[MPlayer-matrox] Problems trying to run mplayer using the xmga video output using Ubuntu Studio

[Ismael Valladolid Torres]

Here mplayer runs nicely enough using the x11 video output. However my
computer has a Matrox MGA G450 video card installed, and I remember
having been able to run mplayer using the xmga video output in an
older Debian version with an older kernel, just using module-assistant
to compile the mga_vid module.

Now I am running Ubuntu Studio. Kernel is 2.6.24-16-rt, and udev
version is 117-8. Here module-assistant gives an error while compiling
mga-vid-source. I got the latest subversion release from mga-vid and
compiled it. I installed mga_vid.ko. I've also installed the
mga-vid-common package. This seems to do two correct things:

- Create a /etc/modutils/mga-vid-common file with the following contents.

# alias file for the mga_vid kernel module

alias char-major-83 mga_vid
alias /dev/mga_vid mga_vid

- Create a /etc/udev/rules.d/50-mga-vid-common.rules file so udev
creates the correct device nodes.

KERNEL=="mga_vid[0-9]*", NAME="%k", MODE="0660", GROUP="video"
KERNEL=="mga_vid0", SYMLINK+="mga_vid"

(Yes, my user belongs to the video group.)

I've included mga_vid into my /etc/modules to make sure module is
loaded while system launchs but before xorg starts. Checking system
logs seem to imply the module loaded correctly.

:  [ ~ ] $; dmesg | grep mga
[   64.132311] mga_vid: Found MGA G400/G450 at 0000:01:00.0
[   64.132317] mga_vid: MMIO at 0xf8be8000 framebuffer: 0xF4000000
[   64.132322] mga_vid: OPTION word: 0x400A1160  mem: 0x04  SDRAM
[   64.132324] mga_vid: detected RAMSIZE is 16 MB
[   64.132327] mga_vid: 1 supported cards found
[   64.132374] Modules linked in: mga_vid sbp2 lp loop ipv6 arc4 ecb
blkcipher snd_usb_audio snd_usb_lib snd_hwdep rt2500pci rt2x00pci
rt2x00lib rfkill input_polldev crc_itu_t mac80211 matrox_w1 snd_rme96
cfg80211 wire eeprom_93cx6 cn snd_intel8x0 snd_ac97_codec ac97_bus
snd_pcm_oss snd_mixer_oss snd_pcm snd_seq_dummy snd_seq_oss
snd_seq_midi snd_rawmidi snd_seq_midi_event evdev snd_seq snd_timer
snd_seq_device button parport_pc parport snd soundcore amd64_agp
shpchp agpgart snd_page_alloc i2c_nforce2 pci_hotplug i2c_core k8temp
pcspkr ext3 jbd mbcache sg sr_mod cdrom sd_mod amd74xx ide_core
sata_nv ata_generic usbhid hid floppy ohci1394 initio ieee1394
uhci_hcd 3c59x pata_acpi pata_amd mii libata ehci_hcd ohci_hcd
scsi_mod usbcore thermal processor fan fuse
[   64.132526]  [<f8aec955>] mga_vid_initialize+0x355/0x378 [mga_vid]
[   74.076973] [drm] Initialized mga 3.2.1 20051102 on minor 0

However after system is loaded and the X session started, there are no
/dev/mga_vid? files anywhere. So mga_vid_test refuses to run, and of
course mplayer can't be started using the xmga video output.

Anywhere else I can look for debug info? Any ideas useful, so thanks in advance.

Cordially, Ismael
-- 
Ismael Valladolid Torres <ivalladt at gmail.com>

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