readme

  Information for SiS and XGI Users
  Thomas Winischhofer  <thomas@winischhofer.net>
  6 July 2005
  ____________________________________________________________

  Table of Contents


  1. Introduction
  2. xorg.conf Options
     2.1 For all chipsets
     2.2 Old series specific options
     2.3 300/315/330/340 series specific options
     2.4 300 series specific options
     2.5 315/330/340 series specific options


  ______________________________________________________________________

  1.  Introduction


  This driver is written by Thomas Winischhofer and is a (nearly)
  complete re-write of a driver written for the SiS6326 and SiS530 by
  Alan Hourihane and others.

  It currently supports the following chipsets:

  +o  old series: SiS 5597/5598, 6236/AGP/DVD, 530/620

  +o  300 series: SiS 300/305, 540, 630/730

  +o  315 series: SiS 315/E/PRO, 55x, 650, 651, M650, 740,
     [M]661&[F/M/G]X, [M]741[GX]

  +o  330 series: SiS 330 ("Xabre"), [M]760[GX], [M]761[GX]

  +o  340 series: SiS 34x, XGI Volari Z7, V3XT, V5, V8

  Among other features, the driver supports

  +o  8/16/24 bits color depth; old series also 15

  +o  Hardware cursor; 315/330/340 series: Color HW cursor

  +o  XAA; EXA; XVideo (Xv); RENDER and other extensions

  +o  6326: TV output

  +o  300/315/330/340 series: TV output via Chrontel TV encoders or SiS
     video bridges

  +o  300/315/330/340 series: LCD output via LVDS transmitters or SiS
     video bridges

  +o  300/315/330/340 series: Dual head mode; Xinerama; Merged
     framebuffer mode

  +o  300/315/330/340 series: Interface for SiSCtrl (see below)

  This document provides a brief overview over the driver's features and
  configuration options. Please see
  http://www.winischhofer.at/linuxsisvga.shtml for detailed
  documentation and updates.


  2.  xorg.conf Options


  The following options are of particular interest for the SiS driver.
  Each of them must be specified in the Device section of the xorg.conf
  file for this card.

  In the list below, the options' arguments are described by type. For
  "boolean", the keywords "on", "true" and "yes", as well as "off",
  "false" and "no" respectively have the same meaning.


  2.1.  For all chipsets



     Option
        >

     Option
        These options select whether the software (SW) or hardware (HW)
        cursor should be used. The default is using the hardware cursor.

     Option
        Disables 2D acceleration. By default, 2D acceleration is
        enabled.

     Option
        Determines which acceleration architecture should be used.
        Possible arguments are "XAA" or "EXA". As of this writing, EXA
        is still experimental and it is not recommended to be used on
        production machines. By default, XAA will be used.

     Option
        This option enables clockwise ("CW") or counter-clockwise
        ("CCW") rotation of the display. Enabling either CW or CCW
        rotation disables the RandR extension as well as all 2D
        acceleration and Xv support. Default: no rotation.

     Option
        This option enables reflecting the display horizontally ("X"),
        vertically ("Y") or in both directions ("XY"). Enabling
        reflection disables the RandR extension as well as all 2D
        acceleration and Xv support. Default: no rotation.

     Option
        This option enables the shadow framebuffer layer. By default, it
        is disabled.

     Option
        Disables the XVideo (Xv) support. Apart from the XGI Volari Z7,
        all chipsets support Xv. By default, XVideo support is enabled.

     Option
        Enables or disables gamma correction. Default: gamma correction
        is enabled.


  2.2.  Old series specific options



     Option
        Enables 1 cycle memory access for read and write operations. The
        default depends on the chipset used.

     Option
        SiS chipsets have the ability to extend the engine command queue
        in video RAM. This concept is called "TurboQueue" and gives some
        performance improvement. Due to hardware bugs, the TurboQueue is
        disabled on the 530/620, otherwise enabled by default.

     Option
        For 5597/5598 only. This option, if set, disables the CPU to VGA
        host bus.  Disabling the host bus will result in a severe
        performance regression.

     VideoRAM [size]
        The SiS 6326 can only directly address 4096K bytes of video RAM.
        However, there are some cards out there featuring 8192K (8MB) of
        video RAM. This RAM is not addressable by the engines.
        Therefore, by default, the driver will only use 4096K. This
        behavior can be overridden by specifying the amount of video RAM
        using the VideoRAM keyword. If more than 4096K is specified, the
        driver will disable 2D acceleration, Xv and the HW cursor. On
        all other chipsets, this keyword is ignored. The size argument
        is expected in KB, but without "KB".

     Option
        Due to hardware bugs, XVideo may display a corrupt image when
        using YV12 encoded material. This option, if set, disables
        support for YV12 and hence forces the Xv-aware application to
        use either YUV2 or XShm for video output.

     Option
        (6326 only) Selects the TV output standard. May be PAL or NTSC.
        By default, this is selected by a jumper on the card.


