[gentoo-user] xorg.conf tweaks for HTPC machine?

[gentoo-user] xorg.conf tweaks for HTPC machine?

[Walter Dnes]

  I have an Intel i3 hooked up to the HDMI input of my 50-inch plasma
TV.  The TV's native resolution is 1366x768.  It was bought in the
summer of 2007.  I have 2 problems I want to fix as far as displaying
stuff on it is concerned...

1) Despite the TV being native 1366x768, it defaults to 1280x720, which
is the first mode listed in the EDID.  Fixed-pixel displays show best at
their native resolution  So I ran "Xorg -configure" and created an
xorg.conf file, and forced 1366x768 resolution.  And got no picture.  I
tried X again at 128x720.  Then I used xrandr to change to 1920x1080,
and it worked.  Used xrandr to change to 1366x768, and it hung.  From
Xorg.0.log ...

[  2826.586] (II) intel(0): switch to mode 1366x768 on crtc 3 (pipe 0)
[  2920.286] (EE)
[  2920.286] (EE) Backtrace:
[  2920.286] (EE) 0: /usr/bin/X (xorg_backtrace+0x36) [0x596016]
[  2920.286] (EE) 1: /usr/bin/X (0x400000+0x199f49) [0x599f49]
[  2920.286] (EE) 2: /lib64/libpthread.so.0 (0x7fb5eef2e000+0x10460) [0x7fb5eef3
e460]
[  2920.286] (EE) 3: /lib64/libc.so.6 (__select+0x13) [0x7fb5edc760e3]
[  2920.286] (EE) 4: /usr/bin/X (WaitForSomething+0x19f) [0x5937df]
[  2920.286] (EE) 5: /usr/bin/X (0x400000+0x38872) [0x438872]
[  2920.286] (EE) 6: /usr/bin/X (0x400000+0x27365) [0x427365]
[  2920.286] (EE) 7: /lib64/libc.so.6 (__libc_start_main+0xfd) [0x7fb5edbb34bd]
[  2920.287] (EE) 8: /usr/bin/X (0x400000+0x26ec9) [0x426ec9]
[  2920.287] (EE)

Any ideas?

2) Overscan... bleagh.  It's rather difficult to start Firefox when the
launch bar is off the bottom of the screen.  It just barely pokes its
head above the bottom.  There's a bunch of magic that xrandr can work on
VGA, but I'm using HDMI, so no go.  And the TV does *NOT* have a VGA
input on the back, regardless of what the xrandr output says.  I've read
about "xnest" and "xephyr" X "sub clients" that can use a smaller window
within the main window.  There don't seem to be any ebuilds for them.
The one link I found for downloading the Xephyr source is a dead link.
Any ideas?  BTW, where's output from "xrandr", for what it's worth...

Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1920 x 1080, maximum 32767 x 32767
VGA1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI1 connected 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 920mm x 518mm
   1920x1080      60.0*+   30.0  
   1280x720       60.0 +
   1680x1050      59.9  
   1680x945       60.0  
   1400x1050      59.9  
   1600x900       60.0  
   1280x1024      60.0  
   1440x900       59.9  
   1280x960       60.0  
   1366x768       60.0  
   1360x768       60.0  
   1280x800       59.9  
   1280x768       60.0  
   1024x768       60.0  
   1440x480       30.0  
   1440x480i      30.0  
   1024x576       60.0  
   800x600        60.3  
   848x480        60.0  
   720x480        59.9  
   640x480        59.9     59.9  
DP1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>
I don't run "desktop environments"; I run useful applications

Re: [gentoo-user] xorg.conf tweaks for HTPC machine?

[pk]

On 2012-12-17 17:23, Walter Dnes wrote:

<snipped a whole lot...>

> 1) Despite the TV being native 1366x768, it defaults to 1280x720, which
> is the first mode listed in the EDID.  Fixed-pixel displays show best at
> their native resolution  So I ran "Xorg -configure" and created an
> xorg.conf file, and forced 1366x768 resolution.  And got no picture.  I
> tried X again at 128x720.  Then I used xrandr to change to 1920x1080,
> and it worked.  Used xrandr to change to 1366x768, and it hung.  From
> Xorg.0.log ...

