i just upgraded from xfree86 4.2 to xorg 7.0.  this driver seems to
output frequencies that are out of range for the monitor when the
monitor's documented ranges are entered in the horizsync line.

the documented ranges worked perfectly with 4.2, although that was
probably using matrox's proprietary driver.

when the horizsync line is reduced to a narrow range of frequencies,
there are strange -dpi and font behaviors.  everything is ugly and
many things are not resizable by -dpi and far too large.  for example,
gkrellm is too large and unaffected by the -dpi option to the x
server.  small fonts are impossible to read in most cases, even when
the font path is identical to 4.2.  strangely, i don't think i changed
xfs at all.  xorg.conf is the same as xf86config-4 was otherwise.
configuring via debconf and via mgapdesk result in the same behaviors.

it's possible that some of these are software changes in the way x
works since 4.2 and have nothing to do with the frequency issue or
even the driver.  i have no idea whether frequency changes or the
driver are the cause or not.

i arrived at the narrow range by trial and error.

card=g550
output=dvi
monitor=sony lcd

        HorizSync    35.0 - 38.0 #far narrower than the monitor supports
        VertRefresh  52.0 - 60.0

i will provide xorg.conf, x server logs, monitor specs, or any other
data -- just ask.  i don't know which would be helpful and don't want
to clutter the bug report with non-useful data.

thanks.

p.s.  severity set to grave because i'm not sure which of the
following i should do.  i cannot use the driver as it is now.  if this
is incorrect, please reassign.

o downgrade to xfree86
o try to fix bugs
o reinstall etch
o try to install proprietary drivers
o replace card

all are undesirable, but if i can help fix the bug by working around it
and providing data to the people working on the driver, i will.

i have been using the linux console for a while now.  i tried
downgrading to xfree86, but that broke the package manager (signal 11,
baby).  i'm hoping i won't have to install sarge or even ubuntu (to
see if they have a solution for g550 dvi).

so is there anything i can do to provide information to help with
this?

i note that the severity was downgraded, but i don't know why.

it would help if i knew a little more about the status of this driver
so that i could decide whether to steal drivers from ubuntu, tweak a
few settings, etc.

thanks.

Hi,

About a year ago, you reported a bug to the Debian BTS regarding a
strange frequency behavior with DVI on a MGA board. Did you reproduce
this problem recently? With Xorg/Etch? With the latest driver in
unstable? If not, I will close this bug in the next weeks.

Thanks,
Brice

Hi Brice,
[ questions snipped ]

Thanks for taking action in this field!  May I point you to bug #356558
[1] in this context?  Shouldn't that one also be assigned to
xserver-xorg-video-mga?  Maybe these issues are related.

Cheers,
Nikolaus

[1] xserver-xorg: Matrox 550 DVI port doesn't work
http://bugs.debian.org/356558

forcemerge 372079 376326
thank you



Nikolaus Schulz wrote:

Right, thanks. I actually just pingued #376326 which is the continuation
of #356558 (I reassigned and merged them). Merging with this one too.

Brice

hi,

please do not close these bugs yet.  i replied in detail to your
comment on Bug#372067.

thanks.

t takahashi wrote:

Well, if the bug is not fixed, and if people like you are still able to
test new releases and complain that the bug is still not fixed, we are
not going to close it :)

Brice

From upstream IRC channel:

me: Is the DVI output supposed to work on a MGA G550? We've got multiple
complaints that it never worked (apparently the driver sends
out-of-range frequencies).
=> I believe it requires mga_hal
me: That's what these users are doing, yes
=> There's a workaround, enable matroxfb. If your dfp goes black when
you start X, shut it off and on manually
me: Is there a chance it gets fixed one day?
=> I've got DVI support in the randr-1.2 branch, but it's not in a
releasable state yet
me: No need to report then, just wait
=> yes

So, you might want to try enabling matroxfb in your kernel and console.

FYI, XRandR 1.2 is new shiny feature that driver developers are
implementing these days, it makes management of multiple heads much
easier and better. So, there might be good news in the future.

Brice

[ Getting DVI to work with the G550 ]

Interesting.  Matroxfb *is* enabled in my kernel.  But no chance to use
DVI without the binary Hallib.  It's still a 2.4.27 kernel, though.  And
I did experience that blank screen from time to time (not predictable),
and powering the panel off did help indeed, but it was very annoying.
Finally I was able to workaround that by configuring a second fake
screen, IIRC.

Great to hear someone's working on it!  So there's hope. :-)

I'll probably try Linux 2.6.18 with matroxfb after upgrading to Etch.

