PSone, epia 5000, Xorg.conf help

bluestink · 06-01-2007, 01:48 PM

I hope I am not out-of-bounds by cross-posting this to the linux forum: (was LCD)

I did the vga mod (succesfully?) to my psone lcd.

I am trying to run it on my epia 5000 motherboard, using linux.
I haven't seen any threads where people have said whether this motherboard supports composite sync.

My attempts to use the modeline from here (for the epia 800):
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerwork...een/#resources

...failed.
(xorg reports "no screens found.")
---this results from changing only the HorizSync and VertRefresh lines. (hadn't added the modeline yet; but still fails after this too.)

and I dont know what rest of the xorg.conf file needs.

In console using the boot option vga=0x301, and X (using a generic 640x480x16 xorg.conf file), the psone screen displays two screens side by side (both squished to fit), and at the top of the screen it looks like a stiff wind is blowing(bending) the picture, shifting it. The colors are also off somewhat. I can see xfce good enough to move the mouse to the exit button, but thats about it.

An attempt to run xvidtune on the epia 5000 (using a different monitor) resulted in a message like "video device does not support tuning".

Anybody?
Thanks.

bluestink · 06-07-2007, 10:55 PM

Well, I will continue anyhow as maybe this will help someone.

Being unsure if the via epia 5000 mini-itx motherboard supports composite sync (I am still unsure), I build the 'separate sync to composite sync adapter' described here: http://www.tkk.fi/Misc/Electronics/c.../vga2rgbs.html

The epia 5000 apparently does not provide 5 volts from pin 9 of the vga port, so I had to run a separate line.

The sync adapter, as you can see in the picture, did not fix the dual screen problem, but something (maybe the adapter) made the colors more accurate from the last wiring scheme. Plus it seems more stable.

The picture is just Xwindows running with a generic 640x480 xorg.conf

I think the double screen has to do with my continued inability to set up Xwindows to run the screen at the correct frequency.

Any ideas?
xorg examples?

tom61 · 06-07-2007, 11:14 PM

Post your xorg.conf -- can't really help you troubleshoot without it. You definately seem to be running at 31kHz horizontal refresh, but that's all I can tell.

Edit: How are your driver hacking skills? Re-reading your post reminds me of problems I heard about before, in that case it turned out that Xorg drivers for the card were configured with a hard-coded with dot-clock that was too high to sync with 15KHz output. Anyways, still post your xorg.conf.

kraft · 06-08-2007, 02:36 AM

You horizontal resolution is too fast, that's why it displays 2 screens, i had the same troubles.

Search for Xfree timings calculator that you will find on the net, when you find it, then you are near of the final result, you still have to tweak around with values.
I don't remember the values i entered but even if it's tough to find them, it works nice even with resolutions up to 1024 x 768, fonts are not readable at this resolution but it works.

Now about Xvidtune, forget it until you see that you are near, Xvidtune won't help you for a big differences of values. It only helps to adjust the screen. If i was you i would first attempt to make the screen work on the home's computer with twin heads and of course twin graphics cards. When you will lose your display on the psone's, it will still remain the second screen from which you can rollback or test other values.

What you search for or should search for is VGA2TV converter.

http://www.tkk.fi/Misc/Electronics/c...tv/cindex.html

Here my results, i had twice more troubles due to the SECAM instead of PAL mode of the screen.

bluestink · 06-08-2007, 08:39 AM

Thank you all for your replies.

My xorg.conf is below, however some of the settings don't seem to matter. Using the modeline below has much the same result as the standard "640x480" setup. Also not sure if the composite_sync stuff, or the ForceMinDotClock option matters either. When I try to change the HorizSync to 15.720, X fails to start, saying something like "no screens found".

Is vesa the driver I should be using for this, maybe I should be using something else.
I've included the output of lspci as well.
I should probably find out if I can get a more specific driver for the:
Trident Microsystems CyberBlade/i1 (rev 6a)

my troubleshooting setup is:
The psone screen is running on the epia 5000. I am using a different computer and a serial cable + minicom to login to the epia 5000, so I can edit the xorg.conf file. All I have needed to be able to type on the 5000 so far is my login and 'startx'.
redirecting errors when starting Xserver to mincom by using: startx 2>/dev/ttyS0
I found that to be the easiest and I don't have another video card / slot that would work.

As far as driver hacking I don't have any experience, but I have done some programming in C.

