Newbie question... MPlayer crashes with Matrox driver.

[andrewju]

Hello,

I'm new to Linux world, trying to set up Fedora FC6 on a PIII system with Matrox G400. I seem to have a driver problem at X-server. X-server starts and KDE runs just fine. But when I try to play a movie with MPlayer or VLC, both players crash with an error:

Code: Select all

X11 error: BadAlloc (insufficient resources for operation)?,?% 1 0

By an advice from a colleague, I figured out that changing a "Driver" from "mga" to "vesa" in xorg.conf would fix the problem. Therefore I assume the mga driver is somehow not correct. I tried to install the latest 4.4.2 build, but it didn't change the situation at all - same error. I'm sure I'm doing something wrong, but I can figure out what it is exactly...

My xorg.conf file is quite short:

# Xorg configuration created by pyxf86config

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "mga"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

And the Xorg.0.log is attached.

Can you point me to a driver set-up guide or something similar? I tried to look on this site and also in Google but it looks like noone has a problem like this or maybe people just ask their quiestions in completely different way...

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[andrewju]

Ok, I reading the log file... It seems the system is trying to load driver version 4.4.0 instead of 4.4.2 - which is already strange. And then there comes an error:

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(II) Module mga_hal: vendor="Matrox Graphics Inc. - x86_32 - Release v4.4.0"
   compiled for 7.0.0, module version = 1.0.0
   ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 0.8
(EE) module ABI major version (0) doesn't match the server's version (1)
(II) UnloadModule: "mga_hal"


How to load proper driver at startup (4.4.2)?
Why does this version mismatch appear? Should something else be upgraded (X.Org video driver)?

[tuxx-home.at]

By an advice from a colleague, I figured out that changing a "Driver" from
"mga" to "vesa" in xorg.conf would fix the problem.

Please tell your colleague, that this is not a fix, this is just using a different
driver that does not know anything about Matrox related enhancements.

By using the vesa driver, you will not be able to have 3D acceleration, Matrox
multihead setups and Video overlay (which is one of the things you are trying
to achieve when using mplayer).

And here is the Xorg.0.log:

Please for future posts, use the "attach" function to attach log- and
configuration files to your postings. That keeps the postings short and
increases readability

(EE) module ABI major version (0) doesn't match the server's version (1)
(II) UnloadModule: "mga_hal"
(II) Unloading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/mga_hal_drv.so
(EE) MGA: Failed to load module "mga_hal" (module requirement mismatch, 0)

This is the really important error message. The mga_hal module can't be
loaded on your system. It is used for 3D acceleration, video overlay,
dualhead support on certain G-series cards, etc.

Unfortunately, this module is only available as precompiled binary and this
is what you are experiencing now: The latest available mga_hal module
version was compiled for Xorg 6.9 and therefore your Xorg 7.1 refuses to
load this module.

This is a FAQ in here and therefore, please have a look at this posting:
[http://matrox.tuxx-home.at/viewtopic.php?t=78]

It seems the system is trying to load driver version 4.4.0 instead of 4.4.2

No, that's alright. the 4.4.0 output in here is from the mga_hal module
and as mentioned above, we are not able to modify it.

[andrewju]

First of all, thank you very much for fast and detailed response - it's really great!

Please tell your colleague, that this is not a fix, this is just using a different driver that does not know anything about Matrox related enhancements.

Maybe I told it in a wrong way. Switching to VESA driver wasn't intended to be a fix, of course! It was a hint to check and see whether it's a video driver issue or something else is wrong.

Please for future posts, use the "attach" function to attach log- and configuration files to your postings. That keeps the postings short and increases readability

Sure! I'm sorry.
First message already corrected.

This is the really important error message. The mga_hal module can't be
loaded on your system. It is used for 3D acceleration, video overlay,
dualhead support on certain G-series cards, etc.

Uh! Ok, that's what I was thinking of...

Unfortunately, this module is only available as precompiled binary and this
is what you are experiencing now: The latest available mga_hal module
version was compiled for Xorg 6.9 and therefore your Xorg 7.1 refuses to
load this module.

Ok. Understood. Since there's a workaround available, it's not a big problem, I suppose.

This is a FAQ in here and therefore, please have a look at this posting:
[http://matrox.tuxx-home.at/viewtopic.php?t=78]

Aha... Great! Thanks!

But I seem to have a problem there... I just tried it and it didn't help... But I assume I did something wrong. I changed the Xservers as described in XDM section. But it didn't change the behavior - same error in the Xorg.0.log. I even tried to reboot the machine completely - no change. What am I doing wrong now?!

[tuxx-home.at]

First message already corrected.

Great, thanks!

I changed the Xservers as described in XDM section. But it didn't change the
behavior

Well, in your first post you said:

X-server starts and KDE runs just fine.

So to me it seems as if you are using KDE and therefore it is _VERY_ likely,
that your login manager is kdm, not xdm. Am I right?

If so, you will have to modify the kdm configuration to make this work.

[andrewju]

So to me it seems as if you are using KDE and therefore it is _VERY_ likely, that your login manager is kdm, not xdm. Am I right?

If so, you will have to modify the kdm configuration to make this work.

Surely you're right. But it was the first thing I started with. I changed the 'kdmrc' file and it brought no results. Then I decided to try with other managers (XDM)... But it was the same.

Anyway, I'm surely using KDE. My kdmrc file attached (I added .log extension, otherwise the forum script won't allow it). Can you have a look please?

[andrewju]

Ok, I think the problem is solved. I don't know how.

I tried it again with gdmsetup utility:

Start `gdmsetup` and under "Security" -> "Configure X Server" the command to start the X server can be modified. Add the switch "-ignoreABI" at the end of this line.

And it worked.

Honestly, I don't know how it's possible. I have both KDE and Gnome installed, but I never used Gnome. And I don't know how come that Gnome's setting affect KDE.

But now Matrox driver loads just fine and I can play videos!

Thank you very much for lots of hints and a great site!

[tuxx-home.at]

My kdmrc file attached

Looks fine, the only thing I could imagine why it doesn't work is that it is
the wrong file. You know, kdmrc files can be located in different places
on different distributions and as I don't use KDE, I don't know where they
all could be.

In the FAQ entry above I listed three possible locations, you could watch out
for other kdmrc files available on your system with the following command:

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find / -name "*kdmrc*"


Honestly, I don't know how it's possible. I have both KDE and Gnome
installed, but I never used Gnome.

Well, you don't have to use the Gnome window manager to use gdm as
login manager...
In fact, I don't really know how your system is set up at the moment, but
feel lucky that it works now

Thank you very much for lots of hints and a great site!

You're welcome!