[Openchrome-users] TV-out (PAL) on VIA CN13000 / Ubuntu 10.04

[John]

Hi -

Hope someone can help me, I've been trying for weeks but had no success 
getting TV out to work with PAL output on a VIA EPIA CN13000 (CN700 
/1625M video chips).  The system has a basic Ubuntu 10.04 installation.

 From what Ive read it should be fairly straightforward but Im not 
having any success.

I can switch the "TVout" on in th BIOS (either NTSC or PAL, either 
composite or S-Video or both) and they work fine in boot up (VIA splash 
screen), BIOS editing screen and text boot up of ubuntu.  So its clear 
the TV out function *can* work and does work with the default video mode 
of VIA and text mode during boot of ubuntu.
(Note NTSC seems to be only black and white, PAL is colour)

However, at the point when ubuntu switches to the X server (or the fb 
based text console when booting text only) the TV output briefly flashes 
green and then disappears.

the text output mode (from fbset) is 640x480-60; fbset wont allow me 
change it to a different mode and there doesnt seem to be a modeset for 
PAL in the /etc/fb.modes file anyway.

but X is even more worrying in that it often appears to CRASH the 
machine.  I cant ssh in, nothing is coming out, no services seem to 
start (nmap on the machine shows nothing including no reply to ping)

this is with many combinations of settings in /etc/X11/xorg.conf, but 
the one I really thought would work was (note: BIOS set to TV-out only, 
PAL, on both comp and S-video)

....
Section "Device"
         ### Available Driver options are:-
         ### Values: <i>: integer, <f>: float, <bool>: "True"/"False",
         ### <string>: "String", <freq>: "<f> Hz/kHz/MHz"
         ### [arg]: arg optional
         #Option     "PrintVGARegs"           # [<bool>]
         #Option     "PrintTVRegs"            # [<bool>]
         #Option     "I2CScan"                # [<bool>]
         #Option     "VBEModes"               # [<bool>]
         #Option     "NoAccel"                # [<bool>]
         #Option     "AccelMethod"            # <str>
         #Option     "ExaNoComposite"         # [<bool>]
         #Option     "ExaScratchSize"         # <i>
         #Option     "SWCursor"               # [<bool>]
         #Option     "ShadowFB"               # [<bool>]
         #Option     "RotationType"           # [<str>]
         #Option     "Rotate"                 # [<str>]
         #Option     "VideoRAM"               # <i>
         Option     "ActiveDevice" "TV"          # [<str>]
         #Option     "BusWidth"               # [<str>]
         #Option     "Center"                 # [<bool>]
         #Option     "PanelSize"              # [<str>]
         #Option     "ForcePanel"             # [<bool>]
         #Option     "TVDotCrawl"             # [<bool>]
         #Option     "TVDeflicker"            # <i>
         Option     "TVType" "PAL"                # [<str>]
         #Option     "TVOutput" "Composite"               # [<str>]
         #Option     "TVPort"                 # [<str>]
         #Option     "DisableVQ"              # [<bool>]
         #Option     "DisableIRQ"             # [<bool>]
         #Option     "EnableAGPDMA"           # [<bool>]
         #Option     "NoAGPFor2D"             # [<bool>]
         #Option     "NoXVDMA"                # [<bool>]
         #Option     "VbeSaveRestore"         # [<bool>]
         #Option     "DisableXvBWCheck"       # [<bool>]
         #Option     "ModeSwitchMethod"       # [<str>]
         #Option     "MaxDRIMem"              # <i>
         #Option     "AGPMem"                 # <i>
     Identifier  "Card0"
     Driver      "openchrome"
     VendorName  "VIA Technologies, Inc."
     BoardName   "CN700/P4M800 Pro/P4M800 CE/VN800 [S3 UniChrome Pro]"
     BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
     Identifier "Screen0"
     Device     "Card0"
     Monitor    "Monitor0"
     SubSection "Display"
         Viewport   0 0
         Modes    "720x576Noscale"
         Depth     8
     EndSubSection
     SubSection "Display"
         Viewport   0 0
         Modes    "720x576Noscale"
         Depth     15
     EndSubSection
     SubSection "Display"
         Viewport   0 0
         Modes    "720x576Noscale"
         Depth     16
     EndSubSection
     SubSection "Display"
         Viewport   0 0
         Modes    "720x576Noscale"
#        Modes    "800x600"
#        Modes    "1024x768"
         Depth     24
     EndSubSection
EndSection

Any ideas / help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks
John