Fwd: Re: Rivatv

Hi list!

As the package maintainer of rivatv, an external kernel module for 
nvidia-based graphics cards with video-in feature, I received a question 
regarding instability of this module on a 64-bit platform. I don't have such 
hardware to test the driver myself, but I'd like to ask you if you know of 
anything that should be kept in mind when using external kernel modules on a 
64-bit platform. My assumption is that such modules have to be adapted for 
64-bit kernels, which may not have happened with rivatv yet.

Thanks in advance,
	Stefan Fiedler

Here's the original message and my answer:

----------  Weitergeleitete Nachricht  ----------

Subject: Re: Rivatv
Date: Mittwoch 05 Oktober 2005 01:17
From: Stefan Fiedler <[email protected]>
To: "Bernhard Bauer" <[email protected]>

Am Dienstag 04 Oktober 2005 13:08 schrieben Sie:
> Hello,
>
> I have a nvidia graphic card which has a TV-in, but I have installed a
> 64-bit Linux distribution and I use the processor from intel which is
> pentium 4 em64t. At moment the rivatv-driver is very instable on 64 bit
> computers.
> My question: Which changes must I apply in the driver source, that the
> driver is more stable. I have already compiled with the option ./configure
> --disable-asm and the installation was without any problem. Everything was
> alright. Could you give me some tips what to change on the driver that he
> is more stable.
>
>
> Good bye
>
> Bernhard Bauer

Dear Bernhard,

since I don't have access to any 64 bit hardware, I am currently not able to
reproduce the problem you described.
I'll forward your message to the rivatv-devel and rock-devel mailing lists to
see if someone there knows more about 64 bit issues.
You may want to subscribe to one of the rivatv mailing lists following
instructions given here: http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=9564
For now I suggest to read the docs about rivatv.
A good starting point is the Users Guide
(http://rivatv.sourceforge.net/users.html). One important point is the choice
of the X11 driver. If you use the rivatv _Linux_kernel_ module, your
_X11_driver_ should be the "nv" driver that comes with X or the "nvidia"
nVidia binary driver version 5336 or _earlier_. Newer nvidia drivers may
cause problems. The X11 driver is selected in the "Driver" section
of /etc/X11/xorg.conf or /etc/X11/XFree86.conf. The Users Guide also states:
"DO NOT build console framebuffers [into your kernel, edt.]. They conflict
with RivaTV for some reason."
Detailed information about the kind of instability can also help to solve the
problem. When does the problem occur: directly after loading the rivatv
module, when starting the X server, when using a certain application? What X
server and version do you use (X.org or XFree86)? What goes wrong: does your
computer lock up completely, is it slowing down, do you get a corrupted
on-screen image? What is the output of 'cat /proc/driver/rivatv?' after
rivatv has been loaded? Which graphics card model do you use? Is it detected
correctly by rivatv? Which other hardware do you use? (I had a Via-based
Athlon board once that locked up when there was a high load on the PCI bus.)

Hope that helps,
	Stefan Fiedler

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