# [SOLVED] Cannot get AGP 8x with VIA chipset

## DGolem

I have an Asus A7V600 with a VIA KT600 chipset and a Gigabyte Geforce FX 5950 video card. I'm using agpgart compiled directly into the kernel (gentoo-2.6.12-r6) and the newest nvidia drivers (7667). Both my card and motherboard support 8x and this can be confirmed in proc:

```
Fast Writes:     Supported

SBA:             Supported

AGP Rates:       8x 4x 

Registers:       0x1f000e1b:0x1f000311

```

```
Host Bridge:     VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8377 [KT400/KT600 AGP] Host Bridge

Fast Writes:     Supported

SBA:             Supported

AGP Rates:       8x 4x 

Registers:       0x1f000a1f:0x00000b11

```

Even if I specify 8x in /etc/modules.d/nvidia it still runs at 4x. I've tried turning off FW and SBA but still 4x. My bios is set to 8x. It seems to be an agpgart thing judging by dmesg and some of the things I've read. I can get 8x if I use nvidia's AGP interface (and it doubles my fps) but it's unstable as hell. Either the game crashes or my system hardfreezes after about 10 minutes. The same if I turn FW off. I am aware of this thread: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-327462-highlight-agp+rate.html but I decided to post here since I'm not running 64-bit, plus they solved it with a bios update (I'm already on the latest bios from asus). I'm also aware of this http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/3/10/306 but I don't really know anything about patching the kernel plus you'd think these changes would be in vanila by now since the post was made in march.

More info:

```
Linux agpgart interface v0.101 (c) Dave Jones

agpgart: Detected VIA KT400/KT400A/KT600 chipset

agpgart: AGP aperture is 256M @ 0xe0000000

agpgart: Found an AGP 3.5 compliant device at 0000:00:00.0.

agpgart: reserved bits set in mode 0x1f00021c. Fixed.

agpgart: X tried to set rate=x0. Setting to AGP3 x4 mode.

agpgart: Putting AGP V3 device at 0000:00:00.0 into 4x mode

agpgart: Putting AGP V3 device at 0000:01:00.0 into 4x mode

agpgart: Found an AGP 3.5 compliant device at 0000:00:00.0.

agpgart: reserved bits set in mode 0x1f00021c. Fixed.

agpgart: X tried to set rate=x0. Setting to AGP3 x4 mode.

agpgart: Putting AGP V3 device at 0000:00:00.0 into 4x mode

agpgart: Putting AGP V3 device at 0000:01:00.0 into 4x mode

```

```
Status:          Enabled

Driver:          AGPGART

AGP Rate:        4x

Fast Writes:     Enabled

SBA:             Enabled

```

```
VideoMemoryTypeOverride: 1

EnableVia4x: 0

EnableALiAGP: 0

NvAGP: 3

ReqAGPRate: 8

EnableAGPSBA: 1

EnableAGPFW: 1

SoftEDIDs: 1

Mobile: 4294967295

ResmanDebugLevel: 4294967295

FlatPanelMode: 0

DevicesConnected: 0

VideoEnhancement: 0

RmLogonRC: 1

ModifyDeviceFiles: 1

DeviceFileUID: 0

DeviceFileGID: 0

DeviceFileMode: 438

```

```
    Option      "RenderAccel"               "on"

        Option      "NvAGP" "2"

        Identifier  "Card0"

        Driver      "nvidia"

        VideoRam    262144

        VendorName  "nVidia Corporation"

        BoardName   "NV20 [GeForce3 Ti 500]"

        BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"

```

So just wondering if there are any options here or if a fix is on the way. It's looking like my best bet is to figure out how to use the patch in Paul Mackerras' post.Last edited by DGolem on Thu Sep 15, 2005 6:08 am; edited 1 time in total

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## Boseefus

I too have this problem on almost identical hardware.  I've got the same Asus A7V600 with KT600 chipset with an FX 5500 on the newest nvidia drivers using the nitro-2.6.12-nitro2 kernel.  agpgart has me trapped in 4x mode and in a game like ut2004 where I should easily be getting 60-70 fps, I only get 15.  This is beyond rediculous, neither my video nor my sata support fully functions and both hardware sets are several years old.  There is no excuse for hardware that is fairly new at best to not be fully supported.  agpgart and libata both have this problem and it sickens me to say this, but as shitty as Windows is, at least it supports my hardware.  So if anyone has any information about when any hardware manufactured within the last decade will be fully supported, let me know.

