Connecting the NVidia5200 to a HDTV

• In Ubuntu Dapper Drake, when running with the Dell 2405FPW monitor (or a Samsung LN-40A630 M1FXZA) connected over either VGA or DVI at 1920x1200, when playing back 1080i streams in fullscreen mode, there is very bad jagged horizontal breakup of the video. Playback in non-fullscreen mode isn't too badly affected: I found that I needed to use the following geometry settings: mplayer -monitoraspect 16:9 (or mplayer -geometry 1920x1080 stream.ts) and xine --geometry 1840x1035 stream.ts, and moving the window over to the right side of the screen also helps remove the interference.

• xorg.conf_for_Samsung_LN40A630_nvidia5200_VGA: xorg.conf for 1920x1080 with Samsung LN40A630 connected to nvidia5200 over VGA output

• Update March 11, 2007: When testing with Ubuntu Feisty Fawn alpha herd5, which contains nVidia kernel module revision 1.0-9631, and with Ubuntu Feisty Fawn beta (which contains revision 1.0-9755), I found that there is no longer any jagged breakup like there used to be in Dapper Drake (see below). The screen size info is being properly sent as the full display size instead of as just the gnome desktop size, so now fullscreen playback with mplayer is as easy as $HOME/MPlayer-1.0pre8/mplayer -monitoraspect 16:9 -ao alsa -ac hwac3 -vo xvmc -vc ffmpeg12mc filename.ts. Playback with xine using this command: /usr/bin/xine -V xxmc --geometry 1920x1080+0+0 --borderless filename.ts. In Feisty, moving the window around and resizing it works fine during playback using xvmc, whereas with Dapper it tended to crash.

Update: for Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron), after using System -> Administration -> Hardware Drivers to enable the NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver, you just need to install mplayer (no additional packages need to be installed). You still need to edit /etc/X11/XvMCConfig as shown below, to get XvMC going.

  cat /sys/bus/platform/drivers/uvesafb/uvesafb.0/vbe_modes

• vesafb is loaded earlier than uvesafb/vesafb-tng/nvidiafb/whateverfb, therefore it's better for the splash screen: with vesafb the video mode switch does indeed happen earlier than with any other fb driver. However, this DOES NOT mean that the splash screen will be displayed at an earlier stage. It will only appear after the fb driver and fbcon are initialized. If you're bothered by the messages displayed while still in text mode when not using vesafb, use the quiet kernel command line parameter to suppress them.

• The ywrap or ypan options are used in the kernel command line, but the driver says it's using redraw: ywrap/ypan are only available on x86.

• Does v86d have to be included in an initrd?: Yes, it does, unless you want to compile uvesafb as a module.

• uvesafb requires an initrd, which adds complexity to the boot process: uvesafb only needs the initrd as a storage mechanism to hold the v86d executable. It does not require any special scripts or the use of genkernel. In fact, it doesn't even require an initrd something line in GRUB/LILO -- you can just use CONFIG_INITRAMFS_SOURCE="/usr/src/v86d-0.1/misc/initramfs" in your kernel config and forget that there is an initrd involved

• The framebuffer splash, CONSOLE=/dev/tty1 and etc. are independent of the fb driver (people often confuse fbsplash and the fbdev layer, but please note that these are two completely different things).

Caveats and limitations with uvesafb

The uvesafb driver is a generic driver which supports a wide variety of video cards, but which is ultimately limited by the Video BIOS interface. The most important limitations are:

• Lack of any type of acceleration.
• A strict and limited set of supported video modes. Often the native or most optimal resolution/refresh rate for your setup will not work with uvesafb, simply because the Video BIOS doesn't support the video mode you want to use. This can be especially painful with widescreen panels, where native video modes don't have the 4:3 aspect ratio, which is what most BIOS-es are limited to (with some exceptions: e.g. a Dell latitude d820 can do 1920x1200).
• Adjusting the refresh rate is only possible with a VBE 3.0 compliant Video BIOS. Note that many nVidia Video BIOS-es claim to be VBE 3.0 compliant, while they simply ignore any refresh rate settings.

Framebuffer Support for nVidia 5200 with the old vesafb

See here and launchpad bug 129910 for details (workaround: the "black" console is still functional, so if you log in and load the modules manually, it becomes fully functional again).

