NAME
sis - SiS and XGI video driver
SYNOPSIS
Section "Device"
Identifier "devname"
Driver "sis"
...
EndSection
DESCRIPTION
sis is an Xorg driver for SiS (Silicon Integrated Systems) and XGI
video chips. The driver is accelerated and provides support for
colordepths of 8, 16 and 24 bpp. XVideo, Render and other extensions
are supported as well.
SUPPORTED HARDWARE
The sis driver supports PCI, AGP and PCIe video cards based on the
following chipsets:
SiS5597/5598 SiS530/620 SiS6326/AGP/DVD SiS300/305 SiS540 SiS630/730
SiS315/E/H/PRO SiS550/551/552 SiS650/651/661/741 SiS330 (Xabre)
SiS760/761 XGI Volari V3/V5/V8 XGI Volari Z7
In the following text, the following terms are used:
old series for SiS5597/5598, 530/620 and 6326/AGP/DVD
300 series for SiS300/305, 540 and 630/730
315/330/340 series for SiS315, 55x, 330, 661/741/76x (plus M, FX, MX,
GX variants thereof), 340 and all XGI chips.
CONFIGURATION DETAILS
Please refer to xorg.conf(5) for general configuration details. This
section only covers configuration details specific to this driver.
Detailed information on all supported options can be obtained at
http://www.winischhofer.eu/linuxsisvga.shtml
This manpage only covers a subset of the supported options.
1. For all supported chipsets
The following driver options are supported on all chipsets:
Option "NoAccel" "boolean"
Disable or enable 2D acceleration. Default: acceleration is
enabled.
Option "HWCursor" "boolean"
Enable or disable the HW cursor. Default: HWCursor is on.
Option "SWCursor" "boolean"
The opposite of HWCursor. Default: SWCursor is off.
Option "Rotate" "string"
Rotate the display clockwise ("CW") or counter-clockwise
("CCW"). This mode is unaccelerated. Using this option disables
XVideo and the Resize and Rotate extension (RandR). Rotation and
reflection (see below) are mutually exclusive. Default: no
rotation.
Option "Reflect" "string"
Reflect (mirror) the display horizontally ("X"), vertically
("Y") or both ("XY"). This mode is unaccelerated. Using this
option disables XVideo and the Resize and Rotate extension
(RandR). Rotation (see above) and reflection are mutually
exclusive. Default: no reflection.
Option "CRT1Gamma" "boolean"
Enable or disable gamma correction. (On the 300 and 315/330/340
series, this option only affects CRT1 output). Default: Gamma
correction is enabled.
2. Old series specific information
The driver will auto-detect the amount of video memory present for all
these chips, but in the case of the 6326, it will limit the memory size
to 4MB. This is because the 6326's 2D engine can only address 4MB. The
remaining memory seems to be intended for 3D texture data, since only
the 3D engine can address RAM above 4MB. However, you can override this
limitation using the "VideoRAM" option in the Device section if your
board has more than 4MB and you need to use it. However, 2D
acceleration, XVideo and the HWCursor will be disabled in this case.
For the 6326, the driver has two built-in modes for high resolutions
which you should use instead of the default ones. These are named
"SIS1280x1024-75" and "SIS1600x1200-60" and they will be added to the
list of default modes. To use these modes, just place them in your
Screen section. Example:
Modes "SIS1600x1200-60" "SIS1280x1024x75" "1024x768" ...
Of these modes, 1280x1024 is only available at 8, 15 and 16bpp.
1600x1200 is available at 8bpp only.
TV support for the 6326
TV output is supported for the 6326. The driver will auto detect a
connected TV and in this case add the following display modes to the
list of available display modes: "PAL800x600", "PAL800x600U",
"PAL720x540", "PAL640x480", "NTSC640x480", "NTSC640x480U" and
"NTSC640x400". Use these modes like the hi-res modes described above.
The following driver Options are supported on the old series:
Option "TurboQueue" "boolean"
Enable or disable TurboQueue mode. Default: off for SIS530/620,
on for the others
Option "FastVram" "boolean"
Enable or disable FastVram mode. Enabling this sets the video
RAM timing to one cycle per read operation instead of two
cycles. Disabling this will set two cycles for read and write
operations. Leaving this option out uses the default, which
varies depending on the chipset.
Option "NoHostBus" "boolean"
(SiS5597/5598 only). Disable CPU-to-VGA host bus support. This
speeds up CPU to video RAM transfers. Default: Host bus is
enabled.
Option "NoXVideo" "boolean"
Disable XV (XVideo) extension support. Default: XVideo is on.
