Matrox G400 Dual Head requires loving care

[ranxerox]

I'm trying to use a Matrox G400 dual head video card with Kubuntu 7.04.

I started trying to use this card with Kubuntu a couple of weeks ago. I was going to load Kubuntu 6.10. It wouldn't work at all, but 7.04 was almost cooked.

7.04 works so much better. I have no problem getting the basic installation and it all looks fine.

I couldn't play an MPEG file or a DVD, however. Kaffeine just barfed.

I was unable to connect the second output to a ProView 486 LCD monitor (it's a cheap item). I messed around with the video settings from available tools but the second monitor never seemed to be recognized by the system and never came on at all. Somehow I kept changing the settings on the main monitor, and I was pretty careful about what I was doing.

When I attempted to install with the second monitor plugged in the boot failed. I may have gotten confused with a second issue I was having with a SCSI card, and I haven't gone back and retried that test since I figured out the other issues. But at the time I remember having taken all other peripherals out of the system, including the SCSI cards, so I'm pretty sure of this one.

Just now, as I was writing this post, I used Adept to load a largish pile of drivers that had MPEG in them. Caffeine just played a DVD and an MPG file that were impossible earlier. I can't say for sure which driver it was, but there's one there. I am assuming that there's some intellectual property restriction associated with MPEG that prevents the installation from including a working MPEG library by default.

I am wondering if the release has the latest version of the Matrox drivers, which I believe to be here:

* http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/co...nfo.php?id=143

I think that I saw a different number scroll by during a boot or in a log file somewhere, but haven't found a way to confirm or deny that. If I find that the version is off I might try installing the more recent one.

Any hints about the second monitor would be welcome as that's still not working.

[SheeEttin]

Re: Matrox G400 Dual Head requires loving care

Hmm... if the version number passed during a boot sequence, you can probably find it by running "dmesg". This'll generate a lot of output, though, so you might want to try "dmesg | grep matrox", "dmesg | grep G400", or, to read the whole thing line by line, "dmesg | less". Also check the Xorg log for warnings or errors ("cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep EE && cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep WW").

On running the second monitor, try going into System Settings > Monitor & Display and poke around in here, especially in the Size, Orientation & Stuff tab and the Hardware tab.

[ranxerox]

Re: Matrox G400 Dual Head requires loving care

The dmesg line appears to be:

~$ dmesg | grep -i mga
[ 196.262861] [drm] Initialized mga 3.2.1 20051102 on minor 0

The latest version on the Matrox support site appears to be 4.4:

matrox_driver-x86_32-4.4.0.tar.gz

I will be installing and testing it as soon as I finish wrestling with my other installation issues.

Thanks!
Ranx

[ranxerox]

Re: Matrox G400 Dual Head requires loving care

Downloaded and attempted to install the Matrox driver. Refused to install:

~/matrox_driver-x86_32-4.4.0$ sudo ./install.sh
[: 43: ==: unexpected operator
./install.sh: 57: function: not found
./install.sh: 69: function: not found
./install.sh: 78: function: not found
./install.sh: 95: function: not found
./install.sh: 141: function: not found
[: 178: ==: unexpected operator
[: 178: ==: unexpected operator
[: 178: ==: unexpected operator
[: 178: ==: unexpected operator
[: 178: ==: unexpected operator
-e ERROR: The X server drivers included in this installation package
-e do not support the current version of your X server.

I checked in /var/log/Xorg.0.log and it looks like Kubuntu Feisty is running 7.2. The driver package has various subdirectories:

• 4.3.0
• 6.7.0
• 6.8.0
• 6.8.1
• 6.8.2
• 6.9.0
• 7.0.0

but sadly no 7.2.0. So I guess that strategy is a non-starter.

[SheeEttin]

Re: Matrox G400 Dual Head requires loving care

Well, I guess you'll be using an older driver.

In System Settings > M&D > Administrator Mode > Hardware > (Find your card) > Configure, there is a line (under "device") for the Matrox Millennium G400 DualHead. I don't know what this'll do, but try it.