> Any ideas?

You can perhaps try to find out what the tv is telling X: x11-misc/read-edid

... if you haven't already tried it (you can also use "startx --
-logverbose 6").

You can also set your preferred resolution in xorg.conf as such:

In Section "Screen":

Subsection "Display"
	...
	Modes "1366x768" "1280x720" ...
EndSubSection

X will automatically try the leftmost alternative first...

Regarding the crash, I don't know enough about debugging, unfortunately.
Have you tried rebuilding X and all it's libs?

Best regards

Peter K

Re: [gentoo-user] xorg.conf tweaks for HTPC machine?

[Walter Dnes]

On Mon, Dec 17, 2012 at 07:34:22PM +0100, pk wrote
> On 2012-12-17 17:23, Walter Dnes wrote:
> 
> <snipped a whole lot...>
> 
> > 1) Despite the TV being native 1366x768, it defaults to 1280x720, which
> > is the first mode listed in the EDID.  Fixed-pixel displays show best at
> > their native resolution  So I ran "Xorg -configure" and created an
> > xorg.conf file, and forced 1366x768 resolution.  And got no picture.  I
> > tried X again at 128x720.  Then I used xrandr to change to 1920x1080,
> > and it worked.  Used xrandr to change to 1366x768, and it hung.  From
> > Xorg.0.log ...
> 
> > Any ideas?
> 
> You can perhaps try to find out what the tv is telling X: x11-misc/read-edid
> 
> ... if you haven't already tried it (you can also use "startx --
> -logverbose 6").

  The parsing of the EDID is already logged in gory detail in the
logfile.

> You can also set your preferred resolution in xorg.conf as such:
> 
> In Section "Screen":
> 
> Subsection "Display"
> 	...
> 	Modes "1366x768" "1280x720" ...
> EndSubSection

  After some spelunking in the X log file, I noticed the following

[  1789.561] (II) intel(0): [DRI2] Setup complete
[  1789.561] (II) intel(0): [DRI2]   DRI driver: i965
[  1789.561] (II) intel(0): direct rendering: DRI2 Enabled
[  1789.561] (--) RandR disabled
[  1789.566] (EE) AIGLX error: dlopen of /usr/lib64/dri/i965_dri.so failed (/usr
/lib64/dri/i965_dri.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or director
y)
[  1789.566] (EE) AIGLX: reverting to software rendering
[  1789.566] (II) AIGLX: Screen 0 is not DRI capable
[  1789.671] (II) AIGLX: Loaded and initialized swrast
[  1789.671] (II) GLX: Initialized DRISWRAST GL provider for screen 0

  "lspci -v" shows "Kernel driver in use: i915" hmmmm.  It wants i965,
but it's getting i915.  I took a look in /usr/lib64/dri/ to see what was
and was not in there...

[i3][root][~] ll -og /usr/lib64/dri/
total 30
drwxr-xr-x  2   216 Dec 18 01:57 .
drwxr-xr-x 58 31024 Dec 18 01:34 ..
-rw-r--r--  1     0 Dec 14 17:57 .keep_media-libs_mesa-0
lrwxrwxrwx  1    20 Jan  8  2011 i915_dri.so -> ../mesa/i915g_dri.so
lrwxrwxrwx  1    20 Dec 14 17:57 i915g_dri.so -> ../mesa/i915g_dri.so
lrwxrwxrwx  1    22 Jan  8  2011 swrast_dri.so -> ../mesa/swrastg_dri.so
lrwxrwxrwx  1    22 Dec 14 17:57 swrastg_dri.so -> ../mesa/swrastg_dri.so

  There's the i915g_dri.so driver; what package provides it?

[i3][root][~] equery b i915g_dri.so
 * Searching for i915g_dri.so ... 
media-libs/mesa-9.0 (/usr/lib64/mesa/i915g_dri.so)
media-libs/mesa-9.0 (/usr/lib64/dri/i915g_dri.so -> ../mesa/i915g_dri.so)

  I ran "emerge -pv mesa", and discovered that mesa had been merged with
USE="-xorg".  This is what I get for starting USE with "-*"...
http://media.comicvine.com/uploads/11/117774/2361934-double_facepalm.jpg

  I emerged mesa with "xorg" USE flag, and 1366x768 now works fine.  One
problem down and one to go.  I had merged mesa with the "intel" USE
flag.  It also has "i915" and i965" USE flags.  If I can get the i965
driver built, I'd go from "software acceleration" to hardware
acceleration.  That's my next step.

