How to use nvidia-settings

There is no man page for nvidia-settings (at least in A8), but I found the following User Guide:

http://ftp.up.ac.za/pub/linux/nvidia/Linux-x86_64/1.0-6106/nvidia-settings-user-guide.txt

Fonts

If the fonts are very large with TV out, you will need to configure the Nvidia DPI setting. The mythtv faq explains how to fix this.

Overscan

Note: If you have set up TVOverScanHowto in the XF86Config-4 file, you might want to remove it before you start. The nvidia-settings utility provides much better control over overscan. I have also seen a few references to people putting ivtv colour settings in startup files. You probably want to remove those as well and only put them back in if nvidia-settings hasn't set them.

First: Configure the settings

Option 1: Quick and (very) dirty

Note: You probably only want to do this if you can't use Option 2.

• Start watching LiveTV
• <ctl><alt>-F1 to a console, log in as mythtv
• nvidia-settings --display=:0
• <alt>-F7 to go back to LiveTV

You can then use the mouse to change the settings on the GUI. The problem is, if you have a large X-display size (ex. 1024x768), it is difficult or impossible to read the GUI on a TV. If you have a smaller X-display size (ex. 640x480), the GUI covers most of LiveTV so you can't tell how things look.

Option 2: A Little more work, much better results

This requires a second computer.

VNC

• Set up VNC as described in x11vncHowTo
• Start vncserver on the myth box using userID mythtv (important!)
• Connect to VNC from the second computer. Note: starting vncserver will start a second frontend either in vnc or on your main display which will need to be exited

OR

NXServer

• Set up NX as described in NXHowTo
• connect to the frontend

OR

Cygwin/X11

• Set up Cygwin and install an X server
• connect using ssh -Y

AND

After Loging in

• Start watching LiveTV on the myth box
• From an xterm in the remote window on the second computer, execute "nvidia-settings --ctrl-display=:0"

Now use the GUI in the remote window to set things for the display.

Second: Configure knoppmyth to load the new display settings

There are probably many places to put this, but some of the standard places don't work very well. I ended up adding the line "nvidia-settings --load-config-only &" (without the quotes) to /etc/gdm/Xsession.

POFLYNN-START: On R5F1 I had to do this: Add a line to /home/mythtv/.fluxbox/apps with the other "startup?" lines that says: Code: startup? {nvidia-settings --load-config-only} POFLYNN-END

One step I found I needed was to copy my ~mythtv/.nvidia-settings-rc to /root/, then gdm would load it automatically.

following User Guide:

http://ftp.up.ac.za/pub/linux/nvidia/Linux-x86_64/1.0-6106/nvidia-settings-user-guide.txt

Note: If you have set up TVOverScanHowto in the XF86Config-4 file, you might want to remove it before you start. The nvidia-settings utility provides much better control over overscan. I have also seen a few references to people putting ivtv colour settings in startup files. You probably want to remove those as well and only put them back in if nvidia-settings hasn't set them.

First: Configure the settings

Option 1: Quick and (very) dirty

Note: You probably only want to do this if you can't use Option 2.

• Start watching LiveTV
• <ctl><alt>-F1 to a console, log in as mythtv
• nvidia-settings --display=:0
• <alt>-F7 to go back to LiveTV

You can then use the mouse to change the settings on the GUI. The problem is, if you have a large X-display size (ex. 1024x768), it is difficult or impossible to read the GUI on a TV. If you have a smaller X-display size (ex. 640x480), the GUI covers most of LiveTV so you can't tell how things look.

Option 2: A Little more work, much better results

This requires a second computer.

VNC

• Set up VNC as described in x11vncHowTo
• Start vncserver on the myth box using userID mythtv (important!)
• Connect to VNC from the second computer. Note: starting vncserver will start a second frontend either in vnc or on your main display which will need to be exited

NXServer

• Set up NX as described in NXHowTo
• connect to the frontend

After Loging in

• Start watching LiveTV on the myth box
• From an xterm in the remote window on the second computer, execute "nvidia-settings --ctrl-display=:0"

Now use the GUI in the remote window to set things for the display.

Second: Configure knoppmyth to load the new display settings

In ~mythtv/.fluxbox/apps, add "nvidia-settings --load-config-only" just before the mythfrontend entry.

--Allen

Get the Nvidia card working

First make sure that your kernel source is extracted

cd /usr/src
tar jxvf kernel-source<TAB>

Next install the nvidia drivers.