Add the following two lines to the /etc/initramfs-tools/modules (the set of modules included in the initial ramdisk) configuration file. The reason to use vesafb rather than nvidiafb is that nvidiafb conflicts with the proprietary nvidia-glx-new driver. Since vesafb works well with nVidia video cards, that's the recommended driver for this situation. On the other hand, the nvidiafb is fine if you are using the Free Software nv xorg video driver,

fbcon
vesafb

Then run this command to rebuild the initial ramdisk:

sudo update-initramfs -u

Also, edit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-framebuffer and comment out the line blacklisting vesafb so that it will actually be loaded into the kernel during boot:

#blacklist vesafb

Use the following commands to load the modules manually (before rebooting):

sudo modprobe fbcon
sudo modprobe vesafb

The dmesg output should contain for example:

vesafb: framebuffer at 0xd0000000, mapped to 0xfb900000, using 5742k, total 131072k
vesafb: mode is 1400x1050x16, linelength=2800, pages=1
vesafb: protected mode interface info at c000:e340
vesafb: pmi: set display start = c00ce376, set palette = c00ce3e0
vesafb: pmi: ports = 3b4 3b5 3ba 3c0 3c1 3c4 3c5 3c6 3c7 3c8 3c9 3cc 3ce 3cf 3d0 3d1 3d2 3d3 3d4 3d5 3da
vesafb: scrolling: redraw
vesafb: Truecolor: size=0:5:6:5, shift=0:11:5:0
Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 175x65
fb0: VESA VGA frame buffer device

List the configurable framebuffer resolutions using the following commands:

sudo apt-get install hwinfo
sudo hwinfo --framebuffer

For the nVidia 5200, the output looks like this:

02: None 00.0: 11001 VESA Framebuffer                           
  [Created at bios.447]
  Unique ID: rdCR.gV6QWt3XSCC
  Hardware Class: framebuffer
  Model: "NVIDIA NV34 Board - p162-1n "
  Vendor: "NVIDIA Corporation"
  Device: "NV34 Board - p162-1n "
  SubVendor: "NVIDIA"
  SubDevice: 
  Revision: "Chip Rev"
  Memory Size: 128 MB
  Memory Range: 0xd0000000-0xd7ffffff (rw)
  Mode 0x0300: 640x400 (+640), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0301: 640x480 (+640), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0303: 800x600 (+800), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0305: 1024x768 (+1024), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0307: 1280x1024 (+1280), 8 bits
  Mode 0x030e: 320x200 (+640), 16 bits
  Mode 0x030f: 320x200 (+1280), 24 bits
  Mode 0x0311: 640x480 (+1280), 16 bits
  Mode 0x0312: 640x480 (+2560), 24 bits
  Mode 0x0314: 800x600 (+1600), 16 bits
  Mode 0x0315: 800x600 (+3200), 24 bits
  Mode 0x0317: 1024x768 (+2048), 16 bits
  Mode 0x0318: 1024x768 (+4096), 24 bits
  Mode 0x031a: 1280x1024 (+2560), 16 bits
  Mode 0x031b: 1280x1024 (+5120), 24 bits
  Mode 0x0330: 320x200 (+320), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0331: 320x400 (+320), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0332: 320x400 (+640), 16 bits
  Mode 0x0333: 320x400 (+1280), 24 bits
  Mode 0x0334: 320x240 (+320), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0335: 320x240 (+640), 16 bits
  Mode 0x0336: 320x240 (+1280), 24 bits
  Mode 0x033d: 640x400 (+1280), 16 bits
  Mode 0x033e: 640x400 (+2560), 24 bits
  Mode 0x0345: 1600x1200 (+1600), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0346: 1600x1200 (+3200), 16 bits
  Mode 0x0347: 1400x1050 (+1400), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0348: 1400x1050 (+2800), 16 bits
  Mode 0x0352: 2048x1536 (+8192), 24 bits
  Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown

Let's pick Mode 0x0346: for this, we'd add "vga=0x348" to the kernel boot line, by editing /boot/grub/menu.lst and adding the following line. Using this syntax will save having to edit the kernel line to add "vga=0x348" each time a new update to the kernel package is installed.

# defoptions=quiet vga=773 splash

Run the following command to update the kernel boot line in the grub configuration file:

sudo update-grub

-- PeterKnaggs - 27 Jan 2008

  mplayer -vo fbdev -zoom -x 1400 -y 1050 filename.ts

You can also try other aspect ratios e.g.:

  sudo modprobe -r uvesafb
  sudo modprobe uvesafb mode=1280x1024-16 mtrr=3 scroll=ywrap
  mplayer -vo fbdev -zoom -x 1280 -y 1024 filename.ts

  sudo modprobe -r uvesafb
  sudo modprobe uvesafb mode=1280x1024-16 mtrr=3 scroll=ywrap
  mplayer -vo fbdev -zoom -x 1280 -y 1024 filename.ts

Framebuffer Support for nVidia 5200 with uvesafb

The required kernel module uvesafb will be included in Ubuntu Hardy Heron, as it is part of the mainline kernel since 2.6.24. You'll need to build the userspace v86d for Ubuntu, as there doesn't appear to be any package containing it yet:

sudo apt-get install -y build-essential
wget http://dev.gentoo.org/~spock/projects/uvesafb/archive/v86d-0.1.3.tar.bz2
tar jxvf v86d-0.1.3.tar.bz2
cd v86d-0.1.3/

You'll need to edit the Makefile here, so that it contains:

KDIR   ?= /lib/modules/$(shell uname -r)/build

KDIR   ?= /lib/modules/$(shell uname -r)/source

./configure --default
make
sudo make install
sudo modprobe uvesafb

Now you should be able to use mplayer's -vo fbdev flag to playback video on the framebuffer console (Ctrl Alt F1).

