VDPAU Problems with Mythbuntu on ION

[bobw]

I have installed Mythbuntu 10.10 on a Zotac ION motherboard and haven't been able to get VDPAU to work at all.

I've attached the result of nvidia-bug-report.sh and the log from using "export VDPAU_TRACE=1" and
"export VDPAU_NVIDIA_DEBUG=3" before starting mythtv.

[primerib]

It would be a good idea to start with the actual error you're getting...which is what?

[bobw]

the screen goes black and the user interface locks up. I can still ssh into the box to kill mythtv.

[bobw]

The mythtv output contains the following:

2010-12-11 08:02:03.657 VDPAU Error: Error at mythrender_vdpau.cpp:592 (#25, A catch-all error, used when no other error code applies.)
2010-12-11 08:02:03.657 VDPAU Error: Failed to create output surface.
2010-12-11 08:02:03.657 VDPAU Error: No presentation surfaces
2010-12-11 08:02:03.658 Failed to create VDPAU render device.
2010-12-11 08:02:03.658 VidOutVDPAU Error: Failed to initialise VDPAU
2010-12-11 08:02:03.673 VideoOutput, Error: Not compiled with any useable video output method.
2010-12-11 08:02:03.674 NVP(0), Error: Couldn't create VideoOutput instance. Exiting..
2010-12-11 08:02:03.674 Unable to initialize video.

[Stephen Warren]

bobw,

Unfortunately, the error messages you posted don't imply anything obvious to me.'

Can you please try the latest 260.* driver from the FTP site? We did fix at least one memory resource related issue in the latest driver, and it's just possible that you're being affected by that.

Thanks.

[jyavenard]

Originally Posted by Stephen Warren

bobw,


Can you please try the latest 260.* driver from the FTP site? We did fix at least one memory resource related issue in the latest driver, and it's just possible that you're being affected by that.

It's hard to recommend 260.xx drivers to anyone using mythtv. And to stick to 195.* or 256.*

With 260, there are plenty of visual artifacts, crashes. Playing video with vpdau, if you interrupt it, you end up with the last video frame played in greyscale on the desktop.

Bit regression with 260.
Luckily I found that my GT430 works with the latest 256 drivers

[ScottKnight]

Originally Posted by jyavenard

It's hard to recommend 260.xx drivers to anyone using mythtv. And to stick to 195.* or 256.*

With 260, there are plenty of visual artifacts, crashes. Playing video with vpdau, if you interrupt it, you end up with the last video frame played in greyscale on the desktop.

Bit regression with 260.
Luckily I found that my GT430 works with the latest 256 drivers

Just as another data point (and not to take anything away from jyavenard's opinion since I appreciate all of his hard work on MythTV), I haven't experienced any visual artifacts or crashes that I could attribute to the drivers. My three systems are all C79-based (GeForce 9300/9400/ION) and I have pretty much tried every beta version that has been posted here since 190.25. I have only had to back out once or twice in all that time.

[bobw]

When I tried installing the drivers downloaded from this web site they didn't work. The last line in the X log showed the driver being loaded then nothing.

I backed the new driver out and reinstalled the Ubuntu release driver and everything now works. I'm not sure what's different that it works now when it didn't work before.

[ScottKnight]

bobw,

I don't know what to tell you other than there must have been a previous library/module either in the path or even in memory when you tried to start X with the new driver. I don't run Ubuntu and am mostly only familiar with the Red Hat Way of doing things. All my systems have gone straight from clean install to using the NVidia installers rather than any of the packaged versions (ATrpms, FreshRPMs, etc). Whenever I switch versions, I always reboot just to be sure. Going through the old lsmod, rmmod, modprobe sequence should accomplish exactly the same result...reboot is easier for me since I am typically working on three systems at once.

[steffen_b]

Originally Posted by jyavenard

It's hard to recommend 260.xx drivers to anyone using mythtv. And to stick to 195.* or 256.*

With 260, there are plenty of visual artifacts, crashes. Playing video with vpdau, if you interrupt it, you end up with the last video frame played in greyscale on the desktop.

Bit regression with 260.
Luckily I found that my GT430 works with the latest 256 drivers

sorry for highjacking the thread , but i can not agree on ScottKnight and I wholeheartly agree with that opinion. 260 is so bad that i don't even know where to start reporting. As a yavdr developer (http.//www.yavdr.org) i can confirm:

- Bad tearing issues with 260.xx - which have not been there before and are really anoying. (loosing vsync most probably from what i read here ?)
- white artifacts (like snow) on dark areas (which could be old pictures i suppose?) - sometimes only once every 2 weeks, for other a lot more often (some uninitialized memory/overflow?)


Currently trying this:
# fix tearing
env __GL_SYNC_TO_VBLANK=1
export __GL_SYNC_TO_VBLANK
env __GL_SYNC_DISPLAY_DEVICE="<?cs var:system.x11.display.default ?>"
export __GL_SYNC_DISPLAY_DEVICE

# and snow ?
env VDPAU_NVIDIA_NO_OVERLAY=1
export VDPAU_NVIDIA_NO_OVERLAY

in the environment of the Xserver.
And this in the xorg:
Option "OnDemandVBlankinterrupts" "on
Option "FlatPanelProperties" "Scaling = Native"

The Tearing still doesn't seem to be under control. This has not been in 256.xx, on the other hand regular long running vdpau calls are fixed with 260.xx (regular freezes in vdpau decoding). In the end it seems last more or less vdpau problem free release was 195.30

[mocharhw]

Originally Posted by steffen_b

- white artifacts (like snow) on dark areas (which could be old pictures i suppose?) - sometimes only once every 2 weeks, for other a lot more often (some uninitialized memory/overflow?)

It's funny I just started having this problem this past weekend but only when using a Firefox script that works with Youtube to call mplayer instead of using Flash in the browser. The entire system needs to be rebooted due to total graphical corruption which starts with mplayer video using vdpau and the 260.xx driver. There is another thread somewhere here where this corruption is reported. There was no resolution of course.

It's good to see a software developer agrees that 195.xx was the last good driver.

[JoJo19]

I agree on 195.30 being the last useable driver for xine vdpau users.
May I ask, what makes you say this:

Originally Posted by steffen_b

... on the other hand regular long running vdpau calls are fixed with 260.xx (regular freezes in vdpau decoding) ...

?
To me it seems, that I saw freezes with 260.19.29 too (I use it since short only, so I am not quite sure).