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>
I don't run "desktop environments"; I run useful applications

Re: [gentoo-user] xorg.conf tweaks for HTPC machine?

[Walter Dnes]

  "Walter's Excellent Adventure" Chapter 2

On Tue, Dec 18, 2012 at 03:17:59AM -0500, Walter Dnes wrote

>   I ran "emerge -pv mesa", and discovered that mesa had been merged with
> USE="-xorg".  This is what I get for starting USE with "-*"...
> http://media.comicvine.com/uploads/11/117774/2361934-double_facepalm.jpg
> 
>   I emerged mesa with "xorg" USE flag, and 1366x768 now works fine.  One
> problem down and one to go.  I had merged mesa with the "intel" USE
> flag.  It also has "i915" and i965" USE flags.  If I can get the i965
> driver built, I'd go from "software acceleration" to hardware
> acceleration.  That's my next step.

  Now things start to get *REALLY* weird.

* Using VIDEO_CARDS="i965" in make.conf enables DRI2 hardware acceleration
* But it requires the "classic" USE flag for mesa
* The "xorg" USE flag also makes mesa require the "gallium" USE flag
* Building mesa with *BOTH* "classic" and "gallium" works
* And it runs in 1366x768 mode
* And it runs *ONLY* in 1366x768 mode.  xrandr does not change the
  resolution, notwithstanding the gazillion modes it lists
* I went back to mesa without the "xorg" and "gallium" flags to simplify
  my setup
* Again, it runs 1366x768, and *ONLY* 1366x768.  But it does have
  hardware acceleration
* And yes, I did try replacing the xf86-video-intel driver with
  xf86-video-modesetting.  No X.
* So the one change I've made after all this fooling around is to change
  the VIDEO_CARDS setting in make.conf from "intel" to "i965".

  The net change is that...
* the TV displays in native 1366x768 mode, and *ONLY* 1366x768 mode
* X now has hardware acceleration

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>
I don't run "desktop environments"; I run useful applications

Re: [gentoo-user] xorg.conf tweaks for HTPC machine?

[Walter Dnes]

"Walter's Excellent Adventure" Chapter 3

On Tue, Dec 18, 2012 at 05:02:32AM -0500, Walter Dnes wrote

>   The net change is that...
> * the TV displays in native 1366x768 mode, and *ONLY* 1366x768 mode
> * X now has hardware acceleration

   I ran "emerge -pv --deep --newuse world" to make sure everything was
OK.  It wanted to rebuild xorg-server and one other lib after the
changes in "VIDEO_CARDS" in make.conf.  While I was at, I decided to
throw in "xvmc" into my USE flags.  After the rebuilding was over, I
have video acceleration, but no 1366x768.  According to the Xorg.0.log
file the available video modes are...

"1280x720"
"1920x1080i"
"720x480"
"1440x480i"
"1920x1080"
"1440x240"
"720x576"

  I've improved the speed of the video, with hardware acceleration, so
I'll let things be for now.  That's my HTPC machine.

  I'm now switching over my regular desktop (Dell Dimension 530 from the
summer of 2007) to hardware accelerated mode.  This one wants i915
drivers.  I had stuck in an old Nvidia card, which was a bit of a pain...
* I have to rebuild the binary drivers every time I upgrade my kernel
* Flash bleeds through windows on top of a window with Flash
* Flash colour tables are screwed up.  People have blue faces.
* The "fix" for the colour problem involved tweaking /etc/adobe/mms.cfg
  which fixed the colours, but caused Flash to crash a lot.

  With hardware acceleration enable for the onboard Intel GPU, I can now
dump the Nvidia card.

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>
I don't run "desktop environments"; I run useful applications

Re: [gentoo-user] xorg.conf tweaks for HTPC machine?

