, and "make". Should build successfully. "cp via_drv.o /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers".
Now make sure you're using the modeline listed in the Xenarc FAQ, "Modeline "800x480" 31.746 800 860 940 1000 480 508 511 525 -hsync -vsync".

Oh, and also make sure X is now set up to use the via driver instead of VESA or whatever you may have been using before.

Hmm, suppose I should set up a web page with example files and such. I'll probably do that in a week or so when I'm less busy.

If you have problems I'm not sure how many questions I can answer, I got all this figured out after a few days' worth of stumbling through Google.

And no, I still have no idea how you'd get this working in Windows, and I don't know what steps would be different for Red Hat, Mandrake, SUSE, Slackware, Gentoo, or any of the other distros out there, or how to get it working with Lilliput monitors.

**orv** · 04-25-2005, 02:16 AM

Cool.
Now do all those who questioned my assertion that this was simple to do... get to wear T-Shirts printed with "Linux rocks, VIA sucks" ?

**darkciti** · 04-25-2005, 03:38 AM

Via can't suck that bad, they're hackable!

Anyone tried this with x.org? It should work considering it's just a Modeline adjustment to the driver...

**Gobby** · 04-25-2005, 03:43 AM

I s'ppose it proves one thing, its just a driver that needs sorting not the BIOS.

**Change** · 04-25-2005, 04:06 AM

Originally Posted by darkciti

Via can't suck that bad, they're hackable!

Anyone tried this with x.org? It should work considering it's just a Modeline adjustment to the driver...

The Unichrome drivers were derived by reverse-engineering the old VIA binary drivers, if I remember right.

And yeah, should work with X.org. Not quite a modeline adjustment, involves adding another entry to the dotclock lookup table, but yeah.

**orv** · 04-25-2005, 04:39 AM

Anyone tried this with x.org?

The unichrome driver works fine on x.org, that's what I do all my development on. In fact as long as you're not using a unichrome-pro board then the current xorg cvs contains an up to date driver already.

Via can't suck that bad, they're hackable!

You have got to be kidding! They don't suck because its possible for amateur developers to achieve what they claim is impossible and have been "researching" for months?! ROFL.

Change - FYI you don't need to fiddle about building the driver inside the X tree, you can build it in its own directory, which makes keeping things updated simpler.

....and finally when you have found the best clock settings, please report them to the unichrome list.

Cheers,

PS

The Unichrome drivers were derived by reverse-engineering the old VIA binary drivers, if I remember right.

It's a bit more complicated than that. But in brief, the drivers are based on the original 'lite' via driver source they released a few years ago, the mpeg code had to be reverse engineered because VIA refuses to release the details because they are a "commercial secret", details of the video registers were also not released and had to be deduced, and the free modes code was written by trial and error by Luc Verhaegen.

**Change** · 04-25-2005, 05:12 AM

Originally Posted by orv

Change - FYI you don't need to fiddle about building the driver inside the X tree, you can build it in its own directory, which makes keeping things updated simpler.

Hmm. I couldn't get it to build on its own, I had to get X building, then replace the VIA driver source with the Unichrome source, then re-make the makefile for the driver, and then finally make it. Otherwise it wouldn't build.

**xga** · 04-26-2005, 12:51 AM

Wow! Well done Change. I can't wait until the day when I check the 'LCD/Display' thread and see the post '800x480 SUCCESS in Windows with VIA onboard video!'.

You'd think that if you can get 800x480 working on linux by only playing around with the driver config files, that you should be able to get 800x480 in Windows using PowerStrip as you've proved that it's not a BIOS issue. Doesn't make sense to me....

**orv** · 04-26-2005, 01:30 AM

You'd need an updated windows driver too....

**damageboy** · 04-28-2005, 08:33 AM

I've taken a look at the newly released via open source driver for Linux 2.6
and it seems to have partial support ofr 800x480 built-in to it (i.e.:
no patching via_mode.h).
apart from that, it also looks while 800x480 support exists there, some 800x480 is commented out as well in viamode.h (as opposed to via_mode.h).

Anyway, has anyone tried to mess around with that driver? It seems to have full support for MPEG2/AGP/3D/DRI etc.

I'll try to work with both drivers + X.org on ubuntu this weekend, just wondering if someone can save me the time & effort