[clug] ATI video out?

[steven.farlie at anu.edu.au]

Antti.Roppola at brs.gov.au wrote:

> Last night I found the S-Video -> composite cable that came with my most recent
> desktop, so I thought I'd try getting the video outputs working on it and the laptop.
> 
> Fortunately, atitvout is available as a Debian package, so installation
> was a doddle. And avtitvout even seems to work (for small values of "work"),
> It looks like I can toggle PAL/NTSC and query card status etc.etc..
> 
> However, if I try and enable the video out, I get a VBE error and querying
> the card says that video is disabled. The laptop has an ATI Rage LT Pro,
> and some doco says that the LCD and video output cannot be used at the
> same time, but something like "atitvout -f t; sleep 10; atitvout -f l" doesn't
> seem to work (without or without the -f flag which forces LT Pro).
> 
> Has anyone else on the list got ATI video output working and have any suggestions
> on gotchas? Does the LCD's mode need to be set to something like 640x480?
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Antti
> 

Well, for my Mobility 7500 I have to make sure I do this:

1. Have the TV-out cable plugged in before starting the laptop. 
Alternatively bend a staple to form two prongs which are stuck in the 
left two holes of the svideo plug (it simulates a cable). Then you can 
swap it with the cable when you really need to.
2. Turn it on, log in, set resolution to 640x480.
3. atitvout pal && atitvout -f t
4. Watch some anime
5. atitvout -f l

If you do things like use APM or unplug the cable you may not be able to 
get back to TV. Even if you do the above you may not be able to switch 
to TV more than a few times. Hope it helps.

-- 
Steven Farlie