'Matrox' flag not loading mga module in mplayer

Chewwit · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 28 Feb 2004 Posts: 86

I'm using the matrox use flag in my make.conf to try and get accelerated mplayer video output.

I cannot find the xmga.o module for the kernel for mplayer play back. It does not appear to have been insmoded into my kernel automatically.

I have created the required /dev/mga_vid node as per the mplayer documentation.

I have a fullset of Mplayer compilation output should anyone wish to peruse it.

Mplayer does give me xmga as a video out option, but when I attempt playback I get a 'Fatal error when opening/initializing the vo device'

Does anyone know where portage places this module when the matrox flag is called (so that I can insert it manually)?

Can the ebuild be modified to create the node automatically, and insert the module into the kernel? The matrox use flag could also be used to tell genkernel to insmod this module after building a more recent kernel, without reqiuiring the remerging of mplayer, or fiddling around with insmod seperately.

I'm happy to report this as a bug if people have no objections, I would also like to hear from anyone who has used this flag successfully, and how they went about it.

Thanks

Chewwit

wrs4 · Posted: Sat Jun 24, 2006 4:12 am Post subject:

I'm running into similar problems. I have the matrox USE flag enabled, but no mga_vid device or mga/xmga module.

Research points me to a number of posts with hack for older kernels, but nothing recent (and I dislike hacks anyway).

From what I gather, building mplayer with the matrox flag should make the necessary modules. Some posts report that modprobe -f mga_vid works after applying a patch.

I've looked high and low for patches, working sources, etc, and come up with stuff from 2.6.6 and earlier kernels and/or notes that the patches only work for specific older kernels. Methinks this needs to be addressed as a mainline kernel option.

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Reasonably related search urls:

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-439645-highlight-mgavid.html (similar to this thread)
https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-416840-highlight-mgavid.html (also similar to this thread but somehow he had success on an older kernel)
https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-299719-highlight-mplayer+mgavid+o.html (linked from previous page)
https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-322109-highlight-mgavid.html (somehow he had the module already so all he had to do was force it)

I could include more but those are (sadly) the most recent ones.

Off the forums,

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=create+%2Fdev%2Fmga_vid&btnG=Google+Search (how do I create /dev/mga_vid? Well, apparently it already exists or else you just apply a patch that everyone has and no-one links to) (can you tell I'm frustrated?

)
http://mgaview.sourceforge.net/using.html (from the above Gooooogle link; seems to have reasonable instructions aside from the fact that things don't match up with my gentoo box as far as the kernel header file OR the ability to find anything on the mplayerhq site)
http://lists.mplayerhq.hu/pipermail/mplayer-matrox/2005-December/000241.html (email message from someone who appears to maintain the mga_vid kernel patches claiming he hasn't created one for 2.6.15 as of 6 months ago (and now we're up to 2.6.16))
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Not sure how much help that is, but figured maybe we needed to consolidate some info.

Chewwit · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 28 Feb 2004 Posts: 86

I've been away, hence the long period before replying. I think I reported this as a bug, but can't find it in the records, I was looking for it so I could append all this useful info. It is a possibilty that I may not have done, If so are you willing to get some kind of collabrotive text together for another submission?

Chewwit

wrs4 · Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2006 3:19 am Post subject:

Absolutely.

Right now I'm in the midst of updating to modular Xorg along with the rest of the regularly scheduled portage updates, so it may be a day or two depending on how successful I am

Will post back here when I have Xorg running. Suggestions on how to procede at that point?

Chewwit · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 28 Feb 2004 Posts: 86

Am also updating to modular x at the moment

. I'll try and have another loook for the bug, I'm fairly sure I did report it but it doesn't appear in the 'my bugs' section, and keyword searches have so far found nought. If I can't I suggest we submit another with a link to the forum post (the easy option) or we submit some text that summarises your research (requires more work). I don't suppose you've got things working on your system, so we can post a suggested fix?

Chewwit

wrs4 · Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2006 11:36 am Post subject:

DON'T UPDATE TO MODULAR X!

My X installation is broken right now because I did.

I followed the Gentoo Modular X howto exactly and discovered that my X environment went from merged display to cloned display. X -configure did not produce a usable config file (well, unless by usuable you include "no different behavior than that from the original working file that resulted in cloned screens in modular X"). This despite including the mga VIDEO_CARDS flag in make.conf.....