Using older machines for HDTV video playback (with nVidia 5200)

Update: Issues with nVidia 6200 card in Dell PowerEdge 1600SC

After enabling rotation, xvmc video playback would be "stretched" vertically. To avoid that, flip the monitoraspect to 9:16 instead of 16:9 as follows. The video window then fills only a little more than a third of the screen, instead of stretching vertically to fill the entire screen.

  mplayer -framedrop -monitoraspect 9:16 -cache 8192 -vo xvmc -vc ffmpeg12mc -ao alsa -ac hwac3 filename.ts

 /usr/lib/libXvMC.so.1: undefined symbol: XvMCCreateContext
 vo_xvmc: XvMCCreateContext failed with error 2
 FATAL: Cannot initialize video driver.

• In Ubuntu Dapper Drake, when running with the Dell 2405FPW monitor connected over either VGA or DVI at 1920x1200, I found that I needed to use the following geometry settings: mplayer -monitoraspect 16:9 (or mplayer -geometry 1920x1080 stream.ts) and xine --geometry 1840x1035 stream.ts, and move the window over to the right side of the screen, to avoid bizarre jagged horizontal breakup of the video. Just by moving the window over to the right, all was crystal clear again. Couldn't believe my eyes the first time it happened by accident, and all the interference disappeared. Any suggestions on what could be the cause of this would be much appreciated. It seems to be due to some incompatibility between the Dell 2405FPW monitor and the nVidia 5200, or perhaps the settings I'm using are still not right, because using an ordinary Sun GDM-90W10 VGA monitor works fine (with no jagged breakup during video playback) with the same configuration file.

The gentoo wiki covers a lot more details of mplayer, and is well worth a visit.

Wiggly Windows

Recently the graphical effects and usability aspects of the Linux desktop have gained a substantial boost from the X Composite Extension. This extension is beginning to enjoy quite broad hardware support from graphics cards, and provides (or rather, the compositing manager "compiz" provides) those wonderfully enjoyable "wiggly" windows.

You might also like to give beryl a try in Ubuntu Feisty Fawn. I've found that it works very reliably (for a single screen) on the nVidia 5200 using this /etc/X11/xorg.conf and following this guide (with help from the Beryl wiki).

You may find that you need to use this "black windows" workaround from the bottom of this Beryl wiki page: If opening multiple windows results in some of them persistently showing only black contents, it means you do not have enough video memory. This is a bug in the nVidia 1.0-9631 drivers: currently, shared video RAM cannot be used with the GLX_EXT_TEXTURE_FROM_PIXMAP extension. NVidia is aware of it, and it may be fixed in the future. In the meantime, one solution is to use the Copy Rendering Path. It can be enabled by right-clicking the beryl icon (in the top right-hand corner) and then selecting Advanced Beryl options --> Rendering path --> Copy. This does slow things down considerably, though, so I guess in the meantime having an nVidia card with more than 128MB memory could be an advantage for running beryl.

• Update March 11, 2007: When testing with Ubuntu Feisty Fawn alpha herd5, which contains nVidia kernel module revision 1.0-9631,

Rotating Your Monitor Clockwise

Section "Device"
        Identifier      "Generic Video Card"
        Driver          "nvidia"
        BusID           "PCI:4:3:0"
        Option          "AddARGBGLXVisuals"     "True"
        Option          "RandRRotation"         "true"
EndSection

To use this to enable rotation, once you have launched X you can issue the following command (e.g. from an xterm window):

  xrandr -o left

To get back to non-rotated, use:

  xrandr -o normal

If you would like to initiate the rotation graphically, you can install the gnome randr applet package, as follows:

  apt-get install gnome-randr-applet

Right-clicking on the gnome panel and selecting the + Add to Panel menu item, then scrolling down to find the Display Geometry Switcher in the Utilities section, selecting it and clicking the + Add button will add an inconspicuous little grey monitor icon. Clicking on it will offer the options Normal, Left, Inverted and Right. Selecting Left will immediately rotate your screen counter-clockwise, at which point you would then rotate your monitor clockwise. The Inverted option could be useful if you are running out of desk space, but are able to attach the monitor (hanging upside-down) to the ceiling.

    XVideo
    XVideo-MotionCompensation