VGA out/External Monitor on ibook 2

VGA out/External Monitor on ibook 2

[Manuj Dhingra]

Hi,

	I know this has been asked before, but I did not come across any
solutions, so let me appologise if I missed them.

I have a: ibook 2 (white ibook from summer of 2001) 500MHz. It has a ATI
Rage 128 graphics card which my OF calls ATY,RageM3p29s. The aty128fb
module is used for video framebuffer, and I can't seem to get VGA mirror
to work.

case 1: Monitor connected at boot up
The external monitor is fine at depth 8, resolution 1024x768-8@60Hz.
Changing the depth (text mode) with fbset makes the font look like the
wrong depth. It feels like font depth has changed but not the display
depth. The internal-LCD display stays just fine.

case 2: Monitor not connected at boot up
The external monitor is "wavy". I turn the LCD off (m3mirror from benh)
and play around with timings, resolutions etc. The "waviness" gets more or
less but I could not find setting to make it stable. BTW, it is true for
both a CRT and flat-panel. Internal-LCD is fine (at 1024x768).


Has this been solved? If not, how can I help?

Regards,
manuj

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Re: VGA out/External Monitor on ibook 2

[Owen Stampflee]

> case 1: Monitor connected at boot up
> The external monitor is fine at depth 8, resolution 1024x768-8@60Hz.
> Changing the depth (text mode) with fbset makes the font look like the
> wrong depth. It feels like font depth has changed but not the display
> depth. The internal-LCD display stays just fine.

Starting X will screw up the secondary display in this scenario too.

> Has this been solved? If not, how can I help?

Nope. I wrote some tools to dump the Rage128's config registers as well
the PLL but haven't had a chance to actually get dumps.
Anyways, its located at http://www.stampflee.com/r128dump

It would useful for dumps (send them to me, not the list...) booting
with both the scenarios you provided and when booting with
"video=ofonly"

Owen

--
Owen Stampflee - owen@stampflee.com - http://www.stampflee.com
GnuPG Fingerprint: EDE6 48EC 4E65 BE83 D405  B091 B170 8AF0 F875 65E0
Download My Public Key: http://www.stampflee.com/owen.asc

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Re: VGA out/External Monitor on ibook 2

[Manuj Dhingra]

Dear Owen,

I sent the dumps (directly to you) is a seperate mail.

When originally searching for a solution, I had found suggestions as to
connecting the VGA out to scope. Recently I did that and found that hsync
and vsync frequencies are as they should be (match with the fbset output).

However, the relative phase seems to be oscillating.

I was also wondering if "mirroring" has worked with the newer ibooks, i.e.
ones with the radeon chip.

Regards,
-manuj

On Jan 20, 2003  13:22 Monday Owen Stampflee wrote:
>
> > case 1: Monitor connected at boot up
> > The external monitor is fine at depth 8, resolution 1024x768-8@60Hz.
> > Changing the depth (text mode) with fbset makes the font look like the
> > wrong depth. It feels like font depth has changed but not the display
> > depth. The internal-LCD display stays just fine.
> Starting X will screw up the secondary display in this scenario too.
>
> > Has this been solved? If not, how can I help?
>


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external cinema 22" display

[daRonin]

  I finally got my Cinema display working on TiBook G4 with Radeon M6 LY
in it.

 It would seem that radeonfb doesn't even look for CRT port on M6 LY.

 At the line 1058 of radeonfb.c (v 0.1.6):
 <snip>
        switch (rinfo->arch) {
                case RADEON_M6:
                case RADEON_M7:
                case RADEON_M9:
                        rinfo->dviDisp_type = MT_LCD;
                        break;

   <snip>

  The code just assumes that if I have RADEON_M6 all I've got is LCD. So I
added another command line option called "crt" and added a line:

<snip>

        switch (rinfo->arch) {
                case RADEON_M6:
                case RADEON_M7:
                case RADEON_M9:
                        /* modified by daRonin */
                        if (force_crt) radeon_get_moninfo(rinfo);
                        else rinfo->dviDisp_type = MT_LCD;
                        break;

<snip>

  After this my cinema display started working properly, though still
throughing me into 640x480-8@70 mode.

