LinuxQuestions.org
Review your favorite Linux distribution.
Go Back   LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - Hardware
User Name
Password
Linux - Hardware This forum is for Hardware issues.
Having trouble installing a piece of hardware? Want to know if that peripheral is compatible with Linux?

Notices


Reply
  Search this Thread
Old 11-22-2008, 07:44 PM   #1
MikeOfAustin
Member
 
Registered: Apr 2007
Location: texas
Distribution: mandriva 2007.0 / edgy
Posts: 63

Rep: Reputation: 15
945G s-video out. X vsync / refresh rate error? Let me buy you lunch


UPDATE: This is on the d945gclf2 mini-itx board.
Upon power on, the system bios/video bios takes care of everything and the s-video out to TV is fine(60hz refresh rate, etc). But when linux takes over, the VGA signal from the 945G going to the decoder (ch7021) has a refresh rate of 100 Hz. Then the decoder (ch7021a) sends this out to the TV via the s-video connecter at 60hz. So there is an over-layed 100hz screen on a 60hz signal. This is where the rolling comes in.

...this only happens after the linux driver takes control of the video hardware.
:END UPDATE

I'll gladly buy someone lunch if they can figure this one out (paypal?)

- intrepid 8.10

I recently got a mini-itx motherboard with integrated intel 945G graphics. I have it plugged into my tv through the s-video. Upon boot-up,everything is fine, even during the 'ubuntu' loading screen (where the status bar goes across the screen) is fine. But upon going into X, it's like the refresh rate gets lost, and the screen just rolls like there's a vertical sync problem. I've googled the heck out of this and no luck. The colors are all fine, it's just that it's rolling... or perhaps a refresh rate problem. xrandr says it's at ~60hz in ntsc-m mode. All other computers work fine with the setup. it's just this particular unit that I have that doesn't. VGA is fine.

Here's a portion from my lsmod...
Code:
i915                   38144  2
drm                    86056  3 i915


Here's my xorg.conf

Code:
Section "Device"
        Identifier      "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier      "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier      "Default Screen"
        Monitor         "Configured Monitor"
        Device          "Configured Video Device"
EndSection
My xorg.0.log is uploaded at www.mikeytech.com/xorg.txt (too long to post inline here).

Again, I'll be glad to buy you lunch... I'll just send a 10 bill your way... somehow... paypal, etc. That's a pretty good lunch..

I've tried all resolutions. This is on an intel atom 330 board - the D945GCLF2

UPDATE: I've been comparing the signals (on my oscilloscope) between the working and non-working conditions. There's something being written to the TV out chip (ch7021) (between the s-video connector and the 945G chip), and it seems as though there are two sync blanking being muxed together. One is the 60hz, the other is xxhz. I'm digging into the data sheets now.

Also, apparently, there is a ch7017 header file in the LinuxIntelDrivers... also a ch7xxx header file. This board uses the ch7021. I'm going to put an analyzer on the I2C bus on monday, to see if the driver writes anything different than what gets written at power on.

This board was released in september '08. I don't know if this combo vid and s-vid decoder was ever married before on other platforms. Hopefully someone will chime in with their 8.10 setup and let me know.

Last edited by MikeOfAustin; 11-23-2008 at 08:34 PM.
 
Old 11-23-2008, 07:43 AM   #2
DragonSlayer48DX
Registered User
 
Registered: Dec 2006
Posts: 1,454
Blog Entries: 1

Rep: Reputation: 75
Have you tried different refresh rates? (System->Preferences->Screen Resolution)?

I'm not using the same setup as you, but I do have integrated Intel graphics chips. The default refresh rate of 60 Hz left my display grainy with a background flicker on my monitor. Setting it to 75 Hz cleared up everything.

Hope this helps
 
Old 11-23-2008, 05:14 PM   #3
MikeOfAustin
Member
 
Registered: Apr 2007
Location: texas
Distribution: mandriva 2007.0 / edgy
Posts: 63

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 15
So here's what's going on with the s-video signal... Upon power on, the system bios/video bios takes care of everything and the s-video out to TV is fine(60hz refresh rate, etc). But when linux takes over, the VGA signal from the 945G going to the decoder (ch7021) has a refresh rate of 100 Hz. Then the decoder (ch7021a) sends this out to the TV via the s-video connecter at 60hz. So there is an over-layed 100hz screen on a 60hz signal. This is where the rolling comes in.

...this only happens after the linux driver takes control of the video hardware.