The easiest way is with this command.
install-nvidia-debian.sh 1.0-revnumber (e.g. install-nvidia-debian.sh 1.0-7174)
or
install-nvidia-6629-debian.sh
or
install-nvidia-7174-debian.sh

Or if you drivers are different (and you get a command no found error) try
install-nvidia<TAB>

Edit you XF86Config-4 file in /etc/X11
Change the line:
Driver "nv"
to
Driver "nvidia"

Once you restart X the card should be working.

Nvidia driver install with Myth version R5E50

I got this from a fourm post after many hours of not being able to get the Nvidia driver loaded on R5E50 INSTALL Kernal source (Need to do this before installing video driver)

wget ftp://knoppmyth.net/R5/linux-source-2.6.18-chw-13_2.6.18-chw-13-10.00.Custom_all.deb

dpkg -i linux-source-2.6.18-chw-13_2.6.18-chw-13-10.00.Custom_all.deb

cd /usr/src

tar xjvf linux-source<tab>

PREP FOR DRIVER INSTALL

cd /usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.18-chw-13

cp -r . ../linux-source-2.6.18-chw-13

This merges the kernel-headers with the kernel-source, since the source by itself doesn't have the configuration files that were used. Next, on my system at least, I had to at least partially make the kernel again, because certain kernel module scripts weren't in a usable state until you did that. So I did the following:

cd /usr/src/linux-source-2.6.18-chw-13

make

wait about 20 seconds and then hit ctrl-c?

Now we're ready to install the new driver. The easiest way to do this is the rename the startx script and reboot so that X is not even trying to boot up.

mv /usr/bin/startx /usr/bin/startx.save

reboot

For some reason the NVidia install script isn't yanking out the original nvidia kernel module, so I manually pulled it out with this command:

rmmod nvidia

lsmod | grep nvidia

The second command will let you verify that you no longer have the module loaded.

because Knoppmyth try to reinstall the default driver , you should type

mv /usr/src/debs/nvidia /usr/src/debs/nvidia-stop

Now we're actually ready to run the binary package from NVidia. It doesn't quite detect everything correctly, so issue the command as such:

sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-9746-pkg1.run \

--kernel-source-path=/usr/src/linux-source-2.6.18-chw-13

You will most likely get a message during the installation process that it had to make assumptions about the paths for X.org. The assumptions that it made are fine.

Once the installer is finished you should be able to safely start X back up, but don't forget to rename your startx executable.

mv /usr/bin/startx.save /usr/bin/startx

As always, check the /var/log/Xorg.0.log file for hints as to what the problem may be.

Please note that at least in my case X would work immediately after installation but not after rebooting, due a script trying to reinstall previous drivers at boot. So I had to

update-rc.d -f install-nvidia-debian remove

update-rc.d -f nvidia-glx remove

update-rc.d -f nvidia-kernel remove

and then reinstall the new nvidia drivers.

For TV out

cp /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 /etc/X11/XF86Config.orig
cp /etc/X11/XF86Config-4.nvidia-tvout.sample /etc/X11/XF86Config-4

If you use a S-Video to RCA adapter and are getting black and white only on your TV change the line in your XF86Config-4 file from
Option "TVOutFormat" "SVIDEO"
to
Option "TVOutFormat" "COMPOSITE"

If you use a USB mouse, change the line that says:
InputDevice "PS/2 Mouse" "CorePointer"
to
InputDevice "USB Mouse" "CorePointer"

--Joshua
frankjoshua»hotmail

Another method

For remotely connecting to your mythtv box can be found on http://knoppmythwiki.org/index.php?page=RemoteAccessfromWindows

I ran into a problem when trying to open the display :0. You might received this.

• Xlib: connection to ":0.0" refused by server
• Xlib: No protocol specified

A quick fix around this is to open an xterm on the mythtv box and disable the control access. Used the command.

• xhost +

now try the command again in your putty window

• nvidia-settings --ctrl-display=:0

the secuirty will return after a reboot or use the command

• xhost -

--Nick Tillman (falcon006*at*gmail*dot*com)

I was required to do the above with a geforce 5200 and a default install of R5E50

--Dsrtknight

I found that --load-config-only will not reapply settings for TV overscan

nvidia-settings -a 0/TVOverScan?TV-0?=1 nvidia-settings -a 0/TVOverScan?TV-0?=16

• rmccurdy.com