8.10 Beta Black Screen on MD Video Playback

[patmankn]

Hi @ all!
I just figured out to install my Zotac Ion 330 MD @ 1080p@60Hz.
The Screensaver is running fine, as i still need to figure out if i can run the MD with or without alpha blending ;O)
BUT... as i started to play any video like HD Stuff, DVD Iso or plain avi files, i just can hear the sound ...and see a black screen, no more. Does anyone have a slight idea what could resolve that?

Thanks for your help..

Pat

[acrid]

Hi Pat,

I have some similar problems.
I'm running a Zotac Ion 330 as hybrid. Which supports vdpau output!

If i hook the machine to my monitor via DSUB at 1024x768 everthing runs fine with vdpau. Playing HD with low CPU usage.
BUT if i connect my beamer to it and switch to 1080p (doesn't matter if HDMI/DSUB or 24/60Hz) I only hear the sound and see a black screen. If i switch the hardware acceleration from vdpau to xv i can see the videos, but they judder (and drop sound) due high CPU usage.

I'm stuck here for quite a while. So if anyone has any hints... I would love to hear them

cheers,
  Tim

[acrid]

I DID IT!

And I'm pretty sure, it will fix your problems as well:
It was a BIOS Isue. In the depth of the Southbridge settings is an option "igpu frame buffer size". Default was 32MB. I put to the max of 512MB.

Running like a charme!

I'm so glad I finally fixed this... took me a few days...

Cheers,
   Tim

[phenigma]

This is great information.  Could you add this to the wiki if you havn't already.

J.

[purps]

Good to know, I just bought one of these. Will add this information to the wiki now.

[purps]

Referring to the wiki page for this board, are these steps really necessary?

    *  Before update/dist-upgrade i had to add the keys for medibuntu and avenard:

  wget http://www.avenard.org/files/ubuntu-repos/ubuntu-repos.key && sudo apt-key add ubuntu-repos.key && rm ubuntu-repos.key

  wget http://packages.medibuntu.org/medibuntu-key.gpg && sudo apt-key add medibuntu-key.gpg && rm medibuntu-key.gpg

.. this will download the repository keys, make it available to the 'apt' package manager and will clean up by deleting the downloaded copy. Adding the new key will require the password for the user 'sambahelper' - simply hit the <Enter> key.

[phenigma]

Last time I install my ION as a fresh MD I had to add the medibuntu and avenard gpg keys manually as the wiki states.  Likely this could be folded into /usr/pluto/bin/Diskless_CreateTBZ.sh as it should be done for all MDs, I'm not home right now but adding a ticket for this wouldn't hurt, assuming it still needs to be done manually.

J.

[purps]

There appears to be a contradiction between the "Installing 0810" wiki page and the "ZOTAC ION" wiki page.

http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Installing_0810
http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/ZOTAC_ION

At the bottom of the installing 0810 page where it's talking about updates, it says "Note: You should NOT run apt-get dist-upgrade after LinuxMCE is installed, as it can cause several problems", but the Zotac Ion page tells you to do this to update the MD. Which is correct?

[phenigma]

The notice warning not to perform an 'apt-get dist-upgrade' is somewhat misleading but it can cause problems if you don't realize what you're doing.  Under normal circumstances running 'apt-get upgrade' is sufficient, existing packages will be upgraded but no new packages will be installed (like new kernels).  But there are times when you must perform the 'apt-get dist-upgrade' to install new packages your system needs.  See my description here: http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=9524.msg65208#msg65208

J.

[purps]

That post is very useful as a reference, cheers. I have a much better idea now of the differences.

I have to say though, if the core installation guide says to do "update" and "upgrade", and then the MD says to "update" and "dist-upgrade", surely this has real potential to cause problems? Am I right in saying that if you're going to do a "dist-upgrade" on any of your MDs, you ought to do a "dist-upgrade" on the core first?

FYI, I installed my Zotac Ion without doing "dist-upgrade", OR adding the keys for medibuntu and avenard. What are these keys for exactly? If I add them, is there potential for it to bollox everything up, or is it safe to do regardless of whether they have been folded in or not?

[phenigma]

Keep in mind that the wiki articles are written by different people at different times with different points of view.  I would upgrade the core first. 

MDs are created using a snapshot of files on the core at the time you run the /usr/pluto/bin/Diskless_CreateTBZ.sh script.  So newly created MDs will have to be 'upgrade'd and perhaps 'dist-upgrade'd for them to be completely up to date with your core.

J.

[purps]

So newly created MDs will have to be 'upgrade'd and perhaps 'dist-upgrade'd for them to be completely up to date with your core.

Is the above still statement still true if you have never run "dist-upgrade" on your core? If so, why?

Also (sorry to repeat the question)...
"FYI, I installed my Zotac Ion without doing "dist-upgrade", OR adding the keys for medibuntu and avenard. What are these keys for exactly? If I add them, is there potential for it to bollox everything up, or is it safe to do regardless of whether they have been folded in or not?"

[phenigma]

If you have never run dist-upgrade on the core then you likely wouldn't need to on the MDs either, again apt-get will tell you if there are additional files to install that a normal upgrade will not.

Adding the keys for avenard and medibuntu will get rid of warnings about non-existant keys when you run apt-get update.  It is recommended that you do add the keys, if for no other reason than to get rid of the warnings.  Under a normal kubuntu install you would not be able to install packages from these repositories if you did not have the keys installed.  LMCE has repository authentication turned off which allow you to install the packages even without the keys.

J.