[mythtv-users] Display only detected sometimes, "low-graphics mode" rest of time

Allen Edwards allen.edwards at oldpaloalto.com
Tue Jun 17 21:11:14 UTC 2008


On Tue, Jun 17, 2008 at 12:24 PM, James Crow <james at ultratans.com> wrote:
> On Tue, 2008-06-17 at 12:02 -0700, Allen Edwards wrote:
>> On Tue, Jun 17, 2008 at 11:27 AM, James Crow <james at ultratans.com> wrote:
>> > On Tue, 2008-06-17 at 10:43 -0700, Allen Edwards wrote:
>> >> I just upgraded my myth box from a 2.4GHz P4 to a AMD 5400+.  This is
>> >> my first AMD machine and it isn't going that well.  Besides the air2pc
>> >> card problem in another post, this machine boots up fine sometimes and
>> >> boots up with this message some times:  "Ubuntu is running in
>> >> low-graphics mode".  This is with nvidia 5+ driver.  It seems the
>> >> problem is that the ASUS 6200 PCI-E card is recognizing the Samsung
>> >> 193p+ only some of the times.  I never had a problem with this monitor
>> >> in mythbuntu with the P4 system and the EVGA 6200 AGP card.
>> >>
>> >> Does anyone know if this means I have defective hardware?  I think I
>> >> have like 7 days to send stuff back if needed.
>> >>
>> >> Anyone else have this problem?
>> >>
>> >> I searched for a solution and of course, there are lots of advice how
>> >> to get rid of this error when it is permanent (install the drivers)
>> >> but nothing for a sometimes problem.
>> >>
>> >> Allen
>> >> _______________________________________________
>> >> mythtv-users mailing list
>> >> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
>> >> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>> >>
>> >
>> > I have a couple of Panasonic 50" plasma sets connected to Ubuntu 7.10 by
>> > 50' DVI->HDMI cables and the computer is not able to read any EDID info
>> > from them. What I did was hookup a short (6' RadioShack brand) DVI->HDMI
>> > cable. With that cable I could sometimes get EDID info from the TVs.
>> > With the short cable connected I started X with 'start -- -logverbose 6'
>> > and then looked through /var/log/Xorg.0.log to find the raw EDID bytes
>> > from the TV. Once I had the EDID info I saved it into a file and told
>> > the Nvidia driver to use that. I also had to set a few overrides because
>> > many older TV sets give out conflicting EDID info. Once that was done I
>> > got a consistent picture on the sets. Here is a bit of
>> > my /etc/X11/xorg.conf file with some of the relevant info:
>> >
>> > Section "Device"
>> >        Identifier      "Failsafe Device"
>> >        Boardname       "vesa"
>> >        Busid           "PCI:0:5:0"
>> >        Driver          "nvidia"
>> >        Screen  0
>> >        Option          "AddARGBVisuals"        "True"
>> >        Option          "AddARGBGLXVisuals"     "True"
>> >        Option          "NoLogo"        "True"
>> >        #Option         "ModeValidation"
>> > "DPF-0:AllowNon60HzDFPModes,NoMaxPClkCheck,NoEdidMaxPClkCheck,AllowInterlacedModes,NoMaxSizeCheck,NoHorizSyncCheck,NoVertRefreshCheck,NoWidthAlignmentCheck,NoDFPNativeResolutionCheck,NoVirtualSizeCheck,NoVesaModes,NoEdidModes,NoXServerModes,NoPredefinedModes,NoUserModes"
>> >        # The next line works and allows both 1080i and 720p, but 1080i
>> > is shaky
>> >        #Option         "ModeValidation"
>> > "NoHorizSyncCheck,NoVertRefreshCheck"
>> >        Option          "ModeValidation" "DFP-0:
>> > NoHorizSyncCheck,NoVirtualSizeCheck,NoDFPNativeResolutionCheck"
>> >        Option          "connectedMonitor"      "DFP-0"
>> >        Option          "CustomEDID"
>> > "DFP-0:/etc/X11/PANASONIC-edid.bin"
>> > EndSection
>> >
>> >
>> > There is a lot of extra crap in there from my testing. The best thing I
>> > found when fighting with a set was to always start X from the command
>> > line with logverbose 6. If you have a certain mode that is failing the
>> > Xorg.0.log file will tell you why the driver rejected it. My TV at home
>> > was quite a problem until I upgraded to Mythbuntu 8.04. Prior to that I
>> > fought with it and an onboard 6150. Now that I use an 8400 PCI-e card
