GeForce2 MX400 clone to TV-out problem on Ubuntu
 

Hi,

I have read a lot of forums and the manual of the NVidia Legacy driver about how to clone the desktop to the TV-out. I have a Geforce 2 MX400 card (pretty old), which was working properly on my old Fedora. Now I'm using Kubuntu Edgy and I cannot make it work perfect.

The manual of the NVidia Legacy driver clearly states that when a simple clone to the TV-out is needed, then only the "Device" section should be updated in the xorg.conf file.

Mine looks like this:

Section "Device"
Identifier "NVIDIA GeForce2 MX 400"
Driver "nvidia"
Option "Twinview"
Option "TwinViewOrientation" "Clone"
Option "Metamodes" "1024x768, 640x480"
EndSection

That's all. I can see the desktop on the TV properly, the only problem is that the virtual screen size of the desktop on the TV is 1024x768 (same as my CRT has), and only the 640x480 part is visible, i.e. it is not scaled to the resolution of the TV.

I have tried to set the same metamode for the TV as for my CRT (1024x768), but then I have no picture on the TV at all. The only metamode that is accepted is 640x480. This is the only metamode I see the picture on the TV.

Having a look at the X log file, I can see that the driver selects 1024x768 resolution for the virtual desktop size for the TV, so it explains what I see.

I do not understand, how to make it work without actually having 2 X screens in my xorg.conf (which I would like to avoid, since I do not need it, and according to the NVidia manual, I really do not need that).

Running nvidia-setting does not offer any cloning option, so I tried nvtv as well. It works. I can clone the complete desktop to the TV scaled. This justifies that the driver is able to do this without a 2nd X screen. Of course, I would like to make it work automatically.

I'm wondering how to make xorg.conf to work as nvtv does, without having 2 X screens, if it is possible.

Please help,
Endre

Well, it has been a long time since I used it (I actually had to dig around in my /etc to find an old copy that still had the TwinView lines) but this is what I was using to get the proper image on my TV:

Under "Device":
Under "Screen":
I can see that there are a few key differences in our configurations. First I am specifying that the second display is a TV; and second, I set the initial resolution to match that of my desktop, and leave 640x480 as an option under "Screen".

I think that might be the issue you are having, as you don't actually want 640x480 to be the resolution of the TV (the TV's hardware is going to determine what it is capable of) you want the virtual resolution to be the same as the monitor, just scaled down to meet the hardware capability of the TV.

At least, that would be my guess. I know this configuration got me a 1024x768 display scaled to 640x480 on my TV, but maybe each card behaves a little differently.

Hi,

thanks for your reply. As far as I understood from the NVidia manual, your "Device" section should be enough to have a proper cloned image on the TV, since you have the same desktop sizes for both CRT and TV.

It seems (but this is a guess, since I am quite newbie for this) is that your "Screen" section does not have any relevance regarding the cloning. Unfortunately, I cannot use the same resolution on TV as on the CRT as I mentioned before.

However, I think I will try to setup a second X screen and a second "monitor" as TV, maybe that helps (hope dies last ::)

Endre

Solved
 

Hi,

maybe others are interested in the solution as well.

It IS possible to clone the desktop with NVidia without having 2 X screens.

This works for me under the "Devices" section (nothing else needed):

Option "TwinView"
Option "SecondMonitorHorizSync" "30-50"
Option "SecondMonitorVertRefresh" "60"
Option "TwinViewOrientation" "Clone"
Option "MetaModes" "1024x768@1024x768, 1024x768@1024x768"

All options are mandatory and it just works fine.
Regards,
Endre