And thanks for that explanation!  I had heard about it, but nothing
stuck besides the buzzword.
Brice, I'm really impressed by your bug hunting!

Nikolaus

can you let us on this bug (i seem to be on its forward list, which is
good and i hope will continue to be the case after any mergings) know
the results?

i can try the same by setting the right things and installing etch on
a new disk, if i know what to set and can do so without debug
iterations.  unfortunately, i am too ignorant about x stuff.  i don't
even know:

which kernel option is relevant,
what enabling in the console means,
whether anything would be required in the x conf file,
what a framebuffer is exactly,
and even what "dfp" means.  (i guess "digital flat panel".)

icih, the last time i tried fixing this was a while back, but it was
probably a 2.6 kernel.  here is my current kernel.

(1) 08-Tue-14-16-11 ~# uname -a;gunzip -c /proc/config.gz | grep -i matrox
Linux debian 2.6.18myver #1 SMP Sun Mar 11 14:33:06 MST 2007 i686 GNU/Linux
CONFIG_FB_MATROX=m
# CONFIG_FB_MATROX_MILLENIUM is not set
# CONFIG_FB_MATROX_MYSTIQUE is not set
CONFIG_FB_MATROX_G=y
# CONFIG_FB_MATROX_MULTIHEAD is not set

p.s. if "millenium" is the right option, is it a typo for "millennium"
that needs to be fixed, or is that just the way it is, kind of like
http "referer"?

thanks.

Okay, I've tested 2.6.8 on my Sarge testbed for now.  DVI indeed works
with matroxfb enabled, but without Matrox' hallib there's an annoying
flicker.  If this cannot be improved with a better kernel configuration
or a later kernel, then I won't use it.  See below for the kernel
configuration I've tested.

I do not know if the setup I've tested is entirely correct.

Yeah, I feel pretty much stuck, either.  The documentation is not very
great here, I think.

Don't think so.

*sigh*  Yes, I've myself tried to figure that out several times, without
success.  Well...

'dict dfp' tells me you're right :-)

Hm, I think this works only compiled in.  Not sure, though.
(If a module doesn't cut it, then why does the stock Debian kernel
provide one?)

My Kernel 2.6.8 setup with DVI (badly) working:

---- cut here ----
# CONFIG_FB_VGA16 is not set
# CONFIG_FB_VESA is not set
CONFIG_FB_MATROX=y
# CONFIG_FB_MATROX_MILLENIUM is not set
# CONFIG_FB_MATROX_MYSTIQUE is not set
CONFIG_FB_MATROX_G450=y
CONFIG_FB_MATROX_G100=y
# CONFIG_FB_MATROX_I2C is not set
# CONFIG_FB_MATROX_MULTIHEAD is not set
# CONFIG_FB_VIRTUAL is not set
CONFIG_FRAMEBUFFER_CONSOLE=y
---- cut here ----

I hope I've got the relevant options.  Kernel commandline:

    video=matroxfb:vesa:0x1BB,fv:60

Here 0x1BB is the code for a 1280x1024 resolution.
You will need to tune these for your needs, see
/usr/src/linux/Documentation/fb/matroxfb.txt for your options.

Nikolaus

Am 2007-05-08 14:45:52, schrieb t takahashi:

The name "Millenium" is right since over 12 years. (I use only Matrox)

Thanks, Greetings and nice Day
    Michelle Konzack
    Systemadministrator
    Tamay Dogan Network
    Debian GNU/Linux Consultant

Hi,

I just uploaded xserver-xorg-video-mga 1.9.99.dfsg.1-1 to experimental.
It brings RandR 1.2 support, which improves mode detection and dynamic
configuration. It should also support DVI. About RandR 1.2, note that
you might need to update your xorg.conf, see the pointers I inserted in
http://bgoglin.livejournal.com/12835.html

Thanks,
Brice

i will try this and report back on my g550 non-dual dvi, if that'll help.

but first, does anybody know:

  o which versions of x (xorg in etch/lenny/sid) will it work with?
  o does one simply upgrade to that xorg, install this driver, and
change xorg.conf?  or is there more to do, like tweak xrandr, to get
it working?

very exciting.

thanks.

oops, my first question was unnecessary; "Now that David pushed X.org
7.3 to unstable" implies that we'll need to upgrade to unstable to get
the dvi to work.  my second question nevertheless applies, as it's
worth recording here whether other stuff needs to happen, like
installing xrandr or anything else.

upgrading from xfree 4.2 + proprietary blob to floss xorg will be nice.

thanks.