I was monitoring the I2C data going to the decoder. Data is written to the ch7021 every time the screen changes modes during the system boot process. The system (not linux drivers), writes to common addresses in the ch7021a... (0x03, 0X04, 0X07, ETC). And it's usually only 4 or so addresss that get written. But when the linux driver takes over, a whole slew of stuff gets piped out to addresses in the part that weren't previously written (0x1,0x2,0x5).

I need to get my old I2C probe working again to be able to capture any meaningful data (instead of walking bits with my finger on a logic analyzer screen).

I've linked some photos (excuse the old school tech. This is at home).

Here are some photos of my findings. You'll notice the 60hz (when everything is fine), then the 100hz after linux drivers take over, and finally, the pic of the TV screen that's rolling.

60hz

100hz

Rolling TV

I'm a hardware guy with software experience, but not enough to start digging into the i915 driver code.

I have xserver-xorg-video-intel (2:2.4.1-1ubuntu10.1)

Last edited by MikeOfAustin; 11-24-2008 at 01:00 PM.
 
Old 11-25-2008, 12:41 AM   #4
j_blue
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Nov 2008
Posts: 2

Rep: Reputation: 0
I seem to have the same problem and haven't found an answer yet. I have been trying to use xrandr to change refresh rates but haven't had any success with that either.

Keep on posting if you find a solution.

Has anyone to s-video working on this board under ubuntu?
 
Old 11-26-2008, 02:01 PM   #5
MikeOfAustin
Member
 
Registered: Apr 2007
Location: texas
Distribution: mandriva 2007.0 / edgy
Posts: 63

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 15
I found other people having the same problem at the linuxmce forum. Basically, if you use module i810 instead of i915 (8.04?), it'll run in vesa mode(?) because there's no acceration, and it you use mplayer to play a video, the video goes back to rolling again, and you have to reboot. I sent a message to intel support regarding this issue and product. Note, that they're sending out bios update all the time, (as recently as last week), so they must still be working on the board (got it out the door without fully testing it).

I wouldn't of bought the board if I knew s-video didn't work (it's useless without a vga monitor). It says right on their web site that it does work.

Last edited by MikeOfAustin; 12-03-2008 at 06:02 PM.
 
Old 11-26-2008, 03:16 PM   #6
H_TeXMeX_H
LQ Guru
 
Registered: Oct 2005
Location: $RANDOM
Distribution: slackware64
Posts: 12,928
Blog Entries: 2

Rep: Reputation: 1301Reputation: 1301Reputation: 1301Reputation: 1301Reputation: 1301Reputation: 1301Reputation: 1301Reputation: 1301Reputation: 1301Reputation: 1301
Well you should know that intel graphics chipsets, as was succinctly stated by someone on digg, are worth their weight in guano. In some parts of the world that may be a lot, but not here.
 
Old 12-04-2008, 12:26 PM   #7
j_blue
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Nov 2008
Posts: 2

Rep: Reputation: 0
We got the newest drivers from the git repository and they didn't help either. Need to wait for someone that can change the code, I'm not a software guy either.

One thing we noticed. We used a couple of different VGA monitors and each one had a different default resolution. If we set the TV-1 output to the same resolution the picture would almost lock. Instead of seeing the fast rolling it was very slow. Not sure if that means anything.
 
Old 12-04-2008, 12:59 PM   #8
H_TeXMeX_H
LQ Guru
 
Registered: Oct 2005
Location: $RANDOM
Distribution: slackware64
Posts: 12,928
Blog Entries: 2

Rep: Reputation: 1301Reputation: 1301Reputation: 1301Reputation: 1301Reputation: 1301Reputation: 1301Reputation: 1301Reputation: 1301Reputation: 1301Reputation: 1301
Note that there are two values you can change to try to fix it: HorizSync and VertRefresh both in the "Monitor" section of your 'xorg.conf'. I would try changing those to the right values. I would also use the vesa drivers.

You say
Quote:
Upon power on, the system bios/video bios takes care of everything and the s-video out to TV is fine(60hz refresh rate, etc). But when linux takes over, the VGA signal from the 945G going to the decoder (ch7021) has a refresh rate of 100 Hz.
What do you mean by "when linux takes over", is this before or after X starts up ? On Ubuntu this may be hard to know, because it usually boots straight into graphical mode.
 
Old 12-04-2008, 02:30 PM   #9
farslayer
LQ Guru
 
Registered: Oct 2005
Location: Northeast Ohio
Distribution: linuxdebian
Posts: 7,249
Blog Entries: 5

Rep: Reputation: 191Reputation: 191
What about manually entering video refresh rates into your xorg.conf to limit the refresh rate ?

