[mythtv-users] Linux/MythTV Newbie - video card driver question

Dewey Smolka dsmolka at gmail.com
Sun Jan 7 00:58:47 UTC 2007


On 1/6/07, Mark Abreu <mark at gags-r-us.org> wrote:
> I'm trying to build my first linux machine and decided to try MythTV.  Probably a bad idea.  I've installed various linux distros before just to go through the process and have some fun but never kept a machine in that state for long.
>
> I've purchased the "Hacking MythTV" book by Wilson, Tittel, Wright & Korelc and it's a great book.  I'm also trying to follow along at Mr. Wilson's website at http://wilsonet.com/mythtv/ because there are some differences between the book and the website that seem important.
>
> When I look at the Nvidia section the first thing I see is that I should update the xorg.conf with empty "Files" and "Module" sections.  I don't know why I'm adding a "Files" section since there's already one in the file?

You only need to do that step if you don't have an xorg.conf from the
install. Fedora's system-config-display command should create an
xorg.conf, however.


>
> Next I installed the 8776 drivers.
>
> At this point There's an example "Device" section in the web document that indicates I should see various settings like "VendorName", "BoardName", and various "Option" lines.  I don't see them in my xorg.conf file and that's puzzling to me.  It's not clear if I'm supposed to add that stuff or the 8776 driver install does it?  If I'm supposed to add it, where do I get the correct information to put in it?

After you've installed the nvidia driver, all you should need to do
for setting up the display (on your monitor) is run
#system-config-display (to generate a fresh xorg.conf in case you
messed anything up in it before), then edit your /etc/X11/xorg.conf.
Look for Section Device and change the line Driver "nv" to Driver
"nvidia".

You may also want to comment out dpms (screen blanking) -- look for
Section Monitor and add '#' in front of Option "dpms".

Restart X and see if it works (you should see an nvidia splash screen
if all is well.

If X fails to launch and complains about OpenGL, edit your xorg.conf
again and comment out Load "glx" in Section Modules. (Your card will
support OpenGL, but worry about the most important things first -- get
Mythtv working, then worry about glx if it didn't work straight away,
then worry about TV-out.)

>
> And what I'd really like to do is avoid converting my MythTV machine from VGA output to svideo or composite until I'm done setting everything up.

So don't. Just get the whole thing running first and you can add the
necessary lines for TV-out later.

Good luck.


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