I think you may be right about it being hard coded into the driver.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

# /etc/X11/xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the /etc/X11/xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man /etc/X11/xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
# sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "Files"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi"
FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi"
# path to defoma fonts
FontPath "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "i2c"
Load "bitmap"
Load "ddc"
Load "dri"
Load "extmod"
Load "freetype"
Load "glx"
Load "int10"
Load "vbe"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "kbd"
Option "CoreKeyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc104"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Generic Video Card"
Driver "vesa"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
Option "ForceMinDotClock" "13M"
Option "composite_sync" "true"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Generic Monitor"
Option "DPMS"
# HorizSync 15.720
Modeline "640x480" 13.678 640 672 736 800 480 486 494 524 composite
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "Generic Video Card"
Monitor "Generic Monitor"
DefaultDepth 16
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Default Screen"
InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
InputDevice "Configured Mouse"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8601 [Apollo ProMedia] (rev 05)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8601 [Apollo ProMedia AGP]
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8231 [PCI-to-ISA Bridge] (rev 10)
00:11.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:11.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 1e)
00:11.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 1e)
00:11.4 Bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8235 ACPI (rev 10)
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 AC97 Audio
Controller (rev 40)
00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 51)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Trident Microsystems CyberBlade/i1 (rev 6a)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

kraft · 06-08-2007, 08:55 AM

I don't know if composite is the reply, you should instead try to deal with h+, h-, v+, v- at the end of your modeline definition, this is where you will find the best and the worst results but this is definitely the way. You just can't use a solution out of the box, a long tweaking is unfortunately needed

tom61 · 06-08-2007, 04:32 PM

Code:

Option "ForceMinDotClock" "13M"

I think this is far too high a dot clock. Looks like you lucked out, it isn't hard coded, but this setting here. Try setting it to 900K(60*15K).

bluestink · 06-08-2007, 05:38 PM

I changed the mindotclock option, its didnt seem to have an effect.

...Using the "trident" driver now.

With the below modeline I am getting one screen (centered) but the image is rapidly moving down the screen like a roll of film on a projector. I can see between 5 and 6 xfce panels on the screen at any given time.

--------------cut----------
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Generic Monitor"
Option "DPMS"
HorizSync 17.7
VertRefresh 57.46
Modeline "psone_640x480" 15.15 640 682 778 856 480 564 572 616 +hsync +vsync Interlace
EndSection
-------------------------------

Thanks again.

kraft · 06-09-2007, 04:16 AM

Ok, so now that you are centered you can start to use Xvidtune if it's only a matter of stability.
If it still fails then try also to change the value of hsync from + to - and try again, if still broken, attempt with vsync, you are near to have it working

bluestink · 11-30-2007, 11:19 PM

After abandoning this project for many months I came back to it today and after several hours, got lucky.

The screen no longer scrolls like a projector and is mostly stable. [thin black lines (like horizontal rain) appear on the screen but it is almost usable. ]

If the picture attach works, you can see that I am running Xvidtune, but I think I need more modeline adjustment because the problem seems to be out of the range of Xvidtune.

The view is actually significantly more clear than the atttached image.

cut from xorg.conf
------------------------------
Section "Device"
Identifier "Generic Video Card"
Driver "trident"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
Option "ForceMinDotClock" "13M"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Generic Monitor"
Option "DPMS"
HorizSync 17.28
VertRefresh 68.46
Modeline "psone_640x480" 13.00 640 672 720 752 480 491 494 505 +Hsync +Vsync interlace
EndSection
------------------------------

...I'm still using the trident driver, which apparently from my experience is required if you expect to get Xvidtune to work. (other wise Xvidtunes says something like device does not support ...)

bluestink · 12-02-2007, 10:21 AM

no more visable "horizontal rain" but you can tell the display is not completely stable as there is some minor flickering. Also when you first start X with the checkered screen it is more obviously unstable.

However it is more usable than the last xorg.conf setup.

--------------------------cut from xorg.conf -----------------
Section "Device"
Identifier "Generic Video Card"
Driver "trident"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
Option "ForceMinDotClock" "12.5M"
# Option "composite_sync" "true"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Generic Monitor"
Option "DPMS"
HorizSync 15.52
VertRefresh 60.52
Modeline "psone_640x480" 12.73 640 692 740 820 480 483 485 517 +Hsync +Vsync interlace
EndSection
---------------------end cut -----------------------

How does this compare with others results with the psone screen?

Any ideas on how to make it more stable?

The backlight kind of hazed out part of the photo somewhat.