TV Out on radeon 7500

Tue Oct 16 22:44:24 PDT 2007

On 10/16/07, nikosapi <nikosapi at gmail.com> wrote:
> On October 14, 2007 11:14:37 you wrote:
> > On 10/13/07, nikosapi <nikosapi at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > On October 13, 2007 19:51:14 you wrote:
> > > > On 10/13/07, nikosapi <nikosapi at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > > > On October 13, 2007 18:53:45 you wrote:
> > > > > > On 10/13/07, nikosapi <nikosapi at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > > > > > Hello,
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > I just got an old pci radeon 7500 card for its TV output
> > > > > > > capabilities (I'm using two of the outputs on my nvidia card
> > > > > > > already).
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > I've upgraded to Ubuntu Gutsy and I've also gotten the latest
> > > > > > > radeon drivers and xrandr from git. I got information on how to
> > > > > > > do this from:
> > > > > > > http://mailman.linux-thinkpad.org/pipermail/linux-thinkpad/2007-A
> > > > > > >ugus t/03 9878.html
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > Using xrandr I am able to issue the following commands which
> > > > > > > makes the blue screen on my tv very jittery (I assume it's
> > > > > > > because the card is feeding the TV a bad signal):
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > xrandr --addmode S-video 800x600
> > > > > > > xrandr --output S-video --mode 800x600
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > Then if I try to set the output to ntsc (xrandr --output S-video
> > > > > > > --set tv_standard ntsc) I get the following error:
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > X Error of failed request:  BadValue (integer parameter out of
> > > > > > > range for operation)
> > > > > > >   Major opcode of failed request:  159 (RANDR)
> > > > > > >   Minor opcode of failed request:  13 ()
> > > > > > >   Value in failed request:  0x1b9
> > > > > > >   Serial number of failed request:  20
> > > > > > >   Current serial number in output stream:  21
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > Although if I do: xrandr --output S-video --set tv_standard pal I
> > > > > > > get no error message. Does this mean that it doesn't support
> > > > > > > ntsc? The only other 'tv_standard' that I found that doesn't give
> > > > > > > me an error is 'default' which produces an even more violent
> > > > > > > jitter on the screen.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > According to your bios, you chip only supports PAL:
> > > > > > (II) RADEON(1): Default TV standard: PAL
> > > > > > (II) RADEON(1): TV standards supported by chip: PAL
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Right now I only add the standards that the bios lists.  It's
> > > > > > trivial to add them all though.  they should all work in theory,
> > > > > > but YMMV.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Alex
> > > > >
> > > > > Hello Alex,
> > > > >
> > > > > Is this a problem with the card itself? (Should the bios support ntsc
> > > > > if the box says it should?)
> > > >
> > > > It'll probably work fine.
> > > >
> > > > > If it isn't, is there a way to force the card into ntsc mode?
> > > >
> > > > You can edit the code to add any standards you want (radeon_output.c).
> > > >  I should probably just ignore the bios and add all the tv standards
> > > > (or at least PAL and NTSC).  Maybe this week at some point.
> > > >
> > > > Alex
> > >
> > > It worked! I found the code that checks to see if the ntsc mode is
> > > supported in the card's bios and I commented some of it out. I attached a
> > > patch just in case someone else needs it.
> > >
> > > Another thing I noticed was that without another monitor connected, I
> > > couldn't just activate the tv output with xrandr. The fix for this was to
> > > simply enable the CRT-0 output (before or after the tv output).
> > > I have a little script which takes care of all of this for me:
> >
> > Are you saying TV-out doesn't work until you active the VGA output?
> > Can you post your xorg log?  I'd like take a look at your connector
> > table.  tv-out should not need to rely on any other output.  This
> > might be a bug.
> >
> > If it works reliably for your chip, you can try enabling the tv-out
> > load detection either via output attribute at runtime (it's disabled
> > by default), or by editing the source and enabling it (radeon_output.c
> > ~line 1762).  If it works, attaching the tv-out port and running
> > --auto should automatically detect the TV and add the mode.
> >
> > Alex
>
> Hey Alex,
>
> Sorry for the late response, I've been busy :(
>
> I checked out the latest code from git (2007-10-16 @ 21:30) and tried it out,
> I now seem to be able to run the following xrandr commands and get an output
> on the TV:
>
> DISPLAY=:0.1
> xrandr --addmode S-video 800x600
> xrandr --output S-video --mode 800x600
> xrandr --output S-video --set tv_standard ntsc
> xrandr --output S-video --off
> xrandr --output S-video --mode 800x600
> # y default DVI-0 seems to be set to 1280x768, which makes the S-video output
> # the same resolution. I assume this is because the driver mirrors VGA-0 or
> # DVI-0 on the TV...
> xrandr --output DVI-0 --mode 800x600
> # btw, there is nothing but the TV plugged into the card
>
> The output of xrandr --verbose before the last command:
>         http://pastebin.ca/739340
> Here's my Xorg.0.log:
>         http://pastebin.ca/739346
>
> Finally I decided to try removing all of the ati card's configuration from my
> xorg.conf and create a new one just for the radeon card. Then I started a
> second X server like so:
>
> Xorg :1 -config /etc/X11/xorg.conf.radeon -novtswitch -sharevts
>
> Then I tried to get the TV output working. When I tried to do:
>         xrandr --output S-video --mode 800x600
> xrandr produced the following error:
>         xrandr: cannot find mode 800x600

you need to add 800x600 to the server as the driver only adds it when
it detects a monitor or tv is attached.  Above it's actually adding an
existing 800x600 mode from another output to the S-video output.

>
> * The reason I tried that is because eventually this is how I would like it to
> * work, I don't want to have two connected desktops, It would be better if I
> * could have two separate X servers with separate input devices, etc.
>
> I looked back at radeon_output.c but I'm really not sure how to enable load
> detection, sorry I'm not that good of a programmer ;)  If there's a specific
> way you would like me to test my card let me know, I wouldn't be surprised if
> I was doing something wrong.

radeon_output.c ~lines 1776-1782.  basically set data = 1 there so
load detection will be enabled on all DAC based outputs. then assuming
load detection works properly, it will detect your TV and
automatically add and enable 800x600 on the S-video output.  You can
also try it on the fly with:
xrandr --output S-video --set load_detection 1
then try:
xrandr --output S-video --auto
and see if it works.

Alex