>> > the driver can autodetect everything just fine. I don't know if the
>> > newer card or the driver were the fix, but things are better now for me.
>> >
>> > HTH
>> > James
>> >
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > mythtv-users mailing list
>> > mythtv-users at mythtv.org
>> > http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>> >
>>
>> Hi James,
>>
>> Thanks for the reply.
>>
>> I take it that the critical lines are:
>>         Option          "ModeValidation" "DFP-0:
>>  NoHorizSyncCheck,NoVirtualSizeCheck,NoDFPNativeResolutionCheck"
>>         Option          "connectedMonitor"      "DFP-0"
>>         Option          "CustomEDID"
>>  "DFP-0:/etc/X11/PANASONIC-edid.bin"
>>
>> and that you saved something in the PANASONIC-edid.bin file.
>>
>> Three questions come up.
>> 1) Should I just get another video card that works?  Which one?
>> 2) What is in the .bin file?  Can you share that?
>> 3) Could the information in the .bin  file be put directly into xorg.conf?
>>
>> Thanks again,
>>
>> Allen
>> _______________________________________________
>> mythtv-users mailing list
>> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
>> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>>
>
> 1) I don't knwo if you should get a better video card. I upgraded my
> video card and moved to a newer version of Mythbuntu (and nvidia driver)
> all at once and it detected and worked with my TV much better than the
> old setup. I do not know which particular part made things better. My
> current setup is just a cheap 8400 fanless card. Here is the spec:
>
> root at mythfront:~/mythprime_test# lspci -v -s 03:00
> 03:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 8400 GS
> (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
>        Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. Unknown device 0740
>        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 18
>        Memory at df000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
>        Memory at c0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
>        Memory at dc000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=32M]
>        I/O ports at ec00 [size=128]
>        [virtual] Expansion ROM at defe0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
>        Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 2
>        Capabilities: [68] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit+ Queue=0/0
> Enable-
>        Capabilities: [78] Express Endpoint IRQ 0
>
> 2) I could send you the bin file, but I doubt it would do much good. It
> is the EDID info for my specific television. I got it from the
> Xorg.0.log file. You need to run with logverbose 6. Easiest way (on
> Mythbuntu) is to stop gdm from a ssh shell works fine. Then start X with
> this command 'startx -- -logverbose 6' Wait a few seconds and then
> Ctrl-C to kill X. Look in the /var/log/Xorg.0.log file and search for
> EDID. I cut and pasted this section into a new file and that is the .bin
> file referenced above.
>
> 3) I am not sure about that. I learned what I needed from the nvidia
> driver web site. I think the Xorg readme appendix 3 lists all the
> options I just had to play with things for a while to get a picture.
> Here are the current x org options:
> http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/173.14.09/README/appendix-b.html
>
> Thanks,
> James
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users at mythtv.org
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>

Thank you for the detailed help.  I really appreciate it.  I don't
often get such generous help.

As an update, I phoned ASUS and they said that the M3A, Ubuntu, and
the EN6200LE TC1G should all work together and that I should not have
this problem.  However, they didn't tell me how to figure out what is
wrong other than swap cards around.  I actually doubt that he is right
but that is my bias...

I am going to do more experimenting to see if I can find the root
cause.  I will keep people posted.


Allen


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