Code:
Section "Monitor"
	Identifier	"Minicom LTD"
	Option		"DPMS"
	HorizSync	31-60
	VertRefresh	56-62
or creating a modeline to get the desired 60 Hz output..
Code:
  Horizontal Resolution:   1024 
  Vertical Resolution:      768 
  Vertical Refresh Rate:   60.00 Hz 
  Horizontal Refresh Rate: 47.80 KHz 
  Dot Clock Frequence:     60.80 MHz 

 # V-freq: 60.00 Hz  // h-freq: 47.80 KHz
 Modeline "1024x768" 60.80  1024 1056 1128 1272   768  768  770  796


Modeline "640x480@60i" 11.32 640 672 712 744 480 491 494 505 interlace

Horizontal sync frequency: 15.21 kHz

modeline generators
http://xtiming.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/xtiming.pl
http://bohne-lang.de/spec/linux/modeline/
 
Old 12-05-2008, 11:12 AM   #10
MikeOfAustin
Member
 
Registered: Apr 2007
Location: texas
Distribution: mandriva 2007.0 / edgy
Posts: 63

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 15
I will try that this weekend. Thanks.

Also, for what it's worth, I've been on the driver-intel list and this is a known bug. It has to do with communications not implemented for the SDVO mode in the Chrontel s-video chip. There is rumor that this will be fixed with the next release of the driver.

Hopefully, one of the programmers will claim his lunch sooner, rather than later
 
Old 12-05-2008, 12:14 PM   #11
PTrenholme
Senior Member
 
Registered: Dec 2004
Location: Olympia, WA, USA
Distribution: Fedora, (K)Ubuntu
Posts: 4,187

Rep: Reputation: 354Reputation: 354Reputation: 354Reputation: 354
I don't know if this is relevant to your problem, but I can only get the intel dirver to work on my 945G system if I edit the xorg.conf file to look like this:
Code:
Section "ServerLayout"                 
        Identifier     "Default Layout"
        Screen      0  "LCD" 0 0       
        InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection                                       

Section "Files"
        ModulePath   "/usr/lib64/xorg/modules"
EndSection                                    

Section "ServerFlags"
        Option      "AIGLX" "on"
EndSection                      
                                                                       
Section "InputDevice"                                                  
                                                                       
# keyboard added by rhpxl                                              
        Identifier  "Keyboard0"                                        
        Driver      "kbd"                                              
        Option      "XkbModel" "pc105+inet"                            
        Option      "XkbLayout" "us"                                   
EndSection                                                             
                                                                       
Section "Monitor"                                                      
        Identifier   "Sceptre"                                         
        VendorName   "Plug 'n' Play"                                   
        ModelName    "Plug 'n' Play"                                   
        Gamma        0.65                                              
        ModeLine     "640x480@60" 25.2 640 656 752 800 480 490 492 525 -hsync -vsync
        ModeLine     "640x480@72" 31.5 640 664 704 832 480 489 491 520 -hsync -vsync
        ModeLine     "640x480@75" 31.5 640 656 720 840 480 481 484 500 -hsync -vsync
        ModeLine     "800x600@56" 36.0 800 824 896 1024 600 601 603 625 +hsync +vsync
        ModeLine     "800x600@72" 50.0 800 856 976 1040 600 637 643 666 +hsync +vsync
        ModeLine     "800x600@75" 49.5 800 816 896 1056 600 601 604 625 +hsync +vsync
        ModeLine     "800x600@60" 40.0 800 840 968 1056 600 601 605 628 +hsync +vsync
        ModeLine     "832x624@75" 57.3 832 864 928 1152 624 625 628 667 -hsync -vsync
        ModeLine     "1024x768@75" 78.8 1024 1040 1136 1312 768 769 772 800 +hsync +vsync
        ModeLine     "1024x768@70" 75.0 1024 1048 1184 1328 768 771 777 806 -hsync -vsync
        ModeLine     "1024x768@60" 65.0 1024 1048 1184 1344 768 771 777 806 -hsync -vsync                                                              
        ModeLine     "1152x864@75" 108.0 1152 1216 1344 1600 864 865 868 900 +hsync +vsync                                                             
        ModeLine     "1280x1024@75" 135.0 1280 1296 1440 1688 1024 1025 1028 1066 +hsync +vsync                                                        
        ModeLine     "1280x960@60" 102.1 1280 1360 1496 1712 960 961 964 994 -hsync +vsync                                                             
        ModeLine     "1280x1024@60" 108.0 1280 1328 1440 1688 1024 1025 1028 1066 +hsync +vsync
        ModeLine     "1280x960@75" 129.9 1280 1368 1504 1728 960 961 964 1002 -hsync +vsync
        ModeLine     "1400x1050@60" 122.6 1400 1488 1640 1880 1050 1051 1054 1087 -hsync +vsync
        ModeLine     "1400x1050@75" 155.8 1400 1496 1648 1896 1050 1051 1054 1096 -hsync +vsync
        ModeLine     "1600x1200@65" 175.5 1600 1664 1856 2160 1200 1201 1204 1250 +hsync +vsync
        ModeLine     "1600x1200@60" 162.0 1600 1664 1856 2160 1200 1201 1204 1250 +hsync +vsync
        ModeLine     "1600x1200@75" 202.5 1600 1664 1856 2160 1200 1201 1204 1250 +hsync +vsync
        ModeLine     "1600x1200@70" 189.0 1600 1664 1856 2160 1200 1201 1204 1250 +hsync +vsync
        ModeLine     "1680x1050@60" 146.2 1680 1784 1960 2240 1050 1053 1059 1089 -hsync +vsync
        ModeLine     "1792x1344@60" 204.8 1792 1920 2120 2448 1344 1345 1348 1394 -hsync +vsync
        ModeLine     "1856x1392@60" 218.3 1856 1952 2176 2528 1392 1393 1396 1439 -hsync +vsync
        ModeLine     "1920x1440@60" 234.0 1920 2048 2256 2600 1440 1441 1444 1500 -hsync +vsync
EndSection