 So I added an fbset command in my rc scripts. I still had to play with
timings quite a bit. For one I had to set vsync to high, otherwise the
monitor wouldn't even come up in any resolution.

  I also got this working only with my ebuild Gentoo kernel (2.4.20-r2), I
tried 2.4.20-ben4 and 2.4.20-ben5. In both of those, after my
modifications the cinema display worked, but the LCD didn't blank, instead
it went white. I played around with the code, but couldn't find the source
of the problem...

  If anyone is interested I can send them the modified radeonfb.c as well
as the timings for 1600x1024-60...

  Andrew


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Re: VGA out/External Monitor on ibook 2

[Harald Welte]

On Mon, Jan 20, 2003 at 10:59:21AM -0500, Manuj Dhingra wrote:
>
> 	I know this has been asked before, but I did not come across any
> solutions, so let me appologise if I missed them.
>
> I have a: ibook 2 (white ibook from summer of 2001) 500MHz. It has a ATI
> Rage 128 graphics card which my OF calls ATY,RageM3p29s. The aty128fb
> module is used for video framebuffer, and I can't seem to get VGA mirror
> to work.

I have exactly the same model.

> case 2: Monitor not connected at boot up
> The external monitor is "wavy". I turn the LCD off (m3mirror from benh)
> and play around with timings, resolutions etc. The "waviness" gets more or
> less but I could not find setting to make it stable. BTW, it is true for
> both a CRT and flat-panel. Internal-LCD is fine (at 1024x768).

Yes, I can confirm this behaviour.  It's really annoying because I
cannot use my iBook2 for any of my presentations at conferences... and
I'm really too lazy to carry a second old x86 notebook with me.

> Has this been solved? If not, how can I help?

I'm not aware of any solution :(

--
- Harald Welte / laforge@gnumonks.org               http://www.gnumonks.org/

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Re: VGA out/External Monitor on ibook 2

[Michael Schmitz]

> > case 2: Monitor not connected at boot up
> > The external monitor is "wavy". I turn the LCD off (m3mirror from benh)
> > and play around with timings, resolutions etc. The "waviness" gets more or
> > less but I could not find setting to make it stable. BTW, it is true for
> > both a CRT and flat-panel. Internal-LCD is fine (at 1024x768).
>
> Yes, I can confirm this behaviour.  It's really annoying because I
> cannot use my iBook2 for any of my presentations at conferences... and
> I'm really too lazy to carry a second old x86 notebook with me.
>
> > Has this been solved? If not, how can I help?
>
> I'm not aware of any solution :(

Someone lately posted a message detailing the problem (either here or on
debian-powerpc): the hsync and vsync pulses appear to be OK (correct
frequency) but have a phase jitter. Does that ring a bell with anyone
here? Does anyone know which PLL setting the hsync position is derived
from?

	Michael


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Re: VGA out/External Monitor on ibook 2

[Manuj Dhingra]

On Feb 10, 2003  05:06 Monday Michael Schmitz wrote:
> > > case 2: Monitor not connected at boot up
>
> Someone lately posted a message detailing the problem (either here or on
> debian-powerpc): the hsync and vsync pulses appear to be OK (correct
> frequency) but have a phase jitter.

Unless somebody else posted it too, that would be me. And I now realise
that it was based on your suggestion (on debian-powerpc) a year back!
Owen asked: How was it using OFFB? The phase is steady with the OFFB.

