Hi,

I've just installed the latest version of Knoppmyth onto a Compaq Evo D510 (small form factor - great pc for a pvr!) with a hauppauge NOVA-T 500 dvb-t capture card and an AGP type nVidia GeForce 6200 DVI, VGA and TV outputs. I've read on the wiki (http://www.knoppmythwiki.org/index.php? ... ythInstall) that the nVidia drivers are not installed by default so I followed the instructions carefully to install them:


The machine was running slowly in mythtv when navigating the menus (~ 1 second delay after pressing the keyboard buttons to scrolling the menu) and the tv signal out was 'pixelated' or 'blotchy' these I think are caused by a graphics driver issue.

However when I typed *nvidia* it came back with an error that it was unable to download the nvidia headers (the internet was connected and working properly as I pinged a website fine with no packet loss). It said defaulting to the legacy driver.

I then renamed the XWindow start program to by then rebooted to stop the XWindow starting at boot temporaily whilst I installed the drivers.

The xxxx was meant to be substituted for the driver shipped with my knoppmyth distribution - I did not know this nor could I find it on the internet. So I chose instead the recommended driver off mythtv.org wiki: 1.0.8756 (http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/XvMC). I realised that the xxxx- could be omitted and the driver number entered after the command. It downloaded (off the disk I think) and installed fine with one error that it was unable to close the XVid session (I think...) I rebooted the pc but then the screen kept turning on and off repeatedly every 1/2 second and it came back with an XWindow error unable to find nVidia kernel - no monitor found! I then manually edited the xorg.conf file to change the driver "nvidia" back to driver "nv" then rebooted and the XWindow with mythtv appeared.

I then renamed the startx file and rebooted. Then downloaded the latest firmware from the nvidia website and installed it using the 'graphical' nvidia package - agian no errors. I then returned the startx file back to its original name and rebooted. This time an nVidia splash screen displayed and mythtv came up. The latency on the menu had gone, but I am still not confident that when watching tv that the complete 'blotchy' pixel areas have gone or that XvMC is enabled. I use the tv s-video out and some rapid zoom shots on tv seem a bit 'jittery'.

I was unsure on the nVidia download site whether to chose the IA32 or x86 version - I know that I have an intel chipset on the Compaq Evo motherboard so I chose the IA32 version - is this correct?!

Please could someone explain:
1. how to install the driver,
2. which driver is recommended for my card,
3. how I can turn XvMC on for mythtv
4. and whether I need to change any resolution or screen refresh frequency
to get it working alright on my old 4:3 CRT PAL-I television via s-video input. Thanks!

If you see the nVidia splashscreen you should be OK, your driver is already installed.



It appears you have the TV out active, so before modifying, backup your /etc/X11/xorg.conf.

Firstly check that in your Monitor section, the following are set:


Then from this modify the appropriate Display subsection to:

You don't need a modeline to be created as the nVidia driver knows it.

This should be an interlaced mode, but it doesn't look quite right, so I switched on Bob 2x deinterlacing (Utilities/Setup->Setup->TV Settings->Playback), that seems to work well.


I haven't done this myself, I think this is how it's done , on the Same screen as above change your Preferred MPEG2 Decoder to Standard XvMC .

Bruce S.

_________________
Updated 2019/10/26: AthlonII X2 265 Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P
16Gb PC 1866 DDR3, 500GB+2TB+4TB SATA HDD,
SATA DVD-RW Asus DRW-24D5MT , NVIDIA GeForce GT1080
Hauppauage Nova-T 500, Nova-T LinHes R8.6.1

Hi,

Thanks for this, however it has spontaneously stopped using the nvidia driver and now XWindow won't start with mythtv - screen flashes for 10 seconds and returns c7 stopped respawing for 5 minutes etc.?!

I think I might reinstall again (I have nothing on the system yet) please could you advise how I should install the nVidia drivers properly.

Take a look on the Knoppmythwiki site. There are good instructions for updating the nvidia driver. Last week I tested using the steps to update to the latest Nvidia driver and it worked. Pay particular atttention to the steps to uninstall all references to nvidia and/or nv.

Hi thanks for this,

I thought you had to manually install the nVidia card - but when I re-installed Knoppmyth R5F1 I got stuck on the mythtv setup and had to <ctrl><alt><f1> and reboot the pc. Then it paused for a while during the startup whilst it said "checking nVidia driver", next thing I knew I saw the nVidia splash screen! So I guess the driver is installed and working but I wasn't expecting this!

I've changed my xorg.conf file but I've also read about X11org.conf (I think) do I need to change this one as well on R5F1?

Do you think this is installed properly or should I go and install it as it says on the wiki?

It appears to be OK, so I would leave it for the moment, though the normal default setup is not to have the splash screen.

XF86config-4 served the same purpose for XFree86 as xorg.conf does now for X.org 7.x, so is no longer needed.

Bruce S.

_________________
Updated 2019/10/26: AthlonII X2 265 Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3P
16Gb PC 1866 DDR3, 500GB+2TB+4TB SATA HDD,
SATA DVD-RW Asus DRW-24D5MT , NVIDIA GeForce GT1080
Hauppauage Nova-T 500, Nova-T LinHes R8.6.1

I've got the PCI version of the nvidia fx6200. Has anyone ever got that working?

I'm going to try the latest release but it would be nice to know if anyone had got it working.

many thanks.