GDM OK for 8 sec, then vertical lines

[BigFisher]

Howdy great fellow TuX-BoX users!

This is my first post and yes I have RTFM . Maybe I missed something... NOT . I installed Home-version 3.0c and after some struggling with pico for static IP and adding nameservers it worked as a charm. OK so why this post you may ask I ran MAGIC and yes there was magic cause something is not as it was.

When GDM appears it looks great.....for about 8 secs then it turns in to Windows (no just kidding). Some vertical lines appear across the screen and this is what I tried (through SSH in Webmin, great stuff I can add):

First i ran XBVSET - No luck
I ran MAGIC again and then XBVSET - No luck
I ran MAGIC FIX DISPLAYTOOLS1 MAGIC and XBVSET - No luck

I have a 32" PAL TV and the best setting are:
640x480
PAL60
PAL 640x480

This gives me 70% correct screen and the rest 30% is covered with vertical lines (the 30% are on the right side of the screen).

Anybody know anything that can help me fix this Thanx to anybody that takes the time!

[ToeRag]

sounds like you have a focus chip running 1.4/5 xbox. join the club.

this has been reported, and some attempts have been made to try a few things, all of which failed to correct the problem for us focus users.

until a focus xbox can be provided for ShALLaX to test on, I'm afraid it's just shooting in the dark to properly fix this.

it's the 8sec screen of death!

[crazyx]

hi,

I am fighting with the exact same problem and did the exact same steps with my XBOX V 1.1

I have also a PAL Sony TV with the following settings.

800x600
PAL60
PAL 800x600

I was going back on my last backup from November 2003, because of this screen problem.

Thanks crazyx

[TsUPeR]

yo dudes!

im having the exact same problem. Im running a V1.0 box. and a crap old tv (but it looked ok before a major magic update)

My fix so far has been to adjust the Vertical and Horisontal compression in xbvset, its not 100% ok but it works...

my xbvset
TV
800x600
PAL
6% horisontal (5% will prob. makit for me, Ill try it after work)
10% vertical

With more horisontal compression the image shifts to the left and the right side gets filled with vertical lines (loking like they in som part origin from the left side, clear? )

[BigFisher]

I guess when you write focus you mean the chip, right???

I´m a little lazy so I did not install my chip myself. The plain truth (bad boy me) is that I don´t know what chip I have. Can I see this somewhere without opening the XBOX? - There came that lazy thing again

[nobspangle]

focus is the make of the video encoder chip xbox versions 1.0-1.3 have a connexant chip 1.4-1.5 have a focus chip. You do not have a focus chip this is not your problem. ToeRag is miss informed as far as I know focus chips do work so long as you remove the xbvset line from local.start

Your problem is with your xbvset settings, try different values for hoc and voc, also try the standard PAL setting I cannot get PAL60 to work on my box I get the same problem as you describe with the left hand side of the screen repeated in columns on the right hand side, it seems to be some sort of timing problem.

[BigFisher]

To late for me, reinstall has been done. But this time i made an E install and I´m taking a backup before running magic

Would it not be an pretty good idea to help ShALLaX a bit. We could make some sort of a list for hoc and voc settings. I mean that every user that makes good settings could write them down in some topic and then we just build the list up for reference to others (and ourselfs).

I´ll try to run magic tonight or tomorrow without xbvset in local.start. I´ll be back if I find some good trix and settings...

[nobspangle]

you've missed my point read carefully
you do not have a focus chip,
the xbv line only needs removing if you do have a focus chip
hope that's clear. With the settings for hoc and voc in xbvset will vary with make and model of television set and, due to the nature of CRTs, between different sets of the same model

[ToeRag]

focus is the make of the video encoder chip xbox versions 1.0-1.3 have a connexant chip 1.4-1.5 have a focus chip. You do not have a focus chip this is not your problem. ToeRag is miss informed as far as I know focus chips do work so long as you remove the xbvset line from local.start

Your problem is with your xbvset settings, try different values for hoc and voc, also try the standard PAL setting I cannot get PAL60 to work on my box I get the same problem as you describe with the left hand side of the screen repeated in columns on the right hand side, it seems to be some sort of timing problem.

well if I am miss informed... what was this all about ...

viewtopic.php?t=790&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

[nobspangle]

viewtopic.php?t=809
viewtopic.php?t=785

There's a couple of posts from people who have focus working, that is one reason why you were miss informed the other is this

I installed Home-version 3.0c and after some struggling with pico for static IP and adding nameservers it worked as a charm.

how do you think it worked like a charm with a focus Xbox?

[ToeRag]

viewtopic.php?t=809
viewtopic.php?t=785

There's a couple of posts from people who have focus working, that is one reason why you were miss informed the other is this

I installed Home-version 3.0c and after some struggling with pico for static IP and adding nameservers it worked as a charm.

how do you think it worked like a charm with a focus Xbox?

boy I guess I'm not just miss informed, but can't read / understand what you see in your examples. Both indicate to me they still have issues. If you mean that gentoox works like a charm in text mode, via ssh or X mode via VNC I will agree, but that was the case before the last attempt or patch to include support for focus.

