Tested - Terra 3770 Thin Client - not working!

[ogir]

Hi guys,

as one of our customers wanted to change his network to thinclients, i had the chance to test a Terra 3770 thinclient for some days.

Status so far: there is no way to get even the X server up and running - the Client comes up with: "Failed to setup X" and freezes.


Sorry for posting this here, but there is not "tested" area in the forum and i guess most of the people will look into the forums first.

Igor

[pigdog]

Hi,

I looked up the Terra site and all it said was VGA and resolution sizes. 

It didn't say what video chip the 3770 was using.

Since everything else was Via chipsets, CPU:VIA Eden nano V4 1.0 GHz CPU embedded, Sound:VIA Vinyl (VT1612A), 2-Channel AC97, I would assume the video chip is VIA.

There are some people using Via chipsets out there.  I was thinking of trying a Via based thin client in the future, but from I understand there are some driver issues.

Hopefully someone with Via experience might be able to steer you in the right direction for the "Failed to setup X" problem that you are experiencing.

Cheers.

[ogir]

Hi!

I guess it should also be possible to build in some external graphic card (the case looks like there is an expansion slot) but the problem is: it's not my client - it's only testing, so i won't start disassembling it

But thanks for the hint - perhaps there can be something done, but so far - it's useless.

Igor

[freymann]

Since everything else was Via chipsets, CPU:VIA Eden nano V4 1.0 GHz CPU embedded, Sound:VIA Vinyl (VT1612A), 2-Channel AC97, I would assume the video chip is VIA.

There are some people using Via chipsets out there.  I was thinking of trying a Via based thin client in the future, but from I understand there are some driver issues.

Hopefully someone with Via experience might be able to steer you in the right direction for the "Failed to setup X" problem that you are experiencing.

 I have two little VIA boxes here and LMCE doesn't like them very much. I can get into UI1 but tv and videos are either choppy or completely  discolored.

 I did get the 2nd box to run UI2 in medium, but it would only do that out of the VGA port and it wouldn't play video at all.

 You have to install the video drivers manually. This page:

http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Display_Drivers

 has links for the Via Chipsets. The long install instructions have never worked for me. I download the binaries from link 1 in that section and follow the installation instructions there (very easy).

 That should at least get you started but your mileage will vary.

 What I ended up doing was installing MythBuntu 7.10 onto my Via boxes (both came with internal hard drives). Everything works out of the box. I switched the playback profile to use VIA XVMC and everything is great.

 As the VIA drivers mature, I will keep trying to get a LMCE in UI1 system going on those boxes.

[pigdog]

Hi,

There are postings for "unichrome" drivers.

Maybe that'll help you investigate what's going on with VIA chipsets.

Cheers.

[totallymaxed]

Hi guys,

as one of our customers wanted to change his network to thinclients, i had the chance to test a Terra 3770 thinclient for some days.

Status so far: there is no way to get even the X server up and running - the Client comes up with: "Failed to setup X" and freezes.


Sorry for posting this here, but there is not "tested" area in the forum and i guess most of the people will look into the forums first.

Igor

Please search the forum here for 'VIA' and you will see an enormous number of threads documenting the current issues with using the VIA GPU's. This may change in the future as Via now have open drivers... but for now I would not expect any positive news on this.

All the best

Andrew

[jeangot]

Just to clarify for ogir: when I saw this error "cannot start X" when playing with my thin clients, it was usually because it was trying to use a video driver in xorg.conf that was not appropriate.
So definitely trying to install some appropriate via drivers would be the right way to start. You could also try using the driver "vesa" in xorg.conf, which should work with any chipset as far as I understand.

Replace:
Driver          "xxxx"
by
Driver          "vesa"

in the Device section of the file.

Jean

[totallymaxed]

Just to clarify for ogir: when I saw this error "cannot start X" when playing with my thin clients, it was usually because it was trying to use a video driver in xorg.conf that was not appropriate.
So definitely trying to install some appropriate via drivers would be the right way to start. You could also try using the driver "vesa" in xorg.conf, which should work with any chipset as far as I understand.

Replace:
Driver          "xxxx"
by
Driver          "vesa"

in the Device section of the file.

Jean

Yes 'vesa' will work but the video performance will be less than sparkling ;-)

What is needed really is a build of the Unichrome II Pro drivers or the OpenChrome drivers.

Andrew

[jeangot]

Andrew,

yes vesa will be unusable for video but at least it will prove that the thin client boots up and he can confirm that everything else is recognized. Then it's just a matter of getting the via drivers to work, and although I've never done this myself as I don't have any via based computers, it should be doable somehow.

Do you think that video is doable on that machine once he has the via drivers? I had tried HP T5700 which seem very similar, and the video was useless with the onboard ati card, and not much better with a Nvidia card that I added via the PCI extension slot...

Jean

[totallymaxed]

Andrew,

yes vesa will be unusable for video but at least it will prove that the thin client boots up and he can confirm that everything else is recognized. Then it's just a matter of getting the via drivers to work, and although I've never done this myself as I don't have any via based computers, it should be doable somehow.

Do you think that video is doable on that machine once he has the via drivers? I had tried HP T5700 which seem very similar, and the video was useless with the onboard ati card, and not much better with a Nvidia card that I added via the PCI extension slot...

Jean

Sure the Via processors and GPU's are up to the job if you have drivers that exploit the inherent hardware features.

We are running ATI X1250 based MD'ss with out any problems once the ATI fglrx driver is built and installed correctly. However the HP5700 uses the Transmeta Crusoe TM5800 1.0 GHz... that was your problem... the Crusoe was just never going to cut it i'm afraid.

All the best

Andrew