I have an ATI radeon card with a pin s-video out that is plugged into a JVC tv but my ubuntu 8.04 is not recognizing it no matter what i do.

Which Card?
Which Driver? fglrx or radeon or radeonhd


Post output of #sudo lspci

Ubuntu-8.04 has old drivers for the ati cards... driver development is that fast

00:00.0 Host bridge: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 07c3 (rev a2)
00:00.1 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce 630i memory controller (rev a2)
00:01.0 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce 630i memory controller (rev a1)
00:01.1 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce 630i memory controller (rev a1)
00:01.2 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce 630i memory controller (rev a1)
00:01.3 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce 630i memory controller (rev a1)
00:01.4 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce 630i memory controller (rev a1)
00:01.5 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce 630i memory controller (rev a1)
00:01.6 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce 630i memory controller (rev a1)
00:02.0 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation nForce 630i memory controller (rev a1)
00:03.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 07d7 (rev a2)
00:03.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 07d8 (rev a1)
00:03.2 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 07d9 (rev a1)
00:03.4 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 07c8 (rev a1)
00:04.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 7100/nForce 630i (rev a1)
00:04.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 7100/nForce 630i (rev a1)
00:08.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 056c (rev a1)
00:09.0 Audio device: nVidia Corporation MCP73 High Definition Audio (rev a1)
00:0a.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 056d (rev a1)
00:0b.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 056e (rev a1)
00:0c.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 056f (rev a1)
00:0d.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 056f (rev a1)
00:0e.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 07f0 (rev a2)
00:0f.0 Ethernet controller: nVidia Corporation MCP73 Ethernet (rev a2)
01:06.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR2413 802.11bg NIC (re v 01)
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV535 [Radeon X1650 Seri es]
02:00.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV535 [Radeon X1650 Series]

In ubuntu-8.04, the drivers are radeonhd or fglrx.
If your version of X is newer, then it will work with radeon too.

See http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=108217

I appreciate your help but i did not understand a single thing that was on the post. I mean other than knowing the components and drivers mentioned that was about it. Any place you know of that has really dumbed down version of a few things i might try?

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...item=806&num=1

See the forums too.


Try for E.g.

xrandr --addmode S-video 800x600
xrandr --output S-video --mode 800x600

man xrandr

git-clone git://anongit.freedesktop.org/git/xorg/driver/xf86-video-ati
cd xf86-video-ati

these lines get me into the "xf86-video-ati" directory but "git checkout origin/randr-1.2" errors with

"error: pathspec 'origin/randr-1.2' did not match any file(s) known to git.
Did you forget to 'git add'?"

likewise;

git-clone git://anongit.freedesktop.org/git/xorg/app/xrandr
cd xrandr

get me into "xrandr" directory but "./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr/" error as well with "bash: ./autogen.sh: No such file or directory"

xrandr can be installed with apt-get or the GUI package managers. ...it is probably present in your system. You do not need to use git (that howto is dated)

Try

man xrandr

checked the man and it says to use the XID for the output parameter. any idea what that will be for "S-video".
when i try
"xrandr --addmode S-video 800x600"
it returns with
xrandr: cannot find output "S-video"