Is this possible? vt7=monitor vt8=tv?

Drewgrange · Guru Joined: 29 Mar 2003 Posts: 483 Location: Ohio, US

I want to have my computer set up so that I can have vt7 show up on my monitor while at the same time vt8 shows up on my TV. Is that possible to do? I'm trying to do this so I can have mythtv going on vt8 and use it with the remote while I use the computer at the same time.

Right now I can get vt8 open with startx -- :1 and have mythtv lookin all nice over there, but I just need to get it over to the TV

I'd rather not use nvtv or twinview or any of that if possible.

Would it be as easy as setting up two server layouts, one using screen "screen1" and one using screen "TVScreen".. Then doing a startx -- :1 -layout TVScreen ?

CheshireCat · Guru Joined: 25 Aug 2002 Posts: 572

In my experience, the nvidia drivers can't switch between tv-only and monitor only very well. I am only able to get them to switch back and forth if one of the X servers is TwinView (dual screen won't even work for me, for some reason). If I can find where to bother Nvidia for driver feature requests (their site seems to imply that they don't want to hear from end users at all), I'll ask them about supporting TV and CRT as independant servers instead of dual-screen or TwinView. I need this feature too

Drewgrange · Guru Joined: 29 Mar 2003 Posts: 483 Location: Ohio, US

So in order to get the picture up on both at the same time I'll have to use twinview and just have the TV part off to the side?

I haven't done this in awhile.. is it possible to make it so they're seperate (not where you can just drag windows over from one to the other and move the mouse of the side of the screen on to the TV) and can full screen windows like mythtv?

CheshireCat · Guru Joined: 25 Aug 2002 Posts: 572

What you are describing is possible with TwinView. TwinView supports Xinerama-aware apps, so MythTV can detect that the TV is Xinerama screen 1 and run on it. There some problems with this, however, so I'm not using it.

Xinerama requires that all displays that are part of the same screen be similar in features (color depth, etc). Nvidia cards only have one overlay unit for the Xv extension, so overlay can not happen on both screens. As a result, you get Xv via a scaling blitter, it's not synced to refresh, and it tears.

What you can do (maybe) is set it up as 2 screens on one display. Separate screens can differ in features, because applications are not allowed to extend across them or move between them. There are instructions in the README that should be installed in your /usr/share/doc for how to do this, but it seems to "just not work" on my system. However, that was when my card was running in PCI mode (a GeForceFX 5600 in PCI mode, heh). I'm using NvAGP now and will try again when I get a chance.

Drewgrange · Guru Joined: 29 Mar 2003 Posts: 483 Location: Ohio, US

I think I'm getting somewhere. I looked in the nvidia readme file and it said to do the following to my XF86Config:

CheshireCat · Guru Joined: 25 Aug 2002 Posts: 572

You can set connected display devices, that's also in the README. I think it goes to the CRT first if both are attached, because I'm using a single-screen config right now with both attached, and the monitor always comes on. What I've been doing to get MythTV to work is to run a TV-only setup on vt8, and a TwinView on vt7. As long as one of your setups includes both devices, it looks like you can freely switch back and forth. You'll have to keep in mind, however, that you can only actually use one at a time this way.

If you get the dual-screen thing working, you'll actually only have one X server. It will provide two screens, :0.0 and :0.1, with different capabilities. I'm pretty sure whichever device is :0.0 gets the overlay support, so if you want MythTV on your TV you'll want to make the TV screen 0. Only problem here is I don't think that you can have your screens managed separately, as they're both part of one display. If you use a display manager on the monitor, any MythTV on the TV, they are probably going to interfere with each other. I never got to having to worry about this, because my TV output won't work in dual-screen mode. It tells me that there's a second screen, and I can run apps on it, but there's no signal.

