Adding the Via Unichrome Pro drivers

[MarcoZan]

It sounds that you can be easily discouraged by difficulties ....   

[Driver-Package-Name] stands for the name of the directory containing the driver source, i.e. CLE266CN400CN-CX700CN800XORG40072-kernel-src_20061226c.

Bye
Marco

[trisc]

On the contrary! I've now got a folder in my root - /CLE266CN400CN-CX700CN800XORG400y

So now to install this on my MD - so I presume SSH into it and run vinstall?

[MarcoZan]

Say that you compiled everything on the core/hybrid, so your /CLE266CN400CN-CX700CN800XORG400y directory stands on root of that box.

To install new drivers on your MD first you should copy the mentioned dir under /home/public/data, or any other location that you can access after you ssh to your VIA MD.

Then you can ssh into MD, enter that dir and issue the following:

./vinstall

Choose your CPU and afterwards choose option "2".

Then you're finished.

Bye
Marco

[trisc]

It didn't work  There seemed to be a lot of error messages  when I ran the install.

On repeating the whole procedure it seems that the via_dri.so file is not being created and i don't know why.

[Greg]

But even with this Unichrome Pro drivers, there is no support for UI2 right?

Right... you need the Unichrome Pro II drivers to get UI2 support and they have to be licensed from Via by systems integrators.

Does it support UI2 without alpha-blending, just overlays?  The description for the Unichrome Pro drivers at viaarena says that it supports "hardware video overlay":

This software package supports 2D, 3D, TV-Out, hardware video mpeg2/4 and hardware video overlay, and it has been tested inDebian 3.1r4/4.0, Fedora Core 4/5/6, Mandriva 2007/2007.1, openSUSE 10.2 and Ubuntu 6.10/7.04 Desktop. Other distributions only support 2D, TV-Out, hardware video mpeg2/4 and hardware video overlay except 3D. It supports VIA UniChrome Pro IGP chip family including CLE266/CN400/CN700/CN800/CX700(M/M2)/PM880/P4M800CE-Pro/VN800/VX700(M/M2). The MPEG4 Hardware Acceleration function is only supported with CN400/CX700M(M2)/PM880/VX700M(M2) chips, and the system memory is recommended to be 64MB or above.

[Greg]

For anyone having trouble building/installing the drivers, there's a Ubuntu 7.04 specific thread about it here.

[totallymaxed]

For anyone having trouble building/installing the drivers, there's a Ubuntu 7.04 specific thread about it here.

Thats a good thread as it follows the Via pdf instructions almost exactly.

[Greg]

Has anybody tried using these drivers with UI2 medium settings (masking) only?  I find UI2 much more attractive and usable than UI1, but alpha-blending isn't needed.  If UI medium works that would be really awesome.  It really sounds like video overlays should work.

But even with this Unichrome Pro drivers, there is no support for UI2 right?

Right... you need the Unichrome Pro II drivers to get UI2 support and they have to be licensed from Via by systems integrators.

Does it support UI2 without alpha-blending, just overlays?  The description for the Unichrome Pro drivers at viaarena says that it supports "hardware video overlay":

This software package supports 2D, 3D, TV-Out, hardware video mpeg2/4 and hardware video overlay, and it has been tested inDebian 3.1r4/4.0, Fedora Core 4/5/6, Mandriva 2007/2007.1, openSUSE 10.2 and Ubuntu 6.10/7.04 Desktop. Other distributions only support 2D, TV-Out, hardware video mpeg2/4 and hardware video overlay except 3D. It supports VIA UniChrome Pro IGP chip family including CLE266/CN400/CN700/CN800/CX700(M/M2)/PM880/P4M800CE-Pro/VN800/VX700(M/M2). The MPEG4 Hardware Acceleration function is only supported with CN400/CX700M(M2)/PM880/VX700M(M2) chips, and the system memory is recommended to be 64MB or above.

[totallymaxed]

Has anybody tried using these drivers with UI2 medium settings (masking) only?  I find UI2 much more attractive and usable than UI1, but alpha-blending isn't needed.  If UI medium works that would be really awesome.  It really sounds like video overlays should work.

But even with this Unichrome Pro drivers, there is no support for UI2 right?

Right... you need the Unichrome Pro II drivers to get UI2 support and they have to be licensed from Via by systems integrators.

