Hi!

I recently shifted from Windows to Slackware, and I'm happy as a puppy, but have one question to the lot of you:

Should I compile/install new drivers for my video card? It started up nicely on initial boot, and seems to work with the internal driver, but I am missing out on one thing:

How do I get my TV-Out to work? I have a old card, MVGA NVTNT2MA (Riva 32Mb), and I use this computer to watch movies (DivX, DVD, SVCD etc) but havn't found a way to play this on the telly yet.

My dream setup would be a text-mode videoplayer, that would automatically display graphics on my tv and a control panel on my analog display, but I know that is a bit far-fetched.

Anyone tried this at home?

John

I don't have a direct answer. But I just found out today that nVidia apprently has good Linux support. Check them out: http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux.html

if you do a google search you will quickly be able to find information about how to do this, but it did take me a little while and a bit of testing to finally get it working. Here is part of my XfreeConfig file that got TV-out working on my machine. BTW you need to first install the video driver provided byhttp://www.nvidia.com, make sure that is working first. then add these lines to your XF86Config file:
a few things i should point out, dont mimic my settings in the device secrion, just add the lines that you do not have, such as the option line. This goes for the rest of the file as well. Also the line that says "Option 'MetaModes', there first resolution needs to be changed to what ever your default resolution is for your monitor. I think the rest of the options in that section explain themself, check out the readme for the video driver on the nvidia website, it is very helpfull. After you make all the and you startx hit and that should activate your tv-out. I hope that helped.

Karl

I've not tried this for a while, used XP for watching movies anyway, but just upgraded my box, and wanted to give it another go.....

I've tried different configurations, but seem to get a black TV no matter what I do. With the current config, I only get a 1280x1024 (I guess) screen in 800x600 resolution when switching modes. This screen is "pan-able", so I can see the whole screen, but not all at once. The tv is black. When I press Ctrl - Alt - + , the screen goes back to normal 1280x1024 mode again.

What have I done wrong? Including my xorg.conf file for a closer look;

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------BEGIN

# **********************************************************************
# Refer to the XF86Config(4/5) man page for details about the format of
# this file.
# **********************************************************************

# **********************************************************************
# Module section -- this section is used to specify
# which dynamically loadable modules to load.
# **********************************************************************
#
Section "Module"

# This loads the DBE extension module.

Load "dbe" # Double buffer extension

# This loads the miscellaneous extensions module, and disables
# initialisation of the XFree86-DGA extension within that module.
SubSection "extmod"
Option "omit xfree86-dga" # don't initialise the DGA extension
EndSubSection

# This loads the Type1 and FreeType font modules
Load "type1"
Load "speedo"
Load "freetype"
# Load "xtt"

# This loads the GLX module
Load "glx"
# This loads the DRI module
# Load "dri"

EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# Files section. This allows default font and rgb paths to be set
# **********************************************************************

Section "Files"

# The location of the RGB database. Note, this is the name of the
# file minus the extension (like ".txt" or ".db"). There is normally
# no need to change the default.

RgbPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"

# Multiple FontPath entries are allowed (which are concatenated together),
# as well as specifying multiple comma-separated entries in one FontPath
# command (or a combination of both methods)
#
# If you don't have a floating point coprocessor and emacs, Mosaic or other
# programs take long to start up, try moving the Type1 and Speedo directory
# to the end of this list (or comment them out).
#

FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/local/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TTF/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/"
FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/"

# The module search path. The default path is shown here.

# ModulePath "/usr/X11R6/lib/modules"

EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# Server flags section.
# **********************************************************************

Section "ServerFlags"



EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# Input devices
# **********************************************************************

# **********************************************************************
# InputDevice section
# **********************************************************************

Section "InputDevice"

Identifier "Keyboard1"
Driver "Keyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "no"

EndSection


Section "InputDevice"

Identifier "Mouse1"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "Auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/mouse"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"

EndSection



# **********************************************************************
# Monitor section
# **********************************************************************

# Any number of monitor sections may be present

Section "Monitor"

Identifier "Compaq V710"
HorizSync 30-85
VertRefresh 50-160

EndSection

Section "Monitor"

Identifier "TV"
VendorName "generic"
ModelName "generic"
HorizSync 30-50
VertRefresh 60

EndSection


# **********************************************************************
# Graphics device section
# **********************************************************************

# Any number of graphics device sections may be present

Section "Device"
Identifier "Nvidia TNT2 32Mb"
Driver "nvidia"
VideoRam 32768
Option "nologo" "1"
Option "Twinview"
Option "TwinViewOrientation" "Clone"
Option "SecondMonitorHorizSync" "30-50"
Option "SecondMonitorVertRefresh" "60"
Option "MetaModes" "1280x1024, NULL; 800x600, 800x600;"
Option "TVStandard" "PAL-B"
Option "TVOutFormat" "COMPOSITE"
EndSection


# **********************************************************************
# Screen sections
# **********************************************************************

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen 1"
Device "Nvidia TNT2 32Mb"
Monitor "Compaq V710"
DefaultDepth 24

Subsection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "TVStandard" "PAL-B"
Option "ConnectedMonitor" "TV"
Option "TVOutFormat" "COMPOSITE"
Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "800x600"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
Device "Nvidia TNT2 32Mb"
Identifier "tvout800"
Monitor "TV"
EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# ServerLayout sections.
# **********************************************************************

# Any number of ServerLayout sections may be present. Each describes
# the way multiple screens are organised. A specific ServerLayout
# section may be specified from the X server command line with the
# "-layout" option. In the absence of this, the first section is used.
# When now ServerLayout section is present, the first Screen section
# is used alone.

Section "ServerLayout"

Identifier "Simple Layout"
Screen "Screen 1"
InputDevice "Mouse1" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard1" "CoreKeyboard"

EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "TvOut"
InputDevice "Keyboard1" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse1" "CorePointer"
Option "Clone" "on"
Option "Xinerama" "off"
Screen "Screen 1"
Screen "tvout800"
EndSection

# Section "DRI"
# Mode 0666
# EndSection

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------END

I am sure I put something wrong in here somewhere, put cannot figure out why at the moment. Will try to play around some more with it, but I am not sure where to start........................

Help, anyone?