I have NOT tried editting my local.start yet as some else did and reported that it didn't correct the problem. I don't have a problem with waiting until a fix is availble, or if ever. I am happy with my 1.1 xbox and gentoox. Where I guess I'm having trouble is when it appears you DON'T have a 1.4> xbox, and you are reporting to others that everything is just dandy.

This false impression at least from my point of view causes allot of time wasted trying to get something to work, that is NOT possible with the current release. It even appeared that ShALLax acknowledged that, when he requested donations for a 1.5 xbox to test with.

As I said if I'm mis-informed I still am, because everything I've read(including what you pointed to) still leads me to believe there are problems with the focus support 8secs after the login prompt.

If you can point me to a specific post that details the fix I will be happy to try that and report back to the group.

[nobspangle]

please read the thread correctly I did not say focus works like a charm Bigfisher said his xbox worked like a charm before he installed focus support ie he does not have a focus chip.

The title of the first post I linked to was
"FOCUS support is ok now, but not the overscreen.. "
Call me stupid if you like but that would seem to suggest that focus is working apart from a problem with overscan

Shallax has said that he cannot support focus without a focus xbox, this means he cannot guarantee that it will work, not that it won't.

[crazyx]

my xbvset
TV
800x600
PAL
6% horisontal (5% will prob. makit for me, Ill try it after work)
10% vertical

With more horisontal compression the image shifts to the left and the right side gets filled with vertical lines (loking like they in som part origin from the left side, clear? )

Thanks a lot..I have my xbvset with:
TV
800x600
PAL
5% horisontal
10% vertical

And the screen looks great.

bye crazyx

[ToeRag]

please read the thread correctly I did not say focus works like a charm Bigfisher said his xbox worked like a charm before he installed focus support ie he does not have a focus chip.

The title of the first post I linked to was
"FOCUS support is ok now, but not the overscreen.. "
Call me stupid if you like but that would seem to suggest that focus is working apart from a problem with overscan

Shallax has said that he cannot support focus without a focus xbox, this means he cannot guarantee that it will work, not that it won't.

I in no way call you stupid; because you know what overscan means and I don't, I guess I'm stupid. If you mean overscan to mean useless, then I know what it means. It's like trying to watch scrambled CATV pay channels on a local cable system without a decoder.

Perhaps the confusion is, that NOTHING has changed - it worked like a charm before! except for the video. (ssh & vcn were PERFECT!) .

the only difference is that it does display a perfect X desktop for 8secs. Then gets all wacked out!

but keep in mind, that's like saying my car runs GREAT until I leave my driveway... other than that it is perfect. All I'm trying to do is offset your posts that lead people to believe everything works like a charm under 1.5 - it doesn't.

I'm sure ShALLaX will figure it out, now that he has a box to work with.

Do You have a 1.4/5 xbox? if not I would think twice commenting on what or what not to do to others ... as I don't see how your advice can be valid, other than hearsay.

Based on the traffic on this site, it appears to be a VERY small group of users... considering the installed base of XBOXes world wide. However; I would think that there are plenty of users with enough expertise to report their findings, that have the hardware in question.

Basically the latest 'magic' doesn't fix it and that is the way it is. Basically as a standalone linux box it is useless(without a remote client). again don't get me wrong I'm not complaining. Just try to prevent OTHERS from being mis-informed!

ShALLaX is working on focus support; He is VERY close. Be patient!

ShALLax , glad you were able to get a 1.5 xbox, hopefully you will see what we do... What a FANTASTIC job you have done so far!!!


Thanks again!

[nobspangle]

overscan is the way video is designed to go off the edge of the TV screen, this is to eliminate problems such as picture distortion and also edges of mpeg2 encoded video. Television overcomes this by using a "safe zone" this is an area that will always be seen on the screen. Nothing important ever happens out side of this area (including all onscreen graphics). Linux (like most computer OSes) is designed to be viewed on a monitor, monitors do not have overscan or a safe zone the whole image area is used and is focused inside the boundaries of the screen.
This creates a problem for xbox linux since it must some how compensate for this difference between a PC monitor and a television screen. It does this using xbv. This little program tells the video encoder to alter its timing so that the lines on the TV are scanned in a shorter amount of time this results in shorter lines and so the picture fits on to the screen.
Gentoox runs xbv on startup in the local.start file, this happens after xfree has started (around 8 seconds).
xbv only works with the connexant video encoder (not with the focus one) therefore if you have a focus chip and xbv is still set to run in your local.start file, then around 8 seconds after xfree has loaded your video will screw up.
On your 1.5 xbox run "grep '/etc/xbv/xbv' /etc/conf.d/local.start" if this gives you anything but a blank output or lines starting with # that is your 8 second focus problem.