Via Unichrome problems

[dragon2knight]

Hi all!! Been gone awhile,but I'm back to stay! My question is this: Is pc-bsd going to be upgraded to xorg 7.1 anytime soon?I searched the forum and found no support for the unichrome drivers needed to use xorg instead of vesa.The included ones dont work at all(I tried them all),and after reading all of the other posts on this subject,it seems that this is the only way to get unichrome to work(that version[7.1]works in linux for xorg usability).Any idea when the change is coming? Thanks ahead of time,and you folks are the best,feels great to be back!! :D

[TerryP]

The current system comes with X.Org 7.3,


Terry@dixie$ pkg_info |grep xorg 4:38
linux-xorg-libs-6.8.2_5 Xorg libraries, linux binaries
xorg-7.3_1 X.Org complete distribution metaport
xorg-apps-7.3 X.org apps meta-port
xorg-cf-files-1.0.2_2 X.org cf files for use with imake builds
xorg-docs-1.4,1 X.org documentation files
xorg-drivers-7.3_1 X.org drivers meta-port
xorg-fonts-100dpi-7.3 X.Org 100dpi bitmap fonts
xorg-fonts-7.3 X.org fonts meta-port
xorg-fonts-75dpi-7.3 X.Org 75dpi bitmap fonts
xorg-fonts-cyrillic-7.3 X.Org Cyrillic bitmap fonts
xorg-fonts-miscbitmaps-7.3 X.Org miscellaneous bitmap fonts
xorg-fonts-truetype-7.3 X.Org TrueType fonts
xorg-fonts-type1-7.3 X.Org Type1 fonts
xorg-libraries-7.3_1 X.org libraries meta-port
xorg-protos-7.3_1 X.org protos meta-port
xorg-server-1.4_8,1 X.Org X server and related programs
Terry@dixie$ uname -a ; echo ''; echo ''; PBReg get /PC-BSD/Version 4:38
FreeBSD dixie.launchmodem.com 6.3-RELEASE-p1 FreeBSD 6.3-RELEASE-p1 #6: Fri Apr 11 13:03:49 EDT 2008 root@pcbsd:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/PCBSD i386


1.5.1% Terry@dixie$ 4:39

[dragon2knight]

7.3 is already in 1.5.1? Then why dosent unichrome work?Your VIA drivers simply dont work.Your s3 drivers dont work.Even your VGA drivers dont work.If you have the latest version of xorg,then all of these should work to some extent.I am running three different distros on this computer besides this one.All have some form of unichrome support,although limited.Many office computers are stuck with built in video,especially VIA unichrome.Thats what I am evaluating right now.BSD seems to be the only one without any support for these garbage chips.Like them or not,there everywhere,and need some kind of support.Vesa dosent cut it at all,very choppy and SLOWWW.My personal computer has a seperate video card(nvidia,of course)so its not a problem,but my business systems dont,and wont ever have them.Some help here would be appreciated,thanks,Mike.

[richardpl]

What are you actually mean?

First to make use of drivers they must be installed.
Are they installed?

Here are all Xorg video drivers from FreeBSD ports tree:
http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/ports.cgi?qu ... &stype=all (http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/ports.cgi?query=xf86-video&stype=all)

there are via, s3, vga, ...

[TerryP]

I didn't write them ^_^


I've always had a decent enough graphics card, even my HP Vectra with a Matrox G200 (8MB) on board worked fine under X11R6 :-P


When I've had to use VESA drivers, they've never been performance problems with my cards for 'desktop' usage under KDE3.

[dragon2knight]

Ok,lets start again....I tried to use the via,s3 and vga drivers(I assumed they came installed in 1.5.1)and they didnt work at all.It forced me to use the vesa driver to get video.If I have to install the drivers myself,so be it.Just explain to this total newb(at least in BSD)how to do it please.My chipset is the 700 series and the video driver is Unichrome Pro.I only had other ,older, posts on this subject to go off of,and they werent very helpful.Thanks,Mike.

[richardpl]

Install this port:

http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/url.cgi?port ... /pkg-descr (http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/url.cgi?ports/x11-drivers/xf86-video-openchrome/pkg-descr)

If your card use openchrome driver.

It could be better if you know the complete name of driver you use with linux distributions where you reported that its working, for example look in its xorg.conf or look in KDE hardware info (i forgot correct name)

Even better install all xf86-* drivers (video, input, ..) and start X11 with X -configure as root.

Note, I never actually tried PC-BSD, so I do not know how Xorg and friends are installed (package vs PBI).

[longview]

I was posting in another thread (http://forums.pcbsd.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=11101) about PC-BSD failing to install on a laptop with Chrome drivers. Others are experiencing the same thing.

The problem with using the stock UNIX via driver is that it is 100% imcompatible with Chrome/Unichrome. The stock via driver works with the older s3 style via chipsets - not with Chrome/Unichrome.

There is an open source driver called openchrome (http://www.openchrome.org/) that works quite well.
I finally installed Kubuntu on the laptop in question. I installed it with the vesa driver, then upgraded to openchrome once it was running.

The problem with PC-BSD is that I cant even get the installer to run with the vesa, so there is no chance of upgrading to the correct driver. My install would crash within the first screen or two (pick country, timezone, keyboad - those early screens).

It would be very nice if the BSD guys would take a look at this and see if something can be done for the next version.

[longview]

If I have to install the drivers myself,so be it.Just explain to this total newb(at least in BSD)how to do it please.

Mike --
I wasnt as lucky as you - I didnt get it to even install under the vesa driver.
You will need to uninstall the stock via driver and install the openchrome driver. The new driver will still appear as "via" in the list of driver choices. So after you install the openchrome driver, choose "via" in the list of drivers for your screen.

Since you are up and running, do this:

Open a terminal window and type

%su
Password:
# cd /usr/ports/x11-drivers/xf86-video-via
# make deinstall
... Other packages need it, but will delete it anyway ...
# cd ../../x11-drivers/xf86-video-openchrome
# make install distclean
... Making, installing, registering ...