> Does that ring a bell with anyone
> here? Does anyone know which PLL setting the hsync position is derived
> from?
>
> 	Michael

Is it possible that the lcd and crt *have to be* on different
controllers? From what I understand,  OF and OSX set it up that way but we
don't. As I have no documentation, this is just  a conjecture.
Still I would like to do just that. But I am constrained by the lack of
documentation. Pointers anybody? Maybe people who desire a dual-head would
like to help :)

regards,
-manuj

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Re: VGA out/External Monitor on ibook 2

[Michael Schmitz]

> > Someone lately posted a message detailing the problem (either here or on
> > debian-powerpc): the hsync and vsync pulses appear to be OK (correct
> > frequency) but have a phase jitter.
>
> Unless somebody else posted it too, that would be me. And I now realise
> that it was based on your suggestion (on debian-powerpc) a year back!

Possible - I've suggested someone take a scope and debug this more than
once :-)

> Owen asked: How was it using OFFB? The phase is steady with the OFFB.
>
> > Does that ring a bell with anyone
> > here? Does anyone know which PLL setting the hsync position is derived
> > from?
> >
> > 	Michael
>
> Is it possible that the lcd and crt *have to be* on different
> controllers? From what I understand,  OF and OSX set it up that way but we

Yep, that's entirely possible. Maybe we can't get the proper specs for
both on one controller.

> don't. As I have no documentation, this is just  a conjecture.
> Still I would like to do just that. But I am constrained by the lack of
> documentation. Pointers anybody? Maybe people who desire a dual-head would
> like to help :)

I'd talk to Michel Dänzer about this. The XFree people might have figured
something out on other (i386) architectures. XFree developers have access
to at least some ATI docs.

	Michael


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Re: VGA out/External Monitor on ibook 2

[Michel Dänzer]

On Mon, 2003-02-10 at 17:24, Michael Schmitz wrote:
>
> > Owen asked: How was it using OFFB? The phase is steady with the OFFB.
> >
> > > Does that ring a bell with anyone
> > > here? Does anyone know which PLL setting the hsync position is derived
> > > from?
> > >
> > > 	Michael
> >
> > Is it possible that the lcd and crt *have to be* on different
> > controllers? From what I understand,  OF and OSX set it up that way but we
>
> Yep, that's entirely possible. Maybe we can't get the proper specs for
> both on one controller.
>
> > don't. As I have no documentation, this is just  a conjecture.
> > Still I would like to do just that. But I am constrained by the lack of
> > documentation. Pointers anybody? Maybe people who desire a dual-head would
> > like to help :)
>
> I'd talk to Michel Dänzer about this. The XFree people might have figured
> something out on other (i386) architectures. XFree developers have access
> to at least some ATI docs.

The XFree86 radeon driver has indeed solved this by using both CRTCs.
The code is there for everyone to look at. ;)


--
Earthling Michel Dänzer (MrCooper)/ Debian GNU/Linux (powerpc) developer
XFree86 and DRI project member   /  CS student, Free Software enthusiast


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Re: VGA out/External Monitor on ibook 2

[Manuj Dhingra]

On Feb 10, 2003  12:27 Monday Michel Dänzer wrote:
> On Mon, 2003-02-10 at 17:24, Michael Schmitz wrote:
> >
> > I'd talk to Michel Dänzer about this. The XFree people might have
> figured
> > something out on other (i386) architectures. XFree developers have
> access
> > to at least some ATI docs.
>
> The XFree86 radeon driver has indeed solved this by using both CRTCs.
> The code is there for everyone to look at. ;)
>
>
> --
> Earthling Michel Dänzer (MrCooper)/ Debian GNU/Linux (powerpc) developer
> XFree86 and DRI project member   /  CS student, Free Software enthusiast
>

That's great! Just one question: do the rage m3 and radeon chipsets have
the same set of registers (at least as far as this is concerned)?

regards,
-manuj

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Re: VGA out/External Monitor on ibook 2

[Michel Dänzer]

