LinuxMCE GUI Loop on GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-S2H

[Fragment]

Hi all,

first of all my configuration

GA-MA78GM-S2H (Rev. 1.1, newest BIOS) // AMD 780G Chipset with ATI Radeon™ HD 3200 Graphics onboard
AMD Athlon X2 4850e Sockel-AM2 boxed, 2x 2.50GHz, 2x 512kB Cache
OCZ Gold GX XTC DIMM Kit 4GB PC2-6400U CL5-5-5-18 (DDR2-800)
2x Samsung SpinPoint F1 1000GB 32MB SATA II
LG Electronics GGW-H20L SATA (Blu-Ray RW)


I had the same problems as the topic starter from this thread http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=4922.0 but i managed to solve them by disabling Floppy in BIOS,
disabling SATA AHCI and using the "all_generic_ide" parameter as install-boot-option (F6-key).
The installation ran without problems. Then I went through the AV-Wizard, setting my resolution to 1280x1024 and my sound to Analog Stereo.

After that the Configuration-Window with the "Start MCE" button etc... came up and it did some software installations and rendering orbiter screens (?!?).
When it was done the following loop occurs, the time of the

-> 3 minutes "one moment"
-> 3 minutes "video/audio check" (mouse is laggy all the time, even NUMLOCK reacts laggy...) -> no woman appears, nothing to hear. buttons not reacting...
-> then it switches to a screen where it says that some devices are yet starting up with a progress bar in the middle of the screen staying at 50% or 60% all the time

"one moment waiting for other devices to finish starting up:
#21 orbiter, #xy embedded phone, #xy xine player, #xy photo screen saver, #xy mplayer player"

and then it starts over with the blue "one moment" screen

all in all everything is very slow too....VERY SLOW, there is also nearly no HD activity. I don't know whats slowing down...
Perhaps a driver issue...

I already did the ATI-Driver installation:
http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Display_Drivers#ATI_Chipsets
It didnt't change a thing. Is there another Driver for ATI or the AMD chipset, which is recommended??!??!

What is the problem here? Is it the orbiter which cannot start?
Please help, i am frustrated.


edit:

A strange thing happened now... I restarted the HTPC, because in between the loop there appeared a blue info window (like the "one moment"... -one) with the statement that the router (what router?!??!?) has to be restarted because of changes (?!?!? i didnt make any, and i rebooted already after installing the ati drivers...) but well i rebooted and


after the "one moment"-screen the movie with the girl came up for a short moment and was shown in a seperate window (first a small one, then fixed to the actual size), before the gui switched to the actual "test screen" for video/audio (where the video normally should display, but there the video-part of the screen was black again...)
the video also showed with less than 1 frame per second and no sound, and only 3 - 5 screenshots. the sound of course could be a general problem.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP IN ADVANCE!!!

[Fragment]

i am reinstalling at the moment and trying out "static images without overlay" ... perhaps i can pinpoint the problem source.


edit:

okay... video works now. i have it set at 640 x 480, 60hz.
i will experiment a bit and try to get sound working...

does anyone know which drivers for the ati hd3200 (onboard) i should use?
i want openGL with overlay...

edit2:

when i set it to medium its the same problem, just that by LUCK i can access the configuration window and "change resolution"...

[itspac]

AMD has a linux driver for that chipset on their website. try that. I have one of these motherboards but have yet to install linuxmce on it. thats more of a winter project for me.

[Apneadiver]

Fragment,

I'm looking at order a motherboard ATI 780G-based chipset, the ASUS M3N78 PRO, and was looking at getting the Radeon HD 3200 going as the primary video for my core.  The 780G provides an unusually good performing, low power consuming onboard video solution. 

Please post your results, after you install the Linux drivers from AMD's website.

 - Jim

[itspac]

just go for a nvidia 8100 series chiipset. I bought one. Sound works out the box (spdif coax atleast) and video works after driver download and install from nvidia

[indulis]

Hi all- got the ATI proprietary driver working (sorta).  Works for Linux but not LinuxMCE- the photo gallery slideshow keeps overlaying the menus so I can't see what I am doing, and can't see mythtv :-(

Anyway the trick is to put fglrx in /etc/default/linux<blah blah>restricted-modules line.  Edit the file and you will see the line.  This is known as "blacklisting" the module.

Then install the ATI proprietary drivers.

Then reboot (cos the kernel's old fglrx module is still loaded).

Use fglrxinfo in a window when/if kdm comes up and you log in.  You should see "ATI" in one of the lines (vendor?).

The quality of the photos is superb, pity I can't get ot my LinuxMCE menus!

PS I am running to VG from HD3200 graphics on Gigabyte GA-MA78GPM-DS2H. V similar board to yours but with HDMI with HDCP potential, and (I think) support for Phenom processors which yours does not have.  Not that important.  Otherwise all chipsets are identical- at least as far as specifications go.  I am running the low power AMD 4850E (45W).  Total power drain of my system inc 2 x 1TB hard drives is 70W.  Not bad!

Also had my audio working originally.  Latest attempts to get video working resulted in a new kernel getting installed and no audio.

Never mind! I will reinstall LinuxMCE again to get back to basics.

Still have the RadeonHD drivers to try if this all fails.  I don't want to go back to my nvidia 6200, it was a lot slower on 2D than the ATI.

Cheers,

Indulis
PS will document more of my efforts real soon now! Probably put short summary here tomorrow of how to get downloaded drivers on and (almost) working

[indulis]

What I did to get it to sorta work

http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.HTML
http://www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/linux_cat89-inst.html
http://packages.ubuntu.com/gutsy/i386/xorg-driver-fglrx/download
http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=5797.0
http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Ubuntu_Gutsy_Installation_Guide
"Method 2: Install the Catalyst 8.4 Driver Manually" section

Download drivers from
http://www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/linux_cat89-inst.html

Start LinuxMCE core services- if it is the first time let it update etc.
This will take a while (as it says!).
*** This is nesessary to do this first as LinuxMCE downloads its own old fglrx drivers ***

  apt-get update

  ./ati-driver-installer-8-9-x86.x86_64.run --buildpkg Ubuntu/gutsy

  sudo rm /usr/src/fglrx-kernel*.deb
  apt-get install dkms gedit firefox

  sudo dpkg -i xorg-driver-fglrx_*.deb fglrx-kernel-source_*.deb fglrx-amdcccle_*.deb

To blacklist old kernel module (stop it from loading before the new one does)

  sudo gedit /etc/default/linux-restricted-modules-common

and add fglrx to list of modules in the following line
DISABLED_MODULES="fglrx"

  cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.my_backup

  gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

I had to change this line in the Monitor section as it said 54-59 (ie 60Hz only!)
        VertRefresh     54-89
Change the following line from vesa to fglrx
before:
        Driver          "vesa"
after:
        Driver          "fglrx"

Add liberal doses of "sudo" in front of the commands, or just do one "sudo su -" and you will be root user.