[English] README.TXT MATROX GRAPHICS INC. 2003.11.24 Matrox Parhelia & Millennium P650/P750 GNU/LINUX Display Driver v1.1 Beta Note: This document and the associated software are currently only available in English. We apologize for the inconvenience. Contents ======== - Description of this release - Available configurations - Using TripleHead (Parhelia and Millennium P750 only) - Sample XF86Config Files - Changing the amount of offscreen memory - Using digital monitors - Using a hardware accelerated mouse-pointer - Binary Installation - Enabling bus mastering - Enabling TV out - Kernel module options - Known driver problems Description of this release =========================== Supported Matrox boards: - Parhelia 128MB, Parhelia 256MB - Millennium P650, Millennium P750 Supported Xfree86 versions: - 4.2.0 - 4.2.1 - 4.3.0 Supported modes of operation: - Bus mastering - Direct access See the section "Enabling bus mastering" for details. Available configurations ======================== With this driver, you can choose amongst the following multi-display configurations: (1) Single display: Only 1 display. This mode supports bus mastering. (2) 2 displays - independent mode: 2 displays with different display resolutions. This mode supports bus mastering. (3) 2 displays - stretched mode: two displays with the same display resolution and refresh rate. These 2 displays use 1 big frame buffer. This mode supports bus mastering. (4) 3 displays - stretched mode (TripleHead): 3 displays with the same display resolution and refresh rate. These 3 displays use 1 big frame buffer. This mode supports bus mastering. Using TripleHead ================ (Note: TripleHead is not supported on the Millennium P650) While using TripleHead, all 3 displays must have the same refresh rate and resolution because all 3 displays are using the same frame buffer. In order to enable Triple Head, add Option "TripleHead" to the screen section of your XF86Config-4 file Here's a sample Screen Section for Triple Head: Section "Screen" Identifier "Screen 1" Device "MGA CARD 1" Monitor "My Monitor" DefaultDepth 24 DefaultFbbpp 32 Option "TripleHead" SubSection "Display" Depth 24 Virtual 2400 600 Modes "800x600" EndSubSection EndSection Sample XF86Config Files ======================= There are sample XF86Config files in the "Samples" directory. To use them, you must either: - Copy the file to your /etc/X11 directory and rename it to "XF86Config-4" OR - Type "startx -- -xf86config FILENAME" where FILENAME is the sample config file. For Single display --> XF86Config.single 2 displays - independent mode --> XF86Config.dual 2 displays - stretched mode --> XF86Config.merged 3 displays - stretched mode --> XF86Config.triple Note: these are samples and may require modification to be usable on your particular system. Changing the amount of offscreen memory ======================================= If you need to change the offscreen allocation of memory the "OffScreen" option can be used for this purpose by using an integer value between "0" and "5" to be used as a multiplier against the memory used for onscreen memory. For example we want the offscreen memory to use twice as much ram as what the onscreen memory would use, we would add the following line to your device section in your config : Option "OffScreen" "2" Using digital monitors ====================== If you are using a digital monitor, add the following line to the device section: Option "DigitalScreen1" "on" or Option "DigitalScreen2" "on" "DigitalScreen1" and "DigitalScreen2" correspond respectively to the digital monitor connected to the primary and secondary connector of your graphics card. Binary Installation =================== A working installation of XFree86 4.2.0, 4.2.1 or 4.3.0 is required before the binaries can be installed. To install the driver execute the following from a bash shell as the root user : sh mtxdrivers-RHxx-v1.1-beta.run This will extract the files to the installation directory and start the installation installation script. Enabling bus mastering ====================== The driver can run with bus mastering On or Off. Having bus mastering On generally gives better performances. To run with bus mastering a kernel driver, mtx.o, must be compiled. On most configurations the installation script will seamlessly take care of the kernel driver compilation. In order to use bus mastering, the following modules must be loaded: (1) mtx.o: Parhelia kernel module The kernel module must be compiled for your system. The script file "install.sh" will attempt to compile the module. If it does not succeed, you can compile it manually by entering the following: - cd mtxdrivers[ENTER] - export PARHELIUX=$PWD/src[ENTER] - cd src/kernel/parhelia[ENTER] - ln -sf ../../../kernel/mtx_parhelia.o .[ENTER] - cd ..[ENTER] - make clean[ENTER] - make[ENTER] - su root[ENTER] - make install[ENTER] Compiling the kernel module requires the kernel source to be installed on your system. The "make install" command installs the kernel module in the proper location. The X server should load the kernel module automatically. If not, typing "insmod mtx" in the installed location will load the module. Before loading the "mtx" kernel module, make sure that the "agpgart" module has been loaded sucessfully. Enter the following command and look for "agpgart" in the list of modules. - lsmod If "agpgart" is not listed, it can be loaded by typing the following: - insmod agpgart To enable or disable bus mastering, add the following to the XF86Config-4 file: Option "Busmastering" "on" or Option "Busmastering" "off" Note that busmastering will always be assumed to be on if the busmastering option isn't set in your X config file. Kernel module options ===================== When using the mtx.o kernel module the following options can be set - Agp Rate (1x,2x,4x) - Agp/Pci transfers The agp rate rate can be set as follows (as the user root): modprobe mtx agprate=4 Note that legal values are 1, 2, and 4 corresponding to the desired agp speed setting. To set the card to use agp or pci transfers use the following format (as the user root): modprobe mtx agp=0 Note that legal values are 0 when using pci transfers and 1 when using agp transfers. These options can be set up to execute automaticly by adding them to the modules.conf (on most distributions this would be locate in the /etc directory). For example to set the agp rate to 2 and set pci tranfsers you would add the following line (as the user root) to modules.conf : options mtx agprate=2 agp=0 These options are set automatically any time you do 'modprobe mtx' or 'insmod mtx' when the options are listed in modules.conf. Enabling TV out =============== This option can be enabled when using single head mode to clone its output. The output supported are NTSC and PAL. There 3 settings that need to be set in the primary Screen section of your config, "TvOut", "TvStandard", "SelectedRegion", and "AntiFlickerLevel". The following is a sample for NTSC: Section "Screen" Identifier "Screen 1" Device "MGA CARD 1" Monitor "My Monitor" DefaultDepth 24 Option "TvOut" "on" Option "TvStandard" "NTSC" Option "AntiFlickerLevel" "10" Option "SelectedRegion" "0 0 800 600" SubSection "Display" Depth 16 Modes "800x600" "640x480" EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Depth 24 Modes "800x600" "640x480" EndSubSection EndSection Option switches - Options Values Description ---------------- ----------------------- --------------------------- "TvOut" "on" or "off" Enables/Disables TV out "TvStandard" "PAL" or "NTSC" Select output type "SelectedRegion" "Left Top Right Bottom" Selects desktop region to clone. "AntiFlickerLevel" "0" to "25" Sets the antiflicker levels to clone. Known driver problems ===================== Not available a this time. New Features ============ This driver now has support for Xv, DPMS and TV out in single head with a cloned output.