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## s0be

 *Boseefus wrote:*   

> I too have this problem on almost identical hardware.  I've got the same Asus A7V600 with KT600 chipset with an FX 5500 on the newest nvidia drivers using the nitro-2.6.12-nitro2 kernel.  agpgart has me trapped in 4x mode and in a game like ut2004 where I should easily be getting 60-70 fps, I only get 15.  This is beyond rediculous, neither my video nor my sata support fully functions and both hardware sets are several years old.  There is no excuse for hardware that is fairly new at best to not be fully supported.  agpgart and libata both have this problem and it sickens me to say this, but as shitty as Windows is, at least it supports my hardware.  So if anyone has any information about when any hardware manufactured within the last decade will be fully supported, let me know.

 

Hardware recently manufactured has had the least time for people to reverse engineer it.  The problem is, some companies aren't overly friendly with the linux community in that they won't disclose details of how their devices work.

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## Boseefus

 *Quote:*   

> Hardware recently manufactured has had the least time for people to reverse engineer it. The problem is, some companies aren't overly friendly with the linux community in that they won't disclose details of how their devices work.

 

I realize and understand that.  SATA I can maybe understand because it hasn't been out as long.  But there is no reason why AGP support is so half assed, especially on a VIA board.  VIA's about as universal as you can get and AGP has been on the market since the mid-90's.  By your logic, it would also be ok to let oil leak into my truck's motor.  As long as the plugs still fire, its ok right?  Just because something works doesn't mean we should just accept it the way it is.  I need to fix my truck and someone needs to fix agpgart so that the VIA chipset is properly supported.

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## DGolem

I want to think it has something to do with that LKML post meaning it's a problem with AGP in general. Except not only would you expect that to have been fixed by now, especially since there's a patch in the message, but also I think I have seen a few people in these forums posting their video info getting 8x AGP with agpgart. So maybe it's something to do with VIA support specifically. Strangely, in that thread I linked to they managed to get 8x working with a 64-bit VIA board which by all means would have to be newer than what we've got so it's not likely they just haven't gotten to it yet. It's always possible it's a bios issue just like in that thread meaning if I ever had time to install windows I could see if that gets 4x too.

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## DGolem

OK then again, it probably isn't the bios if I could get 8x using nvidia's agp.

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## DGolem

I'm posting this from Windows 2000. In Windows I am able to get AGP 8x, without crashing either, which completely elimates any kind of hardware conflict. The problem must lie in agpgart.

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## DGolem

Ok, I'm tired of waiting for this to get fixed (I've had this board for 2 years!) and I have exhausted google with no progress. I think I might just buy another motherboard but I am not going to downgrade or switch away from VIA although I wouldn't mind an upgrade. So, anyone who has an AGP 8x card and is running a VIA motherboard please tell me your output of cat /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/status. I want to see who IS getting AGP 8x so I can determine what VIA chipsets DO work. I am really really hoping it's just an issue with my particular board and that maybe I can get a KT800 or whatever the newest 32-bit VIA chipset is and have my Geforce FX acting the way it's supposed to for the first time.

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## FormerSlacker

Well I know its a downgrade, but I have a A7V8X-X (KT400) which is insanely cheap ~$60cdn. I've had the board for a year with no problems at all, and with alsa the onboard sound supports hardware mixing!  :Laughing:  The board is running a XP 2800 barton at 333mhz with an FX 5700 and it's rock solid with agpgart or nvagp. I'm currently running nvagp for no particular reason  :Smile:  So if you want to get a board on the cheap, you might consider this one.

 *Quote:*   

> ~ > cat /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/status
> 
> Status:           Enabled
> 
> Driver:           NVIDIA
> ...