Does it support UI2 without alpha-blending, just overlays?  The description for the Unichrome Pro drivers at viaarena says that it supports "hardware video overlay":

This software package supports 2D, 3D, TV-Out, hardware video mpeg2/4 and hardware video overlay, and it has been tested inDebian 3.1r4/4.0, Fedora Core 4/5/6, Mandriva 2007/2007.1, openSUSE 10.2 and Ubuntu 6.10/7.04 Desktop. Other distributions only support 2D, TV-Out, hardware video mpeg2/4 and hardware video overlay except 3D. It supports VIA UniChrome Pro IGP chip family including CLE266/CN400/CN700/CN800/CX700(M/M2)/PM880/P4M800CE-Pro/VN800/VX700(M/M2). The MPEG4 Hardware Acceleration function is only supported with CN400/CX700M(M2)/PM880/VX700M(M2) chips, and the system memory is recommended to be 64MB or above.

Yes... we're testing UI2 with overlay now... it works but not completely as some areas under the menu's do not redraw correctly. We're trying to fix that now... I'll update you when I have some news.

[dopey]

I know this is a really old post and really related to 0704, but my question relates to 0710.

1) Was there any luck in getting UI2 to work with the openchrome drivers (without the transparency)?
     a) I thought that there wouldn't be any issues getting it to work until I re-read this post (it's been a while)
2) Will there be any issues trying to compile the openchrome drivers for 0710?
     a) I'm sure there wouldn't be and really I can figure this one out myself, I'd just thought I'd ask for everyones benefit
3) If the openchrome drivers don't work at all in 0710, then are there too many changes in 0710 to use the old 0704 disk images for the Fiire box?
     a) I'm assuming yes, but I figured I'd ask anyhow...

I remember reading a post by totallymaxed a while ago stating that the via drivers weren't working in 0710, but I'm not sure if he meant not working out of the box (completely expected) or simply not working at all.

[totallymaxed]

I know this is a really old post and really related to 0704, but my question relates to 0710.

1) Was there any luck in getting UI2 to work with the openchrome drivers (without the transparency)?
     a) I thought that there wouldn't be any issues getting it to work until I re-read this post (it's been a while)
2) Will there be any issues trying to compile the openchrome drivers for 0710?
     a) I'm sure there wouldn't be and really I can figure this one out myself, I'd just thought I'd ask for everyones benefit
3) If the openchrome drivers don't work at all in 0710, then are there too many changes in 0710 to use the old 0704 disk images for the Fiire box?
     a) I'm assuming yes, but I figured I'd ask anyhow...

I remember reading a post by totallymaxed a while ago stating that the via drivers weren't working in 0710, but I'm not sure if he meant not working out of the box (completely expected) or simply not working at all.

Re 1. We have only tested UI2 under the Unichrome Pro drivers... and the drivers will not support UI2 under 0704 or 0710.

Re 2. Don't know... we have not tried.

Re 3. The 0704 Unichrome Pro drivers will not work under 0710... they need to be rebuilt for the 0710 kernel. I cannot comment re Openchrome. However UI2 will not work under any version of the Unichrome Pro driver we have tested. As for Fiire's drivers they are not compatible with 0704 even... the Fiire MD's have to be added using the Pluto 044 kernel and system which is why the KDE desktop, Myth etc do not work. All a bit of a mess really.

[eNoodle]

Once you have built the Unichrome Pro drivers you can use the install script to add them to any MD (you can build them on the Core or any other Kbuntu machine running the correct kernel - it does not have to be a Via machine). We usually add them during the first real boot of a new MD at the point where the AVwizard tries to run but can't start X (the display will continually loop in the console - going blank for a few secs each time). Just ssh into the MD and run the installer from the console choosing the appropriate options for your Via hardare etc. After about 60 secs the AVwizard will spring to lif and display its first screen... this is an indication that the drivers have installed cleanly.

When I ssh into the MD, I can login using user and password "linuxmce". But when I'm logged in, I'm user "sambahelper" and I can't get root privileges, because I don't know the password of this user.

- I tried to set a new password for root (sudo passwd root) -> Asks for password, which I don't know
- I tried to get the password from samba Credentials file (cat /usr/pluto/var/sambaCredentials.secret) -> Permission denied

I have a FiireStation set-top-box and a "Generic PC as MD" template for this machine, the machine is stucking, where it tries to start the AVWizard. Can someone please explain me, how I can install the driver on a MD or how I can get root access on this MD?

[tkmedia]

The md does not have a password for root.

If you need a root shell type sudo -s

[Zaerc]

You can manipulate the MD's files under /usr/pluto/diskless/## directly on the core.  And it is also possble to "chroot" there (unless it's an amd64 MD on an i386 core I think).  And as tkmedia pointed out there is no root password on a MD by default, see also: http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Logging_In.

[eNoodle]

thank you all.

@zaerc, this is exactly what I've done. Now I have a running box and only need to install the unichrome driver to get a functional FiireStation (with MythTV).