Drewgrange · Guru Joined: 29 Mar 2003 Posts: 483 Location: Ohio, US

I've flipped the screens around to make the TV screen 0.. I'll just have to drag the TV in here tomorrow and try to play around with it to see if I can get it to work. Thanks for the help, I've at least got some direction now

CheshireCat · Guru Joined: 25 Aug 2002 Posts: 572

So you got it to actually work? Hrm, I'll have to try again now that I'm using NvAGP, maybe it won't be all weird. Or maybe after I get that nforce2 board I've been eyeing.... my KT400 is a just a wee bit flakey.

Drewgrange · Guru Joined: 29 Mar 2003 Posts: 483 Location: Ohio, US

Whoops, sorry, didn't mean to say I got it working!

I meant I flipped them in the XF86Config file, so that I can drag the TV in here tomorrow and test it out. I also added a few lines from a post I saw on a mythtv list where people were discussing a similar problem to change the device section for the TV to:

CheshireCat · Guru Joined: 25 Aug 2002 Posts: 572

Progress! For the first time, I have CRT and TV up in dual screen mode. Oddly enough, it seems it will only function with the TV as screen 0. With CRT as screen 0, I'm back to the old behavior of it telling me that there's a screen 1, and that screen 1 is on TV-0, but never sending video to the TV. With TV on screen 0, both devices work. I'll have to play with it to see what the minimum degree of interference I can get is - I have a feeling I will still want to pester nvidia about providing the option of 2 fully independent displays.

Drewgrange · Guru Joined: 29 Mar 2003 Posts: 483 Location: Ohio, US

Good to hear you got it workin!

I'm having some problems. I think it might be that the TV isn't being recognized.

Heres my xf86config:

Drewgrange · Guru Joined: 29 Mar 2003 Posts: 483 Location: Ohio, US

As it turns out the adapters were the problem.

I can now get a picture on the screen using the same server layout I posted from before

earlNameless · n00b Joined: 01 Apr 2003 Posts: 47

i do not know if this will be of any use, but i think there is a way to make startx use a specific config file, so then you can create a config file for your crt, and another one for your tv, then

startx -- :1 ... something here to make it use the tv config file ...
startx .... something here to make it use the crt file ...

that might create tv on vt7 and crt on vt8, and then you will have to switch between the two using crtl-alt-f7 and f8

i do not know if that is what you want and if it will work
i am downloading a large file right now under win and therefore will only be able to test it later, i will post my results

Drewgrange · Guru Joined: 29 Mar 2003 Posts: 483 Location: Ohio, US

Earl, you can do that with the setup I just posted right above your post.

I decided to go back and test some things with the "Screen0" leftof "Screen1".
I wanted to see if I could use the remote control or gamepad with screen0, while the mouse was on screen1 (the keyboard only works one whichever one the mouse is on). The problem is once mythtv starts up zsnes, I can't move the mouse back over to the other side anymore! I can't seem to get my remote working with mythtv to test it that way.

Anybody know a way around this? I'm going to go out and try buying a new adapter and rf modulator (sounds geeky, huh?) to see if those give me a color picture. The only advice I can find through google for the black and white problem has been to try getting new adapters.

CheshireCat · Guru Joined: 25 Aug 2002 Posts: 572

I just asked about managing the two screens separately on nvnews forums, but I suspect there's really no way to do what we want (TV and monitor active at the same time, with separate input devices). This seems like an obviously useful feature (in my home, the TV isn't even in the same room). To do this, a separate X server is needs for each device.

I found an email contact for the linux nvidia drivers (it's in the README), I would suggest that anybody interested in this feature send a polite email to linux-bugs@nvidia.com, asking that they make it possible for both display devices to be active as separate displays, instead of separate screens as is possible now.

Drewgrange · Guru Joined: 29 Mar 2003 Posts: 483 Location: Ohio, US

Yeah, I just found that out the hard way. I finally got my remote working, though

. Didn't realize I had to run "irxevent"

By running a seperate xserver for each device do you mean making two XF86Config files and running one of them using startx -- :1 -howeveryouspecifyaconfigfile? (edit: Or actually I think that would just bring it back to having to ctrl+alt+f7 or 8 to switch between the two)

I guess the main problem there is getting it to load up and start mythtv and irxevent automatically so you wouldn't have to worry about not having a keyboard to use.