[Bruce Hill]

On Tue, Dec 18, 2012 at 05:01:59PM -0500, Walter Dnes wrote:
> 
> > * X now has hardware acceleration
> 
>    I ran "emerge -pv --deep --newuse world" to make sure everything was
> OK.  It wanted to rebuild xorg-server and one other lib after the
> changes in "VIDEO_CARDS" in make.conf.  While I was at, I decided to
> throw in "xvmc" into my USE flags.  After the rebuilding was over, I
> have video acceleration, but no 1366x768.  According to the Xorg.0.log
> 
>   I've improved the speed of the video, with hardware acceleration, so
> I'll let things be for now.  That's my HTPC machine.

Still pretty ignorant of all these graphic settings. After using Linux for 9
years, now I have ATi, nVidia, and Intel graphic chipsets and don't know what
to do with them. Prior to migrating to Gentoo last year I just installed the
nVidia binary blob from their website.

Now I've got radeon, nouveau, Intel on most comps -- nvidia-drivers on HTPC.

>   I'm now switching over my regular desktop (Dell Dimension 530 from the
> summer of 2007) to hardware accelerated mode.  This one wants i915
> drivers.  I had stuck in an old Nvidia card, which was a bit of a pain...
> * I have to rebuild the binary drivers every time I upgrade my kernel
> * Flash bleeds through windows on top of a window with Flash
> * Flash colour tables are screwed up.  People have blue faces.
> * The "fix" for the colour problem involved tweaking /etc/adobe/mms.cfg
>   which fixed the colours, but caused Flash to crash a lot.

All that mess got fixed by switching from nVidia's binary blob to nouveau.

>   With hardware acceleration enable for the onboard Intel GPU, I can now
> dump the Nvidia card.

Can you give me some guide, or advice for this ... other than the standard
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/xorg-config.xml ?

Any push in the right direction would be appreciated.

> -- 
> Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>
> I don't run "desktop environments"; I run useful applications

Me, neither. I run Fluxbox and save my memory and CPU cycles for real work. ;)
-- 
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Re: [gentoo-user] xorg.conf tweaks for HTPC machine?

[Walter Dnes]

On Tue, Dec 18, 2012 at 04:59:47PM -0600, Bruce Hill wrote
> On Tue, Dec 18, 2012 at 05:01:59PM -0500, Walter Dnes wrote:
> > 
> >   With hardware acceleration enable for the onboard Intel GPU, I
> > can now dump the Nvidia card.
> 
> Can you give me some guide, or advice for this ... other than the
> standard http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/xorg-config.xml ?
> 
> Any push in the right direction would be appreciated.

  The reason I discovered the solution was that I looked through the
/var/log/Xorg.0.log file.  This file is usually 95+% boring technical
detail.  Near the top of the log file is a section that says...

[    ??.???] Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
        (++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
        (WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.

  I suggest viewing the log file with your favourite editor, and doing a
case-sensitive search on the 2 strings "(EE)" and "DRI" (without the
quotes).  That was what tipped me off to the fact that...
a) there was a problem with DRI
b) what file Xorg was looking for that it couldn't find

  Knowing that info, you can put the appropriate entries into the
VIDEO_CARDS variable in make.conf.  Intel is a bit weird; it wants
both intel and the major driver version.  E.g. for my older desktop...

VIDEO_CARDS="i915 intel"

...and for my newer HTPC machine...

VIDEO_CARDS="i965 intel"

  Then re-emerge mesa.  If Portage asks you to change some USE flags as
part of the process, do so unless it causes problems.  Once mesa is
rebuilt, run...

emerge -pv --newuse --deep world

  This will give a "pretend" run.  If it looks OK, run it for real...

emerge --newuse --deep world

  Again, portage may suggest changing some flags.  I ended up having to
rebuild xorg-server and one lib.  After that, run revdep-rebuild.  And
if you're changing the card type, you'll have to make the corresponding
changes in the kernel via "make menuconfig", rebuild the kernel, and
reboot.  If you get lost, ask here.  Copy the relevant error messages
from your Xorg.0.log file to help track down the problem.

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>
I don't run "desktop environments"; I run useful applications