Option "NoYV12" "boolean"
Disable YV12 Xv support. This might me required due to hardware
bugs in some chipsets. Disabling YV12 support forces Xv-aware
applications to use YUV2 or XShm for video output. Default:
YV12 support is on.
Option "TVStandard" "string"
(6326 only) Valid parameters are PAL or NTSC. The default is
set by a jumper on the card.
Option "TVXPosOffset" "integer"
(6326 only) This option allows tuning the horizontal position of
the image for TV output. The range is from -16 to 16. Default: 0
Option "TVYPosOffset" "integer"
(6326 only) This option allows tuning the vertical position of
the image for TV output. The range is from -16 to 16. Default: 0
Option "SIS6326TVEnableYFilter" "boolean"
(6326 only) This option allows enabling/disabling the Y (chroma)
filter for TV output.
Option "SIS6326TVAntiFlicker" "string"
(6326 only) This option allow enabling/disabling the anti
flicker facility for TV output. Possible parameters are OFF,
LOW, MED, HIGH or ADAPTIVE. By experience, ADAPTIVE yields the
best results, hence it is the default.
2. 300 and 315/330/340 series specific information
The 300 and 315/330/340 series, except the XGI Z7, feature two CRT
controllers and very often come with a video bridge for controlling LCD
and TV output. Hereinafter, the term CRT1 refers to the VGA output of
the chip, and CRT2 refers to either LCD, TV or secondary VGA. Due to
timing reasons, only one CRT2 output can be active at the same time.
But this limitation does not apply to using CRT1 and CRT2 at the same
time which makes it possible to run the driver in dual head mode.
The driver supports the following video bridges:
SiS301 SiS301B(-DH) SiS301C SiS301LV SiS302(E)LV
Instead of a video bridge, some machines have a third party LVDS
transmitter to control LCD panels, and/or a Chrontel 7005 or 7019 for
TV output. All these are supported as well.
About TV output
The driver fully supports standard (PAL, NTSC, PAL-N, PAL-M) S-video or
composite output as well as high definition TV (HDTV) output via YPbPr
plugs. For more information on HDTV, please consult the author's
website.
As regards S-video and CVBS output, the SiS301 and the Chrontel 7005
only support resolutions up to 800x600. All others support resolutions
up to 1024x768. However, due to a hardware bug, Xvideo might be
distorted on SiS video bridges if running NTSC or PAL-M at 1024x768.
About XVideo support
XVideo is supported on all chipsets of both families (except the XGI
Volari Z7 which lacks hardware support for video overlays). However,
there are some differences in hardware features which cause
limitations. The 300 series as well as the SiS55x, M650, 651, 661FX,
M661FX, M661MX, 741, 741GX, M741, 76x, M76x support two video overlays.
The SiS315/H/PRO, 650/740, 330, 340 and the XGI Volari V3, V5 and V8
chips support only one such overlay. On chips with two overlays, one
overlay is used for CRT1, the other for CRT2. On the other chipsets,
the option "XvOnCRT2" can be used to select the desired output device
(CRT1 or CRT2).
About Merged Framebuffer support
Merged framebuffer mode is similar to dual head/Xinerama mode (for
using two output devices of one card at the same time), but has a few
advantages which make me recommend it strongly over Xinerama. Please
see http://www.winischhofer.eu/linuxsisvga.shtml for detailed
information.
About dual-head support
Dual head mode with or without Xinerama is fully supported, be it with
one card driving two outputs, be it two cards. Note that colordepth 8
is not supported in dual head mode if run on one card with two outputs.
The following driver Options are supported on the 300 and 315/330/340
series:
Option "NoXVideo" "boolean"
Disable XV (XVideo) extension support. Default: XVideo is on.
Option "XvOnCRT2" "boolean"
On chipsets with only one video overlay, this option can used to
bind the overlay to CRT1 ( if a monitor is detected and if this
option is either unset or set to false ) or CRT2 ( if a CRT2
device is detected or forced, and if this option is set to true
). If either only CRT1 or CRT2 is detected, the driver decides
automatically. In Merged Framebuffer mode, this option is
ignored. Default: overlay is used on CRT1
Option "ForceCRT1" "boolean"
Force CRT1 to be on of off. If a monitor is connected, it will
be detected during server start. However, some old monitors are
not detected correctly. In such cases, you may set this option
to on in order to make the driver initialize CRT1 anyway. If
this option is set to off , the driver will switch off CRT1.
Default: auto-detect
Option "ForceCRT2Type" "string"
Force display type to one of: NONE , TV , SVIDEO , COMPOSITE ,
SVIDEO+COMPOSITE , SCART , LCD , VGA ; NONE will disable CRT2.