  2.3.  300/315/330/340 series specific options



     Option
        This option enables/disables the driver's interface for the
        SiSCtrl utility. Please see
        http://www.winischhofer.at/linuxsisvga.shtml for more
        information.

     Option
        (300 series only) SiS chipsets have the ability to extend the
        engine command queue in video RAM. This concept is called
        "TurboQueue" and gives some performance improvement. The
        TurboQueue is enabled by default.

     Option
        Enables or disables CRT1 (= the external VGA monitor). By
        default, the driver will use CRT1 if a monitor is detected
        during server start. Some older monitors can't be detected, so
        they may require setting this option to true. To disable CRT1
        output, set this option to false.

     Option
        (For SiS 650, M650, 651, 661, 741, 760 with either SiS 301LV,
        302LV or SiS 301C video bridge only) The argument may be "VGA",
        "LCD" or "OFF".  Specifying LCD will force the driver to use the
        VGA controller's CRT1 channel for driving the LCD while CRT2 is
        free for TV usage. "OFF" is the same as setting the option
        ForceCRT1 to "false". Default is VGA.

     Option
        Selects the CRT2 output device type. Valid parameters are "LCD",
        "TV", "SVIDEO", "COMPOSITE", "SVIDEO+COMPOSITE", "SCART", "VGA",
        "YPBPR480I", "YPBPR480P", "YPBPR720P", "YPBPR1080I" or "NONE".
        NONE disables CRT2.  SVIDEO, COMPOSITE, SVIDEO+COMPOSITE, SCART
        and all the YPBPR alternatives are only for systems with a SiS
        video bridge and select the desired plug or TV standard type.
        For Chrontel systems, TV should be used instead. VGA means
        secondary VGA and is only available on some SiS video bridges
        (301, 301B, 301C).

     Option
        (For SiS video bridges only) This option enables or disables
        gamma correction for CRT2. Default: gamma correction for CRT2 is
        enabled.

     Option
        Although this option is accepted for all chipsets, it currently
        only makes sense on the 300 series; DRI is only supported on
        these chipsets.  This option enables/disables DRI.

     Option
        Selects the TV output standard. May be PAL or NTSC, on some
        machines (depending on the hardware) also PALM and PALN.
        Default: BIOS setting.

     Option
        >

     Option
        These options allow relocating the image on your TV. Both
        options take an integer within the range of -16 to 16. Default:
        0. Not supported for Chrontel 7019.

     Option
        (For Chrontel TV encoders only) Selects whether TV output should
        be overscan or underscan.

     Option
        (For Chrontel 7005 TV encoders in PAL mode only) Selects whether
        TV output should be super-overscan (slightly larger than the
        viewable area) or not.

     Option
        >

     Option
        (For SiS video bridges only) These options allow zooming the
        image on your TV. SISTVXScale takes an integer within the range
        of -16 to 16.  SISTVYScale accepts -4 to 3. Default: 0. Not all
        modes can be scaled.


  2.4.  300 series specific options



     Option
        This option might only be needed if you are running X on a Linux
        2.4 series kernel. This option is not needed and should be
        omitted on Linux 2.6 and *BSD.

        The Linux kernel features a framebuffer driver named "sisfb"
        which takes care of memory management for DRI/DRM (such as for
        3D texture data). In order to keep the X driver and sisfb from
        overwriting each other's video memory, sisfb reserves a certain
        amount of video memory for the X driver. Reserved memory is for
        X 2D, pixmap cache and video data only. Sisfb will not present
        this memory to the DRI. The amount of reserved memory can either
        be selected using sisfb's mem parameter or auto-selected
        depending on the total amount of video RAM available.

        Fact of the matter is, the X driver needs to know about the
        amount of RAM sisfb reserved. For this purpose, the Option
        "MaxXFBMem" exists.

        If you start sisfb with a valid mode (ie you run a graphical
        console), the X driver can communicate with sisfb and doesn't
        require setting the MaxXFBMem option at all. The X driver will
        receive enough information from sisfb in this case.

        If you, on the other hand, use sisfb for 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. In this - and ONLY this - case, you need to set
        MaxXFBMem to the same value as you gave sisfb with its mem
        parameter. If you didn't specify any mem parameter, sisfb will
        reserve (and you will have to specify by MaxXFBMem) 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. The size is expected in KB, without the "KB".

        Final word of advice: If you intend to use DRI on an integrated
        chipset (such as the 540/630/730), it is recommended to set the
        total video memory in the BIOS setup utility to 64MB.


  2.5.  315/330/340 series specific options



     Option
        Enables or disables RENDER acceleration. This feature, for
        instance, accelerates output of anti-aliased text. By default,
        RENDER acceleration is enabled. RENDER acceleration is currently
        only supported for XAA, not EXA.

     Option
        (For 315, 650, 740, 330, 340 and XGI chips only) This option
        selects whether the XVideo (Xv) overlay should be displayed on
        CRT1 or CRT2. Setting this option means CRT2. The other CRT will
        only display the (by default: blue) color key or a black/red
        pattern.