*This howto has been revised as of 1-10-09*

Special thanks go to Geert Uytterhoeven, the sony software architect that made all this possible. Also to panajev from the beyond3d forums, for figuring alot of this out in the first place.

http://ozlabs.org/pipermail/cbe-oss-dev/2007-November/003596.html

http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=43859


Ok folks I am finally familiar enough with fbset that I feel comfortable writing this howto and it should work for everyone suffering from these issues. It is really quite simple and I hope everyone is able to benefit from this.

Before we get started you MUST be using at least a 2.6.24 kernel. This will not work without a kernel upgrade. The stock gutsy kernel was created before the changes to the ps3fb driver that allow this to work. If you are using intrepid, you should be fine. There are guides that deal with kernel compilation and upgrades on these forums, however upgrading to intrepid is a safe bet.

Ok so you have at least a 2.6.24 kernel and you are ready to get rid of those unsightly borders? Here we go...

The first order of business is installing fbset...



Fbset will not work properly while you are still in an X environment. You may want to print all of these instructions out, or write them down on a notebook.

Next we kill our X server, the safest way of doing this is by pressing ctrl+alt+f1
That will drop you to a terminal. Then we log in, and enter this.



Next we are going to change our video mode to FULL screen where we get our overscan issues. We will do this using the ps3-video-mode command.

I use 720p so for me the command for fullscreen is:



If you are using 1080i it will be:



or for 1080p..



Now you will notice that half your command prompt and the text is off to the side of the screen... don't panic we will take care of that. We are going to begin scaling the resolution down with fbset until it properly fit's our screen. The hardest part about doing this is that you may not always be able to see what you are typing until your screen settings become more sane. First a little bit about fbset terminology..

-a *makes the settings system wide and applies to all screens*

-xres *sets the horizontal resolution*

-yres *sets the vertical resolution*

-vxres *sets the virtual horizontal resolution*

-vyres *sets the virtual vertical resolution*

So.. for me when I used ps3-video-mode -v 131 to set my screen to full resolution it set it to a resolution of 1280x720, but with the overscan issue. What I did was start scaling the resolution back until things fit with fbset four pixels at a time like so...

fbset -a -xres 1276 -yres 716

fbset -a -xres 1272 -yres 712

fbset -a -xres 1268 -yres 708

Like I said though you won't always be able to see the command prompt so it is a bit tricky. After going down five or six steps I would use startx to fire up xfce and see how things were looking on the screen. When I was done looking I would log out of xfce and then scale down another five or six steps, then startx and check again, then log out and scale down some more etc..

Be careful to startx and check often because if you go to far with one resolution, you will have to start over again. Fbset will NOT scale the resolution upwards, only downwards.. if you go to far just set fullscreen with ps3-video-mode again and start over.

Make sure you keep checking by starting the X server periodically because your yres will most likely be correct long before your xres, for example my -yres was perfect at a value of 680, but the xres still had a long way to go. So then I would just keep lowering the xres but leave the yres alone like so..

fbset -a -xres 1156 -yres 680

fbset -a -xres 1152 -yres 680

Once you have found the perfect value, it is a good idea to then set the virtual resolutions as well, this is useful for a number of reasons. If you do not set the virtual resolution you may have problems with programs appearing off the sides of the screen. For me the perfect value was 1144x680 so then I set the virtual resolutions like this..

fbset -a -xres 1144 -yres 680 -vxres 1144 -vyres 680

Now to make the settings stick everytime you boot, edit your kboot.conf file.



Find this line on the end of your boot string..

video=ps3fb:mode:3'

Then change it too the full screen resolution you want to boot with..

video=ps3fb:mode:131'

Now save your kboot.conf *if you are using nano just hit ctrl+x then press Y*

Next we make sure that our fbset command runs right after the fullscreen command we just entered into our kboot. *Thanks to gillers29 for pointing this out later in this thread*



Insert your correct fbset resolutions and mode command into this file and make it look like this... my resolutions are used here as an example.



Then save the file. *if you are using nano just hit ctrl+x then press Y*

Next we make that file executable like so..



Now we create a link to that file in rc2.d so it runs right before gdm starts..



Next we type these magic words..



Upon rebooting x should start and when gdm loads, no more black borders.

*note* please do not try and use my values, they will most likely be different for everyone.

*note* I have tried to keep this as new user friendly as possible, however sometimes I assume a certain amount of linux experience. If any of this confuses you or you are unsure please ask your questions in this thread and I will reply as soon as I can.

-biscuit

This is just a small update, I am aware that when you boot the kernel output will still have overscan issues, this is because fbset has not run yet. I am looking into a way to fix this.

I am also looking into a better place than rc.local to put the fbset command, such as making a script that goes into init.d or some other place. If I find a better solution I will update everyone. So far though everything is working well for me, and I expect it will for you as well.

hey swift, which lcd monitor/lcd are you using? how many inches does it have?

