# ATI Radeon Mobility M6.. TV-out.. or not

## Freak_NL

This has been asked a couple of times already, but after trying for days to get TV-out working on my Radeon Mobility M6 LY (32Mb DDR & TV-out), I'm at a dead end..

I tried Gatos drivers. Contrary to what they claim, I cannot use them AND have DRI enabled at the same time (when using the latest DRI modules and normal radeon drivers I do get acceleration). That said, I don't get any TV-out either..   :Confused: 

Searching on Freshmeat I found a util named atitvout that supposedly supports Radeon cards aswell. No luck.

Mplayer mentions TV-out using vesa or vidix, but the docs are vague and still no TV-out.

Is it even possible?? Is this card an exception to the working ATI TV-outs using Linux out there? What can I try? What do I forget?

I know that in order to use TV-out I have to boot with the TV attached (VID-BIOS init). I load agpgart as a module with "try_unsupported=1". The radeon driver is compiled as module.

I really, really don't want to install Windows XP on my laptop just because it does TV-out..

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## Rafet

I use 'atitvout' for my tv-out needs, it's quite nifty. Although it detects my Radeon Mobility M6 as a Rage Mobility (using the '-f' option). 

Also you have to boot with the tv connected to the computer or else it isn't going to work, it has something to do with the bios, but I wonder how wintendo gets through this.

Just do a search for 'atitvout' over at google[/url]

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## Rafet

I use 'atitvout' for my tv-out needs, it's quite nifty. Although it detects my Radeon Mobility M6 as a Rage Mobility (using the '-f' option). 

Also you have to boot with the tv connected to the computer or else it isn't going to work, it has something to do with the bios, but I wonder how wintendo gets through this.

Just do a search for 'atitvout' over at google

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## Freak_NL

You run it with -f?

Well, if that works, I assumed -r (it detects it as a radeon aswell) but if -f works..  :Smile: 

What card do you have exactly? M6 LY 32 Mb DDR?

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## Rafet

Radeon Mobility M6 LY 8mb

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## Miker

Hi all,

I've been down the ati-tv out road as well, with no luck. I've installed the gatos drivers and agpgart, and tried atitvout. Thanks for the tip on booting with the tv connected, i'll try that. Anything else which should be done ??

My windows partition can then be finally put to rest  :Smile: 

Mike

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## ass

Connect yor tv, start x, run ./test.sh from your atitvout dir, this script will test all possible options. I've got my radeon mobillity 7500 working with -f t option (-f l switches back). Good luck!

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## masseya

ass posted another good descrition of how to get this working  in radeon mobility 7500 tvout?  However, I don't know if this works with the radeon M6.

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## Miker

It works !

Well, almost  :Smile: 

When first trying it I had forgotten to downgrade the resolution to 1024*768 (and 16 bit, don't know if it matters).

I booted with the S-VHS plug in the laptop and the TV on.

used './atitvout -f t'

and I had an image on TV, but only in black and white!!!

Anyone know what this is ? In WindowsXP it works fine.

PS : laptop is dell inspiron 4100, video card is radeon mobility M6

PPS : I connect with my TV using a SCART input, and I'm in europe so it should be PAL.

Mike

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## Cassini

Ah, yes. I am having the same problem. atitvout displays a picture on the TV, but not in color. And I am unable to set what system I want to use. I'm in Europa, so I should use pal, but atitvout -f t pal does not work..

Anyone out there?

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## Ken{NoBeeb}

Greetings,

I got an inspiron 4100 with radeon mobility M6, so far i've gotten the tv-out to work.

I think i know your problem

you must do a :

"atitvout pal"

"atitvout -f t"

and NOT "atitvout -f t pal"

Atleast i use the above settings and i get color, although abit flaky.

hope this helps

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## Cassini

You're joking, right? I have _just_ installed Windows on the laptop again because I needed the tv-out..

Oh well, I'll replace this OS with a real one soon enough, will try it then..thanks

Omar Yasin

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## RaceMouse

Hi all,

On some tv's it is necessary to short circuit pin 20 and 15 in the scart connector. This is because those tv's are not aware that they must get the crominance and luminance from two seperate pins. This is when often when an adapter (S-VHS -> SCART) is used. I have fixed several "B/W only problems" this way.