CheshireCat · Guru Joined: 25 Aug 2002 Posts: 572

That's what I have to do now, I run a separate X server and have to switch. It should be possible (but isn't with current drivers) to run separate X servers with both displays active at the same time, with their own input devices. This is what I emailed nvidia about :-)

I've been doing the work manually so far, but I guess we need to set up a .xinitrc to set things up at server start. In my case, the remote is a keyboard, but I still have to run xmodmap so that the buttons have the correct functions.

earlNameless · n00b Joined: 01 Apr 2003 Posts: 47

Drewgrange, i tried to do it the way you have it:

CheshireCat · Guru Joined: 25 Aug 2002 Posts: 572

I've put a copy of my config up at http://chshrcat/homelinux.net/~chshrcat/XF86Config.nvidia2head. You'll need to edit the Input sections, at the very least, because I'm using the evdev input patch. My system only works with the TV as screen 0, so you may want to try swapping screens to see if it helps. If all else fails, post a copy of / link to your XFree86 log (it should be in /var/log/XFree86.<displaynumber>.log). That should have all the gory details after X fails.

Drewgrange · Guru Joined: 29 Mar 2003 Posts: 483 Location: Ohio, US

earl, You'll need to add

Option "ConnectedMonitor" "TV"

to your device section for "geforce4nvtv"

and to your geforce4nv device:

Option "ConnectedMonitor" "CRT-1"

and the busid to both nvidia devices. On mine this is 01:00:0, you can check to make sure in your log.

BusID "PCI:01:00:0"

See if that helps. If not post some error messages from your xf86.0.log

Drewgrange · Guru Joined: 29 Mar 2003 Posts: 483 Location: Ohio, US

Just for completion:

Turns out the black and white was because of an adapter I used (svideo to rca), I had to switch the line SVIDEO to COMPOSITE in my xf86config. For now I'm going to stick with the "Screen0" leftof "Screen1" type setup and move the mouse over when I want to do something on MythTV. I guess I usually don't do both at the same time anyway,, just slide the mouse over, change channel, slide the mouse back.

That'll have to suffice until nvidia gives us support for having the two running seperately but at the same time, I guess. (which means that'll probably be that way for a loong time :roll:

)

earlNameless · n00b Joined: 01 Apr 2003 Posts: 47

thanks a lot, i will see what i can do when i get home today.

I tried to look for some information about the nvidia driver, and found some, but is there a place where I can find a listing of ALL

the different parameters and what they mean for the nvidia driver?

CheshireCat · Guru Joined: 25 Aug 2002 Posts: 572

I'm pretty sure that the README installed by the nvidia-glx driver has all of the options. I don't remember getting them from anywhere else when I set mine up.

earlNameless · n00b Joined: 01 Apr 2003 Posts: 47

i screw up something majorly, and do not have startx any longer, since i am a n00b

, i am going to reemerge x11, and try with the config later, such a pain, grrrr.... i hate myself for doing stuff that is this stupid
actually this is an excuse to reemrge everything, i emerged way too much crap that i do not need so i need to free some space

, so i will get back much later, but:

do you want to make a tutorial for setting up nvidia to use two screens (the way we are doing it right now, normal twinview, and two competely separate files [by preference])?
(unless there is already such a thing)

Drewgrange · Guru Joined: 29 Mar 2003 Posts: 483 Location: Ohio, US

earl, no need to reemerge x11!

just run xf86cfg or xf86config to get a nice little program that will make you a new one.

I am not very familiar with using Twinview or using two completely seperate config files, but if you search these boards or google with error messages that you're recieving, you're bound to find some help.

Wait, I just realized you may have meant you can't run startx anymore? How would that have gotten deleted?