Section "Device"
        Identifier  "945G"
        Driver      "intel"
        BoardName   "intel"
        BusID       "PCI:0:2:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier "LCD"
        Device     "945G"
        Monitor    "Sceptre"
        DefaultDepth     24
        SubSection "Display"
                Virtual   1920 1440
                Depth     24
                Modes    "1680x1050@60" "1280x1024@60" "1600x1200@60" "1600x1200@75" "1600x1200@65" "1600x1200@70" "1400x1050@75" "1792x1344@60" "1400x1050@60" "1856x1392@60" "1280x960@75" "1920x1440@60" "1280x1024@60" "1280x960@60" "1280x1024@75" "1152x864@75" "1024x768@60" "1024x768@70" "1024x768@75" "832x624@75" "800x600@60" "800x600@75" "800x600@72" "800x600@56" "640x480@75" "640x480@72" "640x480@60"
        EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
        Option      "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection
My problem is that the monitor I'm using seems to fails to communicate with the intel driver so the "automatic" modline settings are not correct.

F.Y.I.: The problem is so bad that, when I installed Fedora 10 from the DVD, I initially got a "black screen," and had to do a "linux text" install, and use the vesa driver. Interestingly, the vesa driver correctly identified the modline settings, and I just did a cut-and-paste from the log file to the xorg.conf file.

F.Y.I. 2: The new 945G driver for Vista has the same problem, and upgrading my Vista to the newer driver yields the same "black screen" in Vista. (I have a multi-boot system that came with Vista pre-installed.)
 
Old 05-03-2009, 08:26 PM   #12
dyfrgi
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Mar 2008
Posts: 1

Rep: Reputation: 0
Did you ever resolve this problem? I'm considering purchasing a D945GCLF2 board for an HTPC, but broken video out would nix that idea.
 
Old 05-18-2009, 09:31 PM   #13
dpandian
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Aug 2004
Location: Sunnyvale, CA
Distribution: Fedora
Posts: 2

Rep: Reputation: 0
I have the intel D945GCLF2 atom board, and I can't get the svideo out working. According to myth wiki, the xorg.conf does not control the tv-out ports, and the modes are hardcoded. Did anyone manage to get ch7021 decoder working?
 
  


Reply


Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off



Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Audio works on one program at a time, internet video bad refresh rate Eredeath Linux - Hardware 1 08-23-2008 06:37 PM
XGL - Intel 945G - Macbook - Video Overlay, non existent on openSUSE? Ian_Hawdon Linux - Software 5 02-09-2008 07:13 AM
video drivers and Intel 945g chipset? gottin Linux - Hardware 10 10-15-2005 05:04 PM
Vertical refresh rate, horizontal sync rate. NomDeGuerre Linux - Newbie 7 10-07-2005 02:36 AM
Help with (unsupported?) video card, refresh rate Dave6383 Linux - Hardware 1 05-24-2004 04:10 PM

LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - Hardware

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 09:25 PM.

Main Menu
Advertisement
My LQ
Write for LQ
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute content, let us know.
Main Menu
Syndicate
RSS1  Latest Threads
RSS1  LQ News
Twitter: @linuxquestions
Open Source Consulting | Domain Registration