9800 GT and 180 driver series not working right

[SagaciousKJB]

Well, the drivers for my new 9800GT seem to be buggy. Not only does video out not work under any configuration, sometimes when I switch to a virtual terminal, it won't send signal to the screen any longer, so I have to restart the system
. When I hit ctrl+alt+del to do so, I'm presented with a bunch of visual artifacts instead of the terminal.

I'm confident that this is not a hardware issue, or an issue with my system's configuration. The hardware side of the s-video out works fine, as I tested it by booting the computer with only it connected, and it displayed on the television just fine. As for my configuration, I've used this configuration with my 7950 GT and it worked flawlessly.


I'm wondering if perhaps I'm running a kernel that is too recent. I'm on the 2.6.29 build of it, but the drivers have been working for the 7950 before this just fine, so I'm not sure why that would matter. I can no longer install any version of the driver under 180 due to a gcc version conflict, so I can't check if any of the older series drivers are better.

[deanjo]

Well, the drivers for my new 9800GT seem to be buggy. Not only does video out not work under any configuration,

Let me guess, your using svideo or composite out. If that is the case the reason that your video out is not working is because video in on your tv is not putting an appropriate load on the video out of the video card to activate the auto sense. On 7 series and older cards, the video out did not need a load on them to be activated. This is no longer the case. To find a fix google for the resistor trick.

[SagaciousKJB]

Let me guess, your using svideo or composite out. If that is the case the reason that your video out is not working is because video in on your tv is not putting an appropriate load on the video out of the video card to activate the auto sense. On 7 series and older cards, the video out did not need a load on them to be activated. This is no longer the case. To find a fix google for the resistor trick.

Yeah, I'm definitely using SVIDEO. What's more is that it's going through an RF adapter to be converted to RCA.


I actually managed to get it working with two xscreens. However, the behavior is a little weird; I'm no longer able to right click the desktop of the desktop like I usually can with dual xscreens, though I can use kwin shortcuts to start the run dialog so I know it's running an xscreen on it. I've been watching movies and stuff with it fine.

However, all of the options such as hue, saturation, brightness, and overscan that were available with the 7 series are no longer present in the nvidia-settings. Digital vibrance and image sharpening are still available though.

So basically I'm now wondering, did they disable those options such as hue, saturation, brightness and overscan for the 9800 GT, or am I still not getting the right functionality?


What I did to make it work from my previous configuration, was go back and write the Xorg file from the ground up, adding two screen screens, to devices, and two monitors, being sure to use the "TVOutFormat" and "TVStandard" options. nvidia-settings didn't get the settings correct when it tried to configure it.

So, I'm not sure what conclusion I should be left with... It seems like it's working, but is it only half working?

[deanjo]

Yeah, I'm definitely using SVIDEO. What's more is that it's going through an RF adapter to be converted to RCA.


I actually managed to get it working with two xscreens. However, the behavior is a little weird; I'm no longer able to right click the desktop of the desktop like I usually can with dual xscreens, though I can use kwin shortcuts to start the run dialog so I know it's running an xscreen on it. I've been watching movies and stuff with it fine.

However, all of the options such as hue, saturation, brightness, and overscan that were available with the 7 series are no longer present in the nvidia-settings. Digital vibrance and image sharpening are still available though.

So basically I'm now wondering, did they disable those options such as hue, saturation, brightness and overscan for the 9800 GT, or am I still not getting the right functionality?


What I did to make it work from my previous configuration, was go back and write the Xorg file from the ground up, adding two screen screens, to devices, and two monitors, being sure to use the "TVOutFormat" and "TVStandard" options. nvidia-settings didn't get the settings correct when it tried to configure it.

So, I'm not sure what conclusion I should be left with... It seems like it's working, but is it only half working?

No, items such as hue, saturation, brightness are done now either with vdpau or through software means (such as the video settings in kaffiene). Overscan correction on svideo IIRC is no longer available on the 8+ series.

[SagaciousKJB]

No, items such as hue, saturation, brightness are done now either with vdpau or through software means (such as the video settings in kaffiene). Overscan correction on svideo IIRC is no longer available on the 8+ series.

Okay, excellent...

And uhh, I think I'll be helpful to the Googlers, and people who don't want to go to Radioshack to try match my Xorg file incase they're running into problems themselves.

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 720 0
    Screen      1  "Screen1" LeftOf "Screen0"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "Module"
    Load           "dbe"
    Load           "extmod"
    Load           "type1"
    Load           "freetype"
    Load           "glx"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
    Option         "Xinerama" "0"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "DELL 1905FP"
    HorizSync       30.0 - 81.0
    VertRefresh     56.0 - 76.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor1"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "TV-0"
    HorizSync       28.0 - 55.0
    VertRefresh     43.0 - 72.0
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Videocard0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce 9800 GT"
    BusID          "PCI:1:0:0"
    Screen          0
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Videocard1"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce 9800 GT"
    BusID          "PCI:1:0:0"
    Screen          1
        Option "TVOutFormat" "SVIDEO"
        Option "TVStandard" "NTSC"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Videocard0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "TwinView" "0"
    Option         "metamodes" "DFP: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen1"
    Device         "Videocard1"
    Monitor        "Monitor1"
    DefaultDepth    24
        Option "TVOverScan" "0.0"
    Option         "TwinView" "0"
    Option         "metamodes" "TV: 720x480 +0+0"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
        Modes      "nvidia-auto-select"
    EndSubSection
EndSection

From all the troubleshooting and trial and error, I'm relatively sure that the important part here is having the TVOut on its own device, with the format and standard specified.