J7F5M-VHE / VIA CX700M - HDMI Video and Sound

[scenestar]

I have a jetway J7F5M-VHE board with a VIA CX700M chipset running Ubuntu GNU/Linux 8.04

All i want to do is the following:

• have working sound + resolutions of 720P, 1366x768, 1080i over HDMI
• Have some form of video acceleration when viewing recordings from my mythbackend so that at least 1080i or 720p HDTV recordings are watchable.

I know that these features are available, hell it works just fine in windows.

My questions are the following.

IS this possible with any driver for this particular chipset.

If so, How do I configure it properly?

I've been trying to get this shit to work since last year november, Any solution would be highly appreciated.

[Antharian]

I've been hoping for a similar solution for many months now. I still do not have anything working.

If you come across something that does work, please let me know by posting it here!

Regards,

-A

[twoofseven]

Hello, here is my configuration for a J7F5M-VHE with ubuntulite 8.04. Due to my Philips flat TV (connected via HDMI), the screen resolution is only 1024x768 (not 1080i or 720p).

To transmit video via HDMI with a "CX700M2 UniChrome PRO II Graphics" chipset, you can use two possible drivers:

Openchrome:
Currently openchrome does not support mpeg2/4 hardware acceleration for the CX700. To gain an overview of supported features, see:

: HardwareCaveats

For a detailed installation guide have a look at:

: Compiling the source code

or especially for ubuntu use:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/OpenChrome

Unichrome (my choice, because of HW-acceleration):
Go to http://linux.via.com.tw/, select "Ubuntu 8.04 LTS" and "CX700M/VX700" and download the unichrome.83.40692 (Beta) driver (File: via-unichrome.83.40692.tar.gz).

Unzip and install the downloaded driver:

tar xzf via-unichrome.83.40692.tar.gz
cd via-unichrome.83.40692
./vinstall

The installation script will override your /etc/X11/xorg.conf. You should change the file after the installation process, because the generated xorg.conf did not work in my case.

Important parts of my /etc/X11/xorg.conf (The monitor is configured to a Philips 32PF9830):

...

Section "Device"
	Identifier	"Generic Video Card"
	VendorName	"VIA Tech"
	BoardName	"via"
	# unichrome
	Driver		"via"
	# This is important to activate the HDMI output.
	Option "ActiveDevice"  "DVI" 
#	# openchrome
#	Driver		"openchrome"
#	BusID		"PCI:1:0:0"
#	Option		"VBEModes"	"true"
#	Option		"DisableIRQ"	"true"
#	Option		"EnableAGPDMA"	"true"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier  	"PHILIPS FTV"
	VendorName	"PHL"
	DisplaySize	305 230
	Option 		"DPMS"
	HorizSync	28-50
	VertRefresh	43-62
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier	"Default Screen"
	Device		"Generic Video Card"
	Monitor  	"PHILIPS FTV"
	DefaultDepth	16
	SubSection "Display"
                Modes   "1024x768"
                Depth   16
        EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
                Modes   "1024x768"
                Depth   24
        EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
	Identifier	"Default Layout"
	Screen		"Default Screen"
	InputDevice	"Generic Keyboard"
	InputDevice	"Configured Mouse"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
	Group		0
	Mode		0666
EndSection

You can copy some additional modelines from the viax.conf file of the via-unichrome.83.40692 directory.

To get the audio over HDMI you need a /etc/asoundrc (my solution) or a .asoundrc (never tested) file in your home directory, containing :

pcm. !default {
    type hw
    card 0
    device 1
}

And you should check your sound settings. Use the command alsamixer and activate "IEC958". This works only for alsa (because I use ubuntulite) not for the pulseaudio server under ubuntu. I do not know how to configure pulseaudio to use the digital audio. I tryed it via the sound/audio GUI of ubuntu, but it did not work. Maybe you are able to do so.

Good luck!

[agisman]

Thanks to twoofseven for recommended help in this forum.

I wanted to mention one caveat about using the Unichrome drivers from VIA's Linux page. I still have an open thread elsewhere that no one seems to comment on and it's likely you will soon be in the same boat.

When installing VIA's Unichrome drivers 83.40692, it reverts to an old version of MESA (6.5.1). This MESA set is from September 2006. It is now up to 7.0.3. Before you install the Unichrome drivers, run glxinfo and check which version of Mesa is installed. On most systems you probably see v7.0.3rc-2. Then install the Unichrome driver and check again to see 6.5.1 (if all works.) If you follow this install up with regular updates through Synaptic, Mesa will also get updated and break the driver.

There is probably a way around this but it would be nice to know when VIA will support a more current form of Mesa that's not quite two years old. For two glorious weeks, I had a working J7F5 that quit rendering after some updates. Uninstalling and reinstalling the driver through the ./vinstall no longer reverts to 6.5.1 and is left nonworking.

Good luck to all who struggle and I keep checking for more stable releases of the driver. If anyone else experiences the same problem and finds a work around, don't hesitate to post it.

Cheers!

[Antharian]

This "ALMOST" works... if I reset the X server several times by doing CTRL-ALT-Backspace I can get the HDMI port to activate when using the Via binary drivers. I've not really found the pattern to it yet on how and when the CTRL-ALT-Backspace will activate the HDMI port... sometimes it will, some times it won't.

As a second note, even when the HDMI port activates, there is no sound delivered via the HDMI port. It is video only. Is there a solution for this as well?

Regards,

-A

[scenestar]

Alright, thanks for your replies.

Now, I can confirm that the HDMI output works, seeing as I get a video signal during boot and outside X.

The problem however, is that the moment X is active, I get either "mode not supported" or "no signal".