You´re the best man. You tutorials are great. The last thing I would like to beg you to fix and make a tutorial is how to make gnash work propely to use flash at ps3. I think this is other Big problem Ps3 ppc linux users have, the missing flash content. I thought that updating to hard heron would make me get rid of this problem with the last version of gnash(0.8.2) but the videos from youtube do not play correcly. Please man you are a genious at linux I am sure you can find a Way of fixing Gnash to play videos from youtube without going into the actual problems(freezing, do not play, stop a the middle of the video, do not fast forward or rewind videos etc). I was thinking as Vlc can handle flv format and as it can stream videos at mozilla, is there a way to set vlc to play the flash content at mozilla firefox while browsing? it could be one solution. Another one is if you fix Gnash somehow. Swfdec runs too slow the videos, with a terrible lag, I think for this reason gnash would be the best. I read some days ago that opensuse has a kind of hack that permits opensuse ppc users to emulate flash x86 using qemu PPC version to run a flash player for x86 linux at PPc opensuse and then watch youtube and see internet flash content at mozilla that way. here is the site link where I read

http://en.opensuse.org/PowerPC_Flash_Player

Is there a way to do something similar with ubuntu in order to see flash content propely? Well I hope my informations were valid for something,, cause I think the missing showckwave content on ppc is one of the most boring problems in using PPC versions of linux for PS3. Hope you great Swift can solve this problem too. Congratulations for you great tutorials

Carlos

I am using a 19' samsung syncmaster 932bw widescreen pc monitor. I have it hooked up with a dvi>hdmi cable. When I purchased my ps3 I did it with the intention of completely replacing my pc, my dvd player, my xbox 360, everything. I wanted one box that did it all, so with that mindset and armed with somewhere around a decade of linux experience, I made it happen.

Hopefully sony will release the playtv service in north america, then it can replace my cable box and pvr as well lol. Regarding the flash thing, I very rarely use sites like youtube and flash in general annoys the hell out of me. Virtually every useless advertisement on a webpage is in flash these days. I will however install it and try to figure out what is causing the problem. I don't think I will be writing a howto on it though unless there is a demand for one. When I figure it out I will let you know.

Did this howto fix your black borders issue?

-biscuit

First, Swift, your native hardware resolution is 1440x900, so do you have any idea why 1144x680 worked for you?

Second, I have my display set to 1080p (mode 37), and I have a black border. When I stop X and try:

it gives me:

and returns to the prompt without doing anything. (Note: FBIOPUT is not a typo). I tried setting it to 1280x720, and that works (although it makes the black bars even bigger). It seems like it will only accept certain resolutions for me. Any ideas?

Yeah, first off you are correct about my monitors native resolution. However the ps3 only uses hdtv resolutions, so the closest I can get to my native resolution is 1280x720 720p. Basically when you do not use the fullscreen command you will have black bars, when you do use the full screen command you have overscan. So I start with fullscreen 720p and then scale backwards until the overscan is gone and the screen fits. That is how I ended up with that resolution.

Second as I mentioned in my howto, fbset will NOT scale the resolution upwards, it will only scale down. This means you need to start in 1080p full screen mode and scale it downwards until it fits. Make sure you read the howto carefully, I may need to revise it a bit and to make it simpler too understand. This is no fault of yours, but sadly I am a hacker and not a writer.

I know that it is hard to type when you start in full screen because of the overscan and you can't see what you are typing sometimes. But it can be done that is exactly how I did it. So you would start out by killing x and then using ps3-video-mode to switch to 1080p fullscreen. Then you will be at 1920x1080 resolution but you will have overscan, you then scale it down from there.

To see what the actual resolution is before you make any changes just type fbset in a terminal. When you are running with the black borders you are not actually at 1920x1080.

Hope that all made sense, post back if you need more help.

To start your display in fullscreen mode you would use

ps3-video-mode -v 37 -f

Then if you have overscan problems you will need to use my tutorial. I just read your other post. Make sure you have tried fullscreen mode and then started X with that to see if you have overscan.

I was folow the solution everything was ok until i reboot my linux now i have /init: etc/kboot.conf :5 syntax error : unterminated quoted string. Is there any chance to fix that?? How i can edit my kboot.config??
BTW Swiftbiscuit your seting was exactly what i need with my samsung syncmaster 932mw 19"(connected with hdmi)....

That is fairly easy to fix, basically it is saying that you made a typo in your kboot. Hopefully you kept your old kernel after you upgraded. When you start your ps3 up and get to the kboot prompt hit tab to switch between kernels hopefully one of them will boot and you can edit your kboot.conf from there.

If that does not work, there are other options. You can start your ps3 with the ubuntu livecd in the drive and boot into it. From the livecd you can open a terminal and type:

mount /dev/ps3da1

That will mount your hard drive and then you should be able to edit your kboot.conf from there. If you need any more help or if I am confusing you post back and we will work something out to get you going again.

P.S. Unterminated quoted string probably means you didn't end your boot line with a '

Your kboot.conf line should look similar to this

linux='/boot/vmlinux-2.6.24 initrd=/boot/initrd.img-2.6.24 root=UUID=ae365ab5-3295-426c-84a0-bfa321185f77 video=ps3fb:mode:131'


Make sure that ' is there on the end

Swift, it looks like all I was missing all this time was two key elements:

1. Call ps3-video-mode after killing X.
2. Use the -f argument.

Now I'm at 1920x1080 @ 32 bpp and loving it. It's kind of funny that you have to specify that you want the full screen used. Who wouldn't want to utilize all their pixels?

Also, I read your how-to a little more closely this time, and I saw where you said that fbset can only decrease the framebuffer from what it currently is. I think the errors I was getting may have been because I was trying to scale up and not down. My one suggestion would be to make that fact a little more prominent in your instructions, and mention the specific errors that you will receive if you try to scale up.

Thanks for you help! These instructions will come in handy if I decide to use my ps3 with my smaller lcd monitor, which doesn't have one of the standard HD resolutions. Great work!

Excellent I am glad you got everything working. I will edit the howto and make that more obvious, ty for the suggestion.