[mythtv-users] Using tv remote via hdmi to Liva X? also 2 screens

[HP-mini]

On Fri, 2016-02-19 at 17:20 -0500, A. F. Cano wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 26, 2016 at 08:00:07AM +1300, HP-mini wrote:
> > ...
<snip>
> > Soln to Screen problems:
> > - overscan need to be defeated in the TV setup (justscan direct pixel
> > mapping), might have to name the port as "PCinput" or similar
> 
> Didn't find any way to do this in the tv menus.
> 
Most of the good brands have some mechanism for defeating overscan,
sometimes you have to be in "expert" mode, use a specific HDMI input or
name the input etc.

> > - separate X screens; multihead using xorg.conf & option "ZaphodHeads".
> > http://askubuntu.com/questions/278115/dual-screen-setup-in-ubuntu-with-intel-hd-graphics
> 
> Based on this I tried this xorg.conf:
> 
> Section "ServerLayout"
>     Identifier     "Layout0"
>     Screen         "Screen0" 0 0
>     Screen         "Screen1" RightOf "Screen0"
> EndSection
> 
> Section "Device"
>     Identifier     "Device0"
>     Driver         "intel"
>     BusID          "PCI:0:2:0"
>     Option         "ZaphodHeads" "VGA1"
>     Option         "AccelMethod" "sna"
>     Screen         0
> EndSection
> 
> Section "Device"
>     Identifier     "Device1"
>     Driver         "intel"
>     BusID          "PCI:0:2:0"
>     Option         "ZaphodHeads" "HDMI1"
>     Option         "AccelMethod" "sna"
>     Screen         1
> EndSection
> 
> Section "Screen"
>     Identifier     "Screen0"
>     Device         "Device0"
> EndSection
> 
> Section "Screen"
>     Identifier     "Screen1"
>     Device         "Device1"
> EndSection
> 

I think the ZaphodHeads option must specified like this:
Option   "ZaphodHeads" "VGA1,HDMI1"
I think the whole file is parsed for options but the above line should
be in each device section or server layout?? No one ever states which
section..
I would be careful to check the "device" port names reported by xrandr
match the names reported in /var/log/Xorg.0.log.
HDMI1 could be TMDS-1 etc
With nVidia driver, for example, they do not match.

> VGA1 and HDMI1 are the names that xrandr finds.  It doesn't work as
> expected.  The first problem is that the Liva X insists on using HDMI1
> as the primary interface at boot time and so, if it is connected, the
> boot messages go there.  There seems to be no bios option to make VGA1
> the primary boot interface.  When the HDMI interface has nothing plugged
> into it, I get the desired behavior: everything (boot, text consoles and
> X) displays on the VGA monitor.  So, I can't boot with the tv connected
> to the HDMI port.  This is important because the tv is about 20 ft away
> from the computer and keyboard.  Xrandr detects and reports that there
> is nothing connected to the HDMI port whan that is the case.  When the
> tv is connected, even if it is off, it reports all the modes and xrandr
> displays all the capabilities.  With no xorg.conf in place, when the tv
> is plugged into the HDMI port, X extends the one display to 3840 x 1080.
> The tv is the right part of the one super wide display.  When the
> xorg.conf above is in place, X creates a second screen overlaid at 0,0
> of size 1024 x 768 (if I recall correctly - it's much smaller than the
> 1920 x 1080 VGA1 display.)  When the tv is plugged in, it is unusable as
> a secondary display.  Maybe I need to specify coordinates and sizes? but
> since screen 1 and device 1 are supposed to be on separate displays,
> shouldn't both starting coordinates be 0,0?  Any ideas out there?
> 
May be you need monitor sections (bare minimum) in xorg.conf. Might need
to set the preferred mode (from internal pool) for each device.

> Without the xorg.conf, in the automatic/default mode, plugging in the tv
> extends the display, but unplugging it messes up X completely.  The
> windows become compressed horizontally and duplicated, then X becomes
> unusable and a reboot is needed (via ssh).
> 
Maybe a soln is to use the unavoidable dynamic events & then run xrandr
scripts to fix the display mess.

> > 
> > MythTV can stop pulseaudio server & use the required alsa device
> > directly.. no manual switching needed.
> 
> This doesn't seem to be happening here.  I'll look into this after I
> solve the 2-screen problem.  Any other suggestions out there?
Well MythTV needs to be using an alsa device for this to happen.
MythTV FE user needs to be member of audio (pulse?) groups.