[ranxerox]

Re: Matrox G400 Dual Head requires loving care

After reading many posts on various sites I have constructed an xorg.conf that works fine for one monitor but not for two. Moreover, it breaks the relevant system settings page:

# /etc/X11/xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf(5) manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
#  sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "Files"
    FontPath    "/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc"
    FontPath    "/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic"
    FontPath    "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled"
    FontPath    "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/:unscaled"
    FontPath    "/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1"
    FontPath    "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi"
    FontPath    "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi"
    # path to defoma fonts
    FontPath    "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
EndSection

Section "Module"
    Load  "i2c"
    Load  "bitmap"
    Load  "ddc"
    Load  "dri"
    Load  "extmod"
    Load  "freetype"
    Load  "glx"
    Load  "int10"
    Load  "vbe"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier   "Generic Keyboard"
    Driver     "kbd"
    Option     "CoreKeyboard"
    Option     "XkbRules"   "xorg"
    Option     "XkbModel"   "pc105"
    Option     "XkbLayout"   "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier   "Configured Mouse"
    Driver     "mouse"
    Option     "CorePointer"
    Option     "Device"        "/dev/input/mice"
    Option     "Protocol"       "ImPS/2"
    Option     "ZAxisMapping"     "4 5"
    Option     "Emulate3Buttons"    "true"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Driver     "wacom"
    Identifier   "stylus"
    Option     "Device"    "/dev/input/wacom"
    Option     "Type"     "stylus"
    Option     "ForceDevice"  "ISDV4"     # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Driver     "wacom"
    Identifier   "eraser"
    Option     "Device"    "/dev/input/wacom"
    Option     "Type"     "eraser"
    Option     "ForceDevice"  "ISDV4"     # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Driver     "wacom"
    Identifier   "cursor"
    Option     "Device"    "/dev/input/wacom"
    Option     "Type"     "cursor"
    Option     "ForceDevice"  "ISDV4"     # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier   "Head 0"
    BoardName    "Matrox Graphics, Inc. MGA G400/G450"
    Driver     "mga"
    BusID      "PCI:1:0:0"
    Option     "OldDmaInit"      "True"
    Screen     0
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier   "Head 1"
    BoardName    "Matrox Graphics, Inc. MGA G400/G450"
    Driver     "mga"
    BusID      "PCI:1:0:1"
    Option     "OldDmaInit"      "True"
    Screen     1
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier   "Samsung"
    Option     "DPMS"
    Vendorname   "Plug 'n' Play"
    Modelname    "Plug 'n' Play"
    Gamma      1.0
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier   "Proview"
    Option     "DPMS"
    Vendorname   "Plug 'n' Play"
    Modelname    "Plug 'n' Play"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier   "Primary"
    Device     "Head 0"
    Monitor     "Samsung"
    DefaultDepth  24
    SubSection "Display"
        Depth      1
        Modes      "1600x1200" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Depth      4
        Modes      "1600x1200" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Depth      8
        Modes      "1600x1200" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Depth      15
        Modes      "1600x1200" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Depth      16
        Modes      "1600x1200" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Depth      24
        Modes      "1600x1200" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "720x400" "640x480"
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier   "Secondary"
    Device     "Head 1"
    Monitor     "Proview"
    DefaultDepth  24
    SubSection "Display"
        Depth      24
        Modes      "1024x768"
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier   "Default Layout"
    Screen 0    "Primary" 0 0
    Screen 1    "Secondary" leftof "Primary"
    InputDevice   "Generic Keyboard"
    InputDevice   "Configured Mouse"
    InputDevice   "stylus"    "SendCoreEvents"
    InputDevice   "cursor"    "SendCoreEvents"
    InputDevice   "eraser"    "SendCoreEvents"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
 Option "Xinerama" "true"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
    Mode  0666
EndSection

Using the system settings never works right. Even after I force the second monitor in it just resets the primary to 640 x 480 (something like that) and the secondary doesn't work. It's all a non-starter.

Tried downloading matroxset but it thinks the monitor should be /dev/fb0 which I don't have at all. No idea what the device name really is.

[SheeEttin]

Re: Matrox G400 Dual Head requires loving care

fb0 is probable the framebuffer device, which I think isn't used any more. But I'm just speculating here.