Attempting to reinstall my mga drivers modules (mga_driv.o, mga_hal_driv.o) resulted in a couple of interesting discoveries:

The modules appeared to be identical between the mgadrivers tarball and the modular X install
The mgadrivers install shell script refused to install due to version mismatch
I followed the engineers' credo: "If it doesn't fit, force it. If it breaks, it needed fixing anyway." So I copied the modules over manually. No change in behavior.
I had used quickpkg to keep a backup of my previous X installation, so I emerge -kv'd the old package from /usr/portage/packages/xorg-x11. Apparently the process of installing the modular X and restoring the original X has resulted in the loss (somewhere) of /usr/X11R6, so now I have no working X in any fashion at all.

UGH.

Chewwit · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 28 Feb 2004 Posts: 86

Too late.

I'm having problems too, though not as bad as yours. I get a distorted xserver running, with some kind of strange horizontal line distortion which then affects the (previously fine) vesa framebuffer command line when shutdown, forcing a system reboot. am trying to fix it at the moment but may have to resort to downgrading to the old x server.

By the way your /usr/X11R6 should just be a soft link to /usr, but I'm not sure that will fix your problems...

Chewwit

wrs4 · Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2006 2:40 pm Post subject:

Well...maybe you can avoid the mistakes I made. Friend of mine found a post on this forum page (post by slopop27). He suggests adding MGASDRAM and XINERAMA to the xorg.conf. Take a look at his xorg.conf.

Hopefully it helps

wrs4 · Posted: Sat Jul 08, 2006 3:00 am Post subject:

Making any progress with your dual-head? I managed to get X back to where it runs my monitors in cloned mode.

Looking at the Matrox forums, I found the following items:

I'm still digesting the above.

wrs4 · Posted: Mon Jul 10, 2006 3:09 pm Post subject:

OK, I've given up on dual-heading for the moment. I've hooked the second head to another box and set up Synergy to tie the two together.

I'm still willing to debug the mga video device error though.

Chewwit · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 28 Feb 2004 Posts: 86

Finally got mine up and running again by enabling the compositor, so Xorg 7.0 is now fully functioning (some two weeks after I started using it). Don't know if that's any help. How's your X coming on? Let me know once your sorted and we can get the bug written up on the original topic :wink:

Chewwit

wrs4 · Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2006 1:44 pm Post subject:

Fully functioning as in merged mode across two screens rather than cloned mode? If so, tell me how. And what is this "compositor" you speak of?

Chewwit · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 28 Feb 2004 Posts: 86

Sorry, only use single headed mode, so don't have any idea whether you can get dual displays up and running in extended mode. I have now, however got a functioning x server, which is more than can be said before (If you want checkout bug #140757 for some pictures). To get this running I enabled the compositor, the bit that does fancy transparencies and the like in my xor.conf. there is one built into Xgce4 and apparently it was unhappy running without it enabled on the x server. I then had some problems with firefox and flash, but those too were resolved. For further details try http://gentoo-wiki.com/TIP_Xorg_X11_and_Transparency. I hope this is some help, your obviously having much trouble.

Chewwit

wrs4 · Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2006 2:06 pm Post subject:

Oh, I'm just using the pseudo-transparency of Eterms. Nothing fancy like true transparency (which I like but don't have the inclination to fool with). I've had X running on a single head since my previous post where I mentioned Synergy.

So...mga_vid bug time?

Chewwit · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 28 Feb 2004 Posts: 86

Ok, how should we go about it? I'm happy submitting a bug with a link to this post. Or do you think it would be better compiling to gether your extensive list of sources as a document first, then appending that?

Chewwit

wrs4 · Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2006 3:01 pm Post subject:

Eh...my extensive list of sources was mostly google search, on the topics linked above. Other than that, I don't have a list, so this topic is probably sufficient.

Chewwit · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 28 Feb 2004 Posts: 86

Bug has been submitted (raiding some text from this forum). Its number is #140930, check it out at bugzilla and add your own comments if you feel the need to.

Chewwit

wrs4 · Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2006 4:02 pm Post subject:

Looks good. I can provide system specific info for my box if you need another platform for the bug report.

Chewwit · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 28 Feb 2004 Posts: 86

Go for it, just append to that bug.

Chewwit