The SVIDEO, COMPOSITE, SVIDEO+COMPOSITE and SCART parameters are
for SiS video bridges only and can be used to force the driver
to use a specific TV output connector (if present). For further
parameters, see the author's website. Default: auto detect.
Option "CRT2Gamma" "boolean"
Enable or disable gamma correction for CRT2. Only supported for
SiS video bridges. Default: Gamma correction for CRT2 is on.
Option "TVStandard" "string"
Force the TV standard to either PAL or NTSC. On some machines
with 630, 730 and the 315/330/340 series, PALM , PALN and NTSCJ
are supported as well. Default: BIOS setting.
Option "TVXPosOffset" "integer"
This option allows tuning the horizontal position of the image
for TV output. The range is from -32 to 32. Not supported on the
Chrontel 7019. Default: 0
Option "TVYPosOffset" "integer"
This option allows tuning the vertical position of the image for
TV output. The range is from -32 to 32. Not supported on the
Chrontel 7019. Default: 0
Option "SISTVXScale" "integer"
This option selects the horizontal zooming level for TV output.
The range is from -16 to 16. Only supported on SiS video
bridges. Default: 0
Option "SISTVYScale" "integer"
This option selects the vertical zooming level for TV output in
the following modes: 640x480, 800x600. On the 315/330/340
series, also 720x480, 720x576 and 768x576. The range is from -4
to 3. Only supported on SiS video bridges. Default: 0
Option "CHTVOverscan" "boolean"
On machines with a Chrontel TV encoder, this can be used to
force the TV mode to overscan or underscan. on means overscan,
off means underscan. Default: BIOS setting.
Option "CHTVSuperOverscan" "boolean"
On machines with a Chrontel 7005 TV encoder, this option enables
a super-overscan mode. This is only supported if the TV standard
is PAL. Super overscan will produce an image on the TV which is
larger than the viewable area.
The driver supports many more options. Please see
http://www.winischhofer.eu/linuxsisvga.shtml for more information.
3. 300 series specific information
DRI is supported on the 300 series only. On Linux, prior to kernel
2.6.3, DRI requires the kernel's SiS framebuffer driver ( sisfb ). The
SiS DRM kernel driver as well as the SiS DRI client driver are required
in any case.
Sisfb, if installed and running, takes care of memory management for
texture data. In order to prevent the X Server and sisfb from
overwriting each other's data, sisfb reserves an amount of video memory
for the X driver. This amount can either be selected using sisfb's mem
parameter, or auto-selected depending on the amount of total video RAM
available.
Sisfb can be used for memory management only, or as a complete
framebuffer driver. If you start sisfb with a valid mode (ie you gain a
graphical console), the X driver can communicate with sisfb and doesn't
require any manual configuration for finding out about the video memory
it is allowed to use.
However, if you are running a 2.4 series Linux kernel and use sisfb for
video memory management only, ie you started sisfb with mode=none and
still have a text mode console, there is no communication between sisfb
and the X driver. For this purpose, the
Option "MaxXFBMem" "integer"
exists. This option must be set to the same value as given to sisfb
through its "mem" parameter, ie the amount of memory to use for X in
kilobytes.
If you started sisfb without the mem argument, sisfb will reserve
12288KB if more than 16MB of total video RAM is available,
8192KB if between 12 and 16MB of video RAM is available,
4096KB in all other cases.
If you intend to use DRI on an integrated chipset (540, 630, 730), I
recommend setting the total video memory in the BIOS setup utility to
64MB.
PLEASE NOTE: As of Linux 2.6.3 and under *BSD, sisfb is not required
for memory management. Hence, this option is mandatory on such systems
not running sisfb to decide how much memory X should reserve for DRI.
If the option is omitted, DRI will have no memory assigned, and all DRI
applications will quit with errors like "failed to allocate Z-buffer"
or the like.
Option "DRI" "boolean"
This option allows enabling or disabling DRI. By default, DRI is
on.
Option "AGPSize" "integer"
This option allows selecting the amount of AGP memory to be used
for DRI. The amount is to be specified in megabyte, the default
is 8.
KNOWN BUGS
none.
SEE ALSO
Xorg(1), xorg.conf(5), Xserver(1), X(7)
http://www.winischhofer.eu/linuxsisvga.shtml for more information and
updates
AUTHORS
Author: Thomas Winischhofer. Formerly based on code by Alan Hourihane,
Mike Chapman, Juanjo Santamarta, Mitani Hiroshi, David Thomas, Sung-
Ching Lin, Ademar Reis.