Ubuntu 8.04 unichrome patch and CX700M2 drivers

[agisman]

Hey Everyone,

I posted before about some of the problems getting the CX700M2 chipset working properly on Ubuntu 8.04. Even when the new stable drivers came out, I couldn't get it to enable rendering. The Xorg log says that drmopen failed and DRI is disabled.

Looking on the Via linux page, it seems that they have added "source code" for an item called unichrome-patch. In the patch readme file, there are some comments about the 2.6.24 kernel not supporting the Via chipset. Unfortunately, there isn't much documentation and what is available is written in broken English. I'm also not sure what the difference between the AGP and DRM patches is and which one to use. The output of 'uname -r' tells me my kernel is:

2.6.24-19-generic

Does anyone have the proper procedure for installing the drivers and/or patching the kernel to enable 3D and the stable drivers on Ubuntu 8.04? I have gotten as far as downloading the linux-source package as well as the 'patch' package. I un-tar'd the source package to a local directory then moved the patch file into the same folder. Using the recommended command: 'patch –p0 < via-agp.patch-2.6.24' causes the following error.

patch: **** Can't find file –p0 : No such file or directory

I'm unfamiliar with applying a diff file and patching the kernel and it would be nice to have some directions in clear English that tell me in which order to install the driver or patch the kernel etc. Thanks for any advice you can give!

Cheers,
Agisman

[earlycj5]

Originally Posted by agisman

patch: **** Can't find file –p0 : No such file or directory

It's

-p0

Not

–p0

There is a difference.

[agisman]

Thanks to earlycj5!

I had just copied the text out of the provided PDF and used that as the necessary code. Unfortunately, I couldn't tell the difference between the two characters that both looked like the minus sign.

After manually entering it and patching the kernel source with the AGP and DRM patches, I was able to enable rendering and get the card back up and working. Unfortunately, there is still no acceleration for video and processor usage is so high as to make it useless for video playback. I'll keep my eye on the VIA page and hope that they actually release fully functional drivers one day. It's disappointing for a major manufacturer not to fully support the open source community in a timely fashion.

Again, thanks for the advice!

[mewn]

Hi,

With my EX15000 it was easy :

- Go to VIA Linux Portal

On the left menu, choose "Ubuntu 8.04 LTS"
On the right menu, choose "CX700X/VX700"

Download the "stable" driver.

Uncompress it, run the installer.

Go to /usr/lib, as root chmod ugo+r *GL*

And voila, everything is working included 3d....

[tuatara]

Hi Mewn,

It almost sounds too easy! Well done.
Can I just ask a couple of questions on your setup.

a) have you an up-to-date ubuntu system? I'm after your kernel version which you can get from the results of 'uname -r'?
b) do you see messages of the form 'via disagrees with struct version' in the output of dmesg
c) do you see DRI getting disabled in /var/log/Xorg.0.log with errors about opening /dev/??/card0 (typing this in from memory)
d) are you using VeXP or VeMP? (The via enhanced Xine/MPlayer?)
e) What processor utilization do you see playing a PAL or NTSC sized MPEG?
f) Are you using TV-Out (S-Video or Component/HDTV)? If so, what are your Advanced BIOS settings for that and xorg.conf.
g) what video drivers have you selected in xine/mplayer?

ooops - thats more than a couple. There are a number of people (including me) who have knocked their heads against this for quite a while trying to get just the right combination of BIOS/xorg settings. To have someone with a working system we could copy is a godsend.

Many thanks.
Paul.

Originally Posted by mewn

Hi,

With my EX15000 it was easy :

- Go to VIA Linux Portal

On the left menu, choose "Ubuntu 8.04 LTS"
On the right menu, choose "CX700X/VX700"

Download the "stable" driver.

Uncompress it, run the installer.

Go to /usr/lib, as root chmod ugo+r *GL*

And voila, everything is working included 3d....

[mewn]

Hi Paul,


In the mean time I did some extra changes :

- updated kernel to latest version : then the module from VIA doesn't work anymore
- I was affected by a bug regarding the use of the second SATA connector ( see Bug 8563 - pata_via: Does not work with 2nd drive attached )

For both reason I then decided to patch the source against 1) the VIA unichrome patch ( unichrome_patch from VIA Linux Portal ) and 2) the SATA patch from the link above.
Now the whole is perfect.


Regarding the use of the VIA unichrome patch, I installed first the binary driver, and then after recompilation was having my own module. But you still need the binary driver for the GL libraries.

I have created .deb of my kernel binary and modules, if it can help someone, I don't mind dumping it somewhere. With this kernel I do raid 1 on SATA to encrypted LVM, 3D and hard accel ( well this is the DRM part of the patch right ? ).