RaceMouse

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## knoxville

hey, i can enable tv out on my laptop with the function key but the it only works in console mode, not under x the picture is all scrambled. could it be a problem of the resolution or depth? i have it currently set to 1024x768 at 24 bit.

i cant even activate the tv out in x with the function keys, only in console mode.

thanks for any help

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## Garbz

I know i'm reviving an old thread but since tv out is the only thing which is stopping me from removing winblows from my hdd i figured its worth it.

my failed experiences thus far:

Please note:  

1.  All attempts were done firstly by unmerging the ati-drivers ati-gatos and xfree-drm drivers.

2.  The end results were the same using ati-drivers and ati-gatos.

3.  The existance of xfree-drm had no impact on the outcome.

4.  All results were taken AFTER the laptop had been rebooted with the tv plugged in.

5.  All results were taken in both console (framebuffer) a standard console, and x in 1024x768x16

6.  The end result is always the same.

7.  I'm using 0.4 of atitvout.

Firstly i'd confirm that having the tv pluged in is a must, it is the only thing positive which has come from this experience.

My laptop:

Dell Insiron 4100 (ati card as option rather than geforce 2 go)

My card:

according to "atitvout vbe":

VBE Version: 2.0

VBE OEM Identification: ATI MOBILITY RADEON

according to /proc/pci:

Bus 1, device 0, function 0:

 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility M6 LY (rev 0)

   IRQ 11.

   Master Capable. Latency=32 Min Gnt=8

   Prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xe0000000 [0xe7ffffff].

   I/O at 0xc000 [0xc0ff]

   No-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xfcff0000 [0xfcffffff]

and for the record it has 32mb of memory.  

my atitvout results:

atitvout detect:

CRT is attached.

TV is attached via Composite.  (using the SVGA-> composite adapter) this does not come up when the laptop is not booted with the tv attached.

atitvout -f: (this is the default mode i used but i tried -r as well)

Forcing Rage Mobilitiy / rage 3D Pro LT mode.

any other atitvout setting including:

atitvout t

atitvout auto

atitvout lt

atitvout t pal

atitvout tvout

atitvout active

VBE call failed.

Mayb this command is not supportedfas yadda yadda yadda.

The end result is that this was a collosal was of time and 26kb worth of downloaded software.

Can anyone change my mind on this matter ?  For thoes who have it working on an inspiron or any Radeon M6 how about a howto with EXACTLY what you did including what modules are running i.e. framebuffer standard console, x resolution, modules, which ati driver, which video related kernel settings.

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## Buzz

 *Garbz wrote:*   

> 
> 
> VBE call failed.
> 
> Mayb this command is not supportedfas yadda yadda yadda.
> ...

 

Wow, this is a really old thread, but I *DID* get my radeon mobility M6 LY to get tv out eventually.  This worked under the 2.4 kernel.  As of the 2.6 kernel I enabled acpi and now the function key takes care of it all.  I do not need any of what follows:

For the 2.4 kernel I used the radeon driver and atitvout.  I had to run atitvout as root so I set it up to run with sudo.  I set up two small scripts as such:

atitv:

#!/bin/bash

sudo -u root atitvout -f t

and 

atilcd:

#!/bin/bash

sudo -u root atitvout -f l

The -f "forces" it.  And that really was the trick for me to getting it out.  I had to have permission and I had to use the force parameter.  I should note that anytime the screen resolution changed, it became unusable, but running atitvout again would fix it.

Good luck, sorry this is so late...

Buzz

(Ok, not an exact solution, but it is what I have for now...)

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## Garbz

heheh lol better late then never. 

I think i'll give it another go.

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## Garbz

hi i've had limited sucess with the above commands

Basically what i did to get it working:

Boot with the TV plugged in.

atitvout detect - should show that the CRT display and TV is connected

atitvout -f t - should switch to the tv

atitvout -f l - shoudl switch back to the lcd

atitvout -f tl - failed misserably and i couldn't recover without a reboot

This worked in a frame buffer console and even worked with a framebuffer driver for mplayer.

It also worked in X windows but only using the radeon driver and it crashed when the res was changed.

I could not do more than 2 displays at a time.

It did not work when the -f switch was absent

And it could not switch between ntsc/pal which is a bummer for the europeans and austrlians who don't have a multimode tv as it is locked in the dodgy standard (ntsc).

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## rcast

Hi, which driver are you using when trying these settings?

The ati driver (from ati) don't support tv out.

I hav success using the drm drivers (radeon) and atitvout.

typing 

```
 atitvout -f t 
```

give me a picture, it sometimes takes a few seconds to appear.

I have not been able to get a pucture on the tv and laptop screen at the same time

Also worth noting is that i had to switch off the hwcursor in my XF86Config orthewise the moemnt that i moved the mouse the colours would go weird.

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## elorteglen

I had the same problem and i havent been able to solve it yet  :Sad:  if you can solve it let me know...

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## Garbz

assuming you are all using Framebuffered consoles, try to get the console on the tv first.  That way any misconfigurations in Xfree and driver problems with ati / radeon drivers are excluded.

(Using radeon driver btw)

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