blinking video on my second display

[Alex Deucher]

On 4/2/09, Phil Oleson <oz at nixil.net> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
>         So I recently picked up a PCIE Diamond branded Radeon HD 4850
>  dual DVI output card for my system. I've played with the xorg
>  configuration and I think I have the correct setup for my system
>  at this point.  My problem at this point is the second LCD randomly
>  blanking out similar to a couple of this lists previous emails.
>  (sorry for not replying to those to keep the threading but I just
>  subscribed to the list).
>
>  Now the Primary LCD is working well.. no problems that I've noticed
>  yet.  The other is Blanking out at times, but working at others.
>  I've also seen some video irregularities within the KDE background
>  such as lines vertically across the left hand side, as well as some
>  issues with some colors.. ( similar to some Mandelbrot jagged lines )
>
>  So I'm running bleeding edge FreeBSD Current, with the drm/DRI updates
>  that Robert Noland checked-in to the OS. So that should be okay.
>
>  Software wise I'm running xorg-server-1.5.3_7,1 with an up to date
>  git version of xf86-video-ati.  (was running 6.12.1 but I wanted to
>  see if there was anything in the repository that might help me out)
>
>  -----------
>  # lspci | grep ATI
>  01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV770 [Radeon HD
>  4850]
>  01:00.1 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc HD48x0 audio
>
>  -----------
>  # pciconf -lv (output)
>  vgapci0 at pci0:1:0:0:     class=0x030000 card=0x439018bc chip=0x94421002
>  rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
>      vendor     = 'ATI Technologies Inc'
>      class      = display
>      subclass   = VGA
>  hdac0 at pci0:1:0:1:       class=0x040300 card=0xaa3018bc chip=0xaa301002
>  rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
>      vendor     = 'ATI Technologies Inc'
>      class      = multimedia
>      subclass   = HDA
>
>  -----------
>
>  home# grep -v ^# xorg.conf
>
>
>  Section "Module"
>      Load        "dbe"   # Double buffer extension
>      SubSection  "extmod"
>        Option    "omit xfree86-dga"   # don't initialise the DGA extension
>      EndSubSection
>      Load        "freetype"
>  EndSection
>
>  Section "Files"
>      FontPath   "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/misc/"
>      FontPath   "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/TTF/"
>      FontPath   "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/OTF"
>      FontPath   "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/"
>      FontPath   "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/"
>      FontPath   "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/"
>      FontPath   "/usr/local/lib/X11/fonts/local/"
>  EndSection
>
>  Section "ServerFlags"
>  EndSection
>
>  Section "InputDevice"
>      Identifier  "Keyboard1"
>      Driver      "kbd"
>      Option "AutoRepeat" "500 30"
>      Option "XkbModel"    "microsoft"
>      Option "XkbRules"   "xorg"
>      Option "XkbModel"   "pc105"
>      Option "XkbLayout"  "us"
>  EndSection
>
>  Section "InputDevice"
>      Identifier  "Mouse1"
>      Driver      "mouse"
>      Option "Protocol"    "Auto" # Auto detect
>      Option "Device"      "/dev/sysmouse"
>      Option "ZAxisMapping"   "4 5 6 7"
>  EndSection
>
>  Section "Monitor"
>      Identifier  "RightScreen"
>      HorizSync   30.0-81.0
>      VertRefresh 56.0-75.0
>      Option      "DPMS"
>  EndSection
>
>  Section "Monitor"
>      Identifier  "LeftScreen"
>      HorizSync   30.0-81.0
>      VertRefresh 56.0-75.0
>      Option      "DPMS"
>      Option      "LeftOf"  "RightScreen"
>  EndSection
>
>  Section "Device"
>      Identifier  "Standard VGA"
>      VendorName  "Unknown"
>      BoardName   "Unknown"
>      Driver     "vga"
>  EndSection
>
>  Section "Device"
>      Identifier  "ATI"
>      Driver      "radeon"
>      Option      "monitor-DVI-1" "RightScreen"
>      Option      "monitor-DVI-0" "LeftScreen"
>      Option      "DRI" "on"
>      Option      "AccelMethod" "EXA"
>  EndSection
>
>  Section "Screen"
>      Identifier  "Screen 0"
>      Device      "ATI"
>      Monitor     "RightScreen"
>      DefaultDepth 24
>      Subsection "Display"
>           Modes      "1680x1050"
>           Virtual     3360 1050
>      EndSubsection
>  EndSection
>
>  Section "ServerLayout"
>      Identifier  "Multihead Layout"
>      Screen "Screen 0"
>      InputDevice "Mouse1" "CorePointer"
>      InputDevice "Keyboard1" "CoreKeyboard"
>  EndSection
>
>  -----------
>  (I cleaned up some whitespace in the xorg.conf output to compat things)
>
>
>  Any thoughts on what I've screwed up or should try now?
>
>  oh and is there anyway to turn on some debugging on the driver? I see
>  nothing in the Xorg.log.0 file to trigger any concern.  Throw patches
>  or whatnot at me and I'll try them out.

Sounds like the display fifos need tuning when using the 3D engine.
Unfortunately, I haven't had time to delve into that yet.

Alex