HOW TO: Compiling and Installing the OpenChrome Graphical VIA Driver

[Tedd81]

Hello,

I'm using a Packard Bell Easynote with S3 Unichrome Pro VGA Adapter.
The script gave me 2D setup but no 3D.
Is this correct?

[n00b@linux]

there has just been a new official release of the openchrome driver. It changes the name of the xorg module from via to openchrome. I had to figure this out and it took some time. I uploaded a new script that has been tested under gusty gibbon.

Thanks TuxCrafter! You've saved me a LOT of hurt and pain. I installed it using Synaptic and my results:

user@nano-itx:~$ glxinfo | grep rendering
direct rendering: Yes
user@nano-itx:~$ sudo cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf | grep via
        Driver          "via"
user@nano-itx:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. CN400/PM880 Host Bridge
00:00.1 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. CN400/PM880 Host Bridge
00:00.2 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. CN400/PM880 Host Bridge
00:00.3 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. CN400/PM880 Host Bridge
00:00.4 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. CN400/PM880 Host Bridge
00:00.7 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. CN400/PM880 Host Bridge
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 PCI Bridge
00:0f.0 RAID bus controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VIA VT6420 SATA RAID Controller (rev 80)
00:0f.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
00:10.4 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 86)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 ISA bridge [KT600/K8T800/K8T890 South]
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 60)
00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 78)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. S3 Unichrome Pro VGA Adapter (rev 02)
user@nano-itx:~$

[markp1989]

It does not work for me. I have Fujitsu-Siemens AMILO Pro V2030, Intel Celeron 1.4GHz, 512MB of ram, Chipset Via P4M800CE, Via S3G UniChrome Pro IGP. I have installed fresh copy of new Ubuntu 7.10. The script ran well (did not ask for installation of 3D driver), and the xorg.conf file has changed to VIA driver etc., but then, after reboot, there was a mess with the colours and I had to do sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

EDIT: Never mind. It's now open SUSE on that laptop since the modem is not supported by Ubuntu, too.

i have the same laptop and i cannt get it to work with gusty eaither

[Velenoso]

Hi there,

Do you need to be connected to the internet for this script to work? I haven't set up my internet connection in Ubuntu as yet. Is it possible to do this without being online?

Thanks

[Tedd81]

I used both the script and Synaptic but suffered very poor window scrolling, freezing and just blank windows.. Arrrg
I think I'm using VT8237

I followed: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...+Unichrome+Pro

The glitches have now gone but no 3D.... arrg

now looking at:
http://unichrome.sourceforge.net/

Help!!!

[n00b@linux]

@Velenoso:
Yes, you need to be connected to the internet to use either the script or to use Synaptic (the repo packages).

@Tedd81:
Please post the results of 'lspci' so that we can identify your chipset (certain chipsets work with 'trunk' others require the 'experimental branch' of the openchrome driver). Also, have you looked at the output of /var/log/Xorg.0.log for any X errors?

[Tedd81]

Results of 'lspci' :

00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8M800 Host Bridge
00:00.1 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8M800 Host Bridge
00:00.2 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8M800 Host Bridge
00:00.3 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8M800 Host Bridge
00:00.4 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8M800 Host Bridge
00:00.7 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8M800 Host Bridge
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 PCI bridge [K8T800/K8T890 South]
00:09.0 CardBus bridge: ENE Technology Inc CB1410 Cardbus Controller (rev 01)
00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)
00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)
00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)
00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 82)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8235 ISA Bridge
00:11.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 50)
00:11.6 Communication controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 80)
00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 74)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. S3 Unichrome Pro VGA Adapter (rev 01)

Looking at Xorg.0.log now. I need to restart X after undoing my last actions to recreate any faults.

[Tedd81]

There are no errors in Xorg.0.log but a couple of warnings i don't understand so i have attached it.

Also:

root@ted-laptop:~# glxinfo | grep rendering
do_wait: drmWaitVBlank returned -1, IRQs don't seem to be working correctly.
Try running with LIBGL_THROTTLE_REFRESH and LIBL_SYNC_REFRESH unset.
direct rendering: Yes

What do i do with this?
(sorry a bit new to linux)

Thanx for help, sorry for any silly questions!!!!!!!

[n00b@linux]

00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8M800 Host Bridge

The K8M800 northbridge is supported by both the Unichrome and Openchrome drivers. However, the Openchrome web site says of the K8M800:

"2D acceleration should work just fine and 3D acceleration works fine as well, except on K8M/N800 chips where there are frequent hangs, probably due to timing problems"

Hence, the 3D bug you experienced from running the Openchrome driver is known about (but not fixed). It's possibly the same bug that's showing up when you invoke 'glxinfo | grep rendering'. And there are no silly questions on the Ubuntu forums. We were all new to linux once.

It would appear, that if you want 3D, your best bet is the Unichrome driver. You had the link in one of your previous posts. It contains some rudimentary instructions on how to compile it but before you do that, check the Gutsy repos to see if it's available as a package.

To clarify what's going on: the openchrome video drivers (both 'trunk' and 'experimental_branch') produce a 2D driver which is only capable of 3D 'acceleration' ('direct rendering', 'hardware acceleration', or whatever name is your favourite) when using the unichrome_dri.so module. The unichrome_dri.so module is maintained by the unichrome project - a different project to the openchrome project. The unichrome project also has a 2D driver (commonly known as the unichrome driver). Therefore, BOTH the openchrome and unichrome 2D drivers rely on the unichrome 3D 'driver' to get direct rendering. As the openchrome project does not maintain the unichrome 3D driver (unichrome_dri.so) it has not fixed the problems your chipset (K8M800) is experiencing when you combine the openchrome 2D driver with the unichrome 3D driver. However, it would appear from the unichrome project's web site on sourceforge, that the unichrome 2D driver works well with the unichrome 3D driver for the chipsets the unichrome project supports - of which, the KM800 is one. Hence, it would appear your best bet is to try the Unichrome driver if you want stable 3D. Of course, the openchrome project's 2D drivers also enable 'accelerated' MPEG2 decoding on certain chipsets but the unichrome project does not. So, the choices for your chipset (K8M800) are one or the other (2D video + 3D video vs. 2D video + MPEG2 acceleration) but you can't have it all (2D video + 3D video + MPEG2 acceleration)

Let us know if you require any further help.

[TuxCrafter]

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=485646

I uploaded a new version of the script, I tested it on a fresh installation and it works perfectly. Please try the script and any feedback is welcome.

The script is on the first post of this topic!