 

I disabled FW since I've read that there is no real difference with it activated, and I myself didn't notice a speedup when I used it.

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## DGolem

Do you know if 8x is working for you with the agpgart drivers? I can get 8x with nvidia's AGP interface BUT opengl becomes extremely unstable for me. Games will crash after about 5 minutes at which point they have a 50% chance of exiting with a segfault otherwise they end up locking up the whole system. I even turned fast writes off but it didn't help. agpgart other than the 4x issue runs solid though.

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## FormerSlacker

 *DGolem wrote:*   

> Do you know if 8x is working for you with the agpgart drivers? I can get 8x with nvidia's AGP interface BUT opengl becomes extremely unstable for me. Games will crash after about 5 minutes at which point they have a 50% chance of exiting with a segfault otherwise they end up locking up the whole system. I even turned fast writes off but it didn't help. agpgart other than the 4x issue runs solid though.

 

Agpgart runs perfectly as well. I'm using nvagp lately because I've heard that its faster then agpgart, but for about 5-6 months I was using agpgart at 8x with no issues.

I play Enemy Terriotry for hours and hours, and a little ut2004 and its rock solid. Its strange that you'd have problems with your board, as I didn't think there was much difference between the agp interface between the KT400 and the KT600, go figure  :Rolling Eyes: 

In fact, the agp hostbridge on the KT400 seems identical to the KT600?

```
 ~ > cat /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/host-bridge

Host Bridge:     VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8377 [KT400/KT600 AGP] Host Bridge

Fast Writes:      Not Supported (disabled in bios)

SBA:                Supported

AGP Rates:       8x 4x

Registers:         0x1f000a0f:0x00000b02

```

I suppose you did the usual and checked your memory with memtest and test the cpu? I dual boot so I run Prime95 overnight just to make sure everything is okay when I upgraded to the barton from a old tbird.

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## DGolem

I think I will run memtest since I still haven't tested the new ram I got a few months ago. In the meantime I'll run cpuburn overnight and see what happens. Other than games running with the nvidia agp interface though, my system never crashes.

You are right though, we have the same host-bridge yet you aren't experiencing any of my problems. It's very likely it's an issue with this particular board I'm thinking, probably with the bios. If anyone else with a KT600 or newer posts in this thread that they have 8x working I'll just assume it's the board's fault and get a new one. The AGP bogosities thread is months old so I'd have to believe what they are talking about is fixed by now. In the other thread I linked to their problem was fixed with a bios update. So it seems likely it's the board.

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## FormerSlacker

Good luck DGolem, these problems are always tricky to fix   :Sad: 

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## DGolem

I finally got my friend Jake to confirm that his AGP controller IS running in 8x with a NEWER Asus motherboard using the newest VIA chipset (KT880) off of the Gentoo livecd. I've finally come to the conclusion that it has to be Asus fault, probably in their bios somewhere, since FormerSlacker has gotten 8x with the exact same AGP controller and Jake gets 8x running similar but newer hardware (so I know my 2 year old board isn't too bleeding edge for tux or anything). This all makes sense since I've only seen the error messages in maybe two threads on all of google.

I've gone ahead and ordered a Soyo Dragon 2 VIA KT880. When I install it I'll post the results. Who knows maybe it will even get my plextor working.

On a side note the gentoo wiki says my drive will NEVER work yet this linuxquestions review says it's been working almost perfectly since 2.6.10, even in Gentoo at 2.6.11.

http://gentoo-wiki.com/HARDWARE_SATA

http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/showproduct.php?product=2323&sort=8&cat=349&page=1

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## DGolem

The new board is installed and so far is working perfectly. And yes, I do have AGP 8x now so I can safely say it's been Asus' fault the whole time.

```

ksd@localhost ~ $ cat /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/status 

Status:          Enabled

Driver:          AGPGART

AGP Rate:        8x

Fast Writes:     Disabled

SBA:             Enabled

```

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## DGolem

I take what I said back, I'm having a ton of problems. These are different problems so I've started a new thread: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-2731416.html#2731416

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