On Mon, 2003-02-10 at 19:43, Manuj Dhingra wrote:
> On Feb 10, 2003  12:27 Monday Michel Dänzer wrote:
> > On Mon, 2003-02-10 at 17:24, Michael Schmitz wrote:
> > >
> > > I'd talk to Michel Dänzer about this. The XFree people might have
> > figured
> > > something out on other (i386) architectures. XFree developers have
> > access
> > > to at least some ATI docs.
> >
> > The XFree86 radeon driver has indeed solved this by using both CRTCs.
> > The code is there for everyone to look at. ;)
>
> That's great! Just one question: do the rage m3 and radeon chipsets have
> the same set of registers (at least as far as this is concerned)?

Don't take my word for it, but I don't think there's much difference
between them in this area.


--
Earthling Michel Dänzer (MrCooper)/ Debian GNU/Linux (powerpc) developer
XFree86 and DRI project member   /  CS student, Free Software enthusiast


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DVI External Monitor on TiBook IV

[daRonin]

I am running with external Cinema 23" display on my TiBook IV (Radeon
Mobility 9000).

The combination works great with earily 2.4.20 kernels, however with
2.4.20-ben5 my LCD stays on and goes white.

I managed to determine that LCD is not turned on by radeonfb, it turns own
earlier in the boot process. So even with video=ofonly the LCD stays on.

My knowledge of kernel workings is not sufficent to determine where
exactely the problem occurs. I would appreciate any lead into the right
direction...

Andrew


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Re: DVI External Monitor on TiBook IV

[Benjamin Herrenschmidt]

On Thu, 2003-02-13 at 23:52, daRonin wrote:
> I am running with external Cinema 23" display on my TiBook IV (Radeon
> Mobility 9000).
>
> The combination works great with earily 2.4.20 kernels, however with
> 2.4.20-ben5 my LCD stays on and goes white.
>
> I managed to determine that LCD is not turned on by radeonfb, it turns own
> earlier in the boot process. So even with video=ofonly the LCD stays on.
>
> My knowledge of kernel workings is not sufficent to determine where
> exactely the problem occurs. I would appreciate any lead into the right
> direction...

Please send me your latest working version of radeonfb.c

Ben.


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Re: VGA out/External Monitor on ibook 2 --Success!!

[Manuj Dhingra]

	I finally managed to get the VGA out working at depth 15
along-with higher resolution!! The behaviour is not completely
satisfactory, but here is a brief summary:

1. Initialize CRTC2 by pretty much copying CRTC1 values. CRTC2_GEN_CNTL is
the only one not identical to its CRTC1 counterpart.

2. Ditto for P2PLL.

3. Make sure DAC is set to CRTC2 (this is the OF default if you boot with
the monitor plugged in.)

4. (This one took some time:) Copy dda_config and dda_on_off values to
dda2_config and dda2_on_off. While debugging this, I realized that the
IBook's video memory is not 128-bit SDR SGRAM but 64-bit (sdr_64 in
aty128fb).


The problems that still remain: depths > 16 lead to screen corruption.
This could still be a dda_config/dda_on_off issue. I really have no idea
on this.
Then, at higher (than 1024x768) resolutions, the display on the external
montitor does not span the width of the monitor. Plan to look into this
during the next available free time :)


Thanks for your input.

manuj


On Feb 10, 2003  12:27 Monday Michel Dänzer wrote:
> On Mon, 2003-02-10 at 17:24, Michael Schmitz wrote:
> >
> > I'd talk to Michel Dänzer about this. The XFree people might have
> figured
> > something out on other (i386) architectures. XFree developers have
> access
> > to at least some ATI docs.
>
> The XFree86 radeon driver has indeed solved this by using both CRTCs.
> The code is there for everyone to look at. ;)
>
>
> --
> Earthling Michel Dänzer (MrCooper)/ Debian GNU/Linux (powerpc) developer
> XFree86 and DRI project member   /  CS student, Free Software enthusiast
>

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