Now for your questions :

a)
uname -r
2.6.24.3-epia6

That's my customer version now, it has been build using source from 2.6.24 shipped with 2.6.24-19

b) you get this error message after upgrading your kernel version. The binary module shipped with the binary driver is build against the first kernel of ubuntu 8.04 LTS, after doing an upgrade it doesn't work anymore.

c) yes you still see it, but you can go past it :

(--) VIA(0): mapping Integrated TV MMIO @ 0xdd00c000 with size 0x100
(II) VIA(0): vgaHWGetIOBase: hwp->IOBase is 0x03d0, hwp->PIOOffset is 0x0000
(EE) VIA(0): Couldn't open "/dev/video2"
(II) VIA(0): VIAScreenInit : V4L Disabled : fd2 = -1
drmOpenDevice: node name is /dev/dri/card0
drmOpenDevice: open result is -1, (No such device)
drmOpenDevice: open result is -1, (No such device)
drmOpenDevice: Open failed
drmOpenDevice: node name is /dev/dri/card0
drmOpenDevice: open result is -1, (No such device)
drmOpenDevice: open result is -1, (No such device)
drmOpenDevice: Open failed
drmOpenByBusid: Searching for BusID PCI:1:0:0
drmOpenDevice: node name is /dev/dri/card0
drmOpenDevice: open result is 7, (OK)
drmOpenByBusid: drmOpenMinor returns 7
drmOpenByBusid: drmGetBusid reports pci:0000:01:00.0
(II) [drm] loaded kernel module for "via" driver.
(II) [drm] DRM interface version 1.3
(II) [drm] DRM open master succeeded.
(II) VIA(0): [drm] Using the DRM lock SAREA also for drawables.
(II) VIA(0): [drm] framebuffer handle = 0xa0000000
(II) VIA(0): [drm] added 1 reserved context for kernel
[...]
(II) VIA(0): DPMS enabled
(II) VIA(0): [DRI] installation complete
(II) VIA(0): [dri] kernel data initilized.
(II) VIA(0): [drm] Initialized AGP ring-buffer, size 0x1000000 at AGP offset 0x0.
(II) VIA(0): direct rendering enabled
(II) VIA(0): lpVIAGraphicInfo->dwXServerEnabled is 1


d) no I am using totem shipped with ubuntu ( based on xine ).
I haven't tried VeXP / VeMP but will probably if I can get hold of it

e) not a lab benchmark, but here you go :


DIVX :

gmplayer playing that :

AVI file format detected.
[aviheader] Video stream found, -vid 0
[aviheader] Audio stream found, -aid 1
VIDEO: [XVID] 640x480 12bpp 25.000 fps 901.1 kbps (110.0 kbyte/s)
Clip info:
Software: VirtualDubMod 1.5.4.1 (build 2178/release)
xscreensaver_disable: Could not find XScreenSaver window.
GNOME screensaver disabled
================================================== ========================
Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family
Selected video codec: [ffodivx] vfm: ffmpeg (FFmpeg MPEG-4)
================================================== ========================
================================================== ========================
Forced audio codec: mad
Opening audio decoder: [libmad] libmad mpeg audio decoder
AUDIO: 48000 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 128.0 kbit/8.33% (ratio: 16000->192000)
Selected audio codec: [mad] afm: libmad (libMAD MPEG layer 1-2-3)
================================================== ========================
AO: [pulse] 48000Hz 2ch s16le (2 bytes per sample)
Starting playback...
VDec: vo config request - 640 x 480 (preferred colorspace: Planar YV12)
VDec: using Planar YV12 as output csp (no 0)
Movie-Aspect is 1.33:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect.
VO: [xv] 640x480 => 640x480 Planar YV12


not fullscreen : 17 to 19% of CPU


It was windowed. My desktop is running at 1680x1050 ( my flat panel is way bigger than the computer.... :-) )

Using Totem : 23 to 25 % of CPU


MPEG :

gmplayer

MPEG-PS file format detected.
VIDEO: MPEG1 640x480 (aspect 1) 29.970 fps 1500.0 kbps (187.5 kbyte/s)
xscreensaver_disable: Could not find XScreenSaver window.
GNOME screensaver disabled
================================================== ========================
Opening video decoder: [mpegpes] MPEG 1/2 Video passthrough
VDec: vo config request - 640 x 480 (preferred colorspace: Mpeg PES)
Could not find matching colorspace - retrying with -vf scale...
Opening video filter: [scale]
The selected video_out device is incompatible with this codec.
Try appending the scale filter to your filter list,
e.g. -vf spp,scale instead of -vf spp.
VDecoder init failed
Opening video decoder: [libmpeg2] MPEG 1/2 Video decoder libmpeg2-v0.4.0b
Selected video codec: [mpeg12] vfm: libmpeg2 (MPEG-1 or 2 (libmpeg2))
================================================== ========================
================================================== ========================
Forced audio codec: mad
Opening audio decoder: [libmad] libmad mpeg audio decoder
AUDIO: 44100 Hz, 1 ch, s16le, 96.0 kbit/13.61% (ratio: 12000->88200)
Selected audio codec: [mad] afm: libmad (libMAD MPEG layer 1-2-3)
================================================== ========================
AO: [pulse] 44100Hz 1ch s16le (2 bytes per sample)
Starting playback...
VDec: vo config request - 640 x 480 (preferred colorspace: Planar YV12)
VDec: using Planar YV12 as output csp (no 0)
Movie-Aspect is 1.33:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect.
VO: [xv] 640x480 => 640x480 Planar YV12


cpu usage : 20 to 22 %


totem, same file : 22 to 24 %


f) I am not using the TV-out

g) everything left by default, no configuration made.



Cheers,
mewn