ArcadeVGA (RV100B) and Linux

[Dirk the Daring]

Morning, everyone...

The short version: I'm trying to get stepmania working on an arcade monitor using an ArcadeVGA card in Linux. I have successfully gotten this setup to work under XP, but I would far prefer to switch OSes.

I have the acarde monitor hooked to the bottom port, and a standard monitor hooked to the top port. On startup, the memory check and part of the (Debian 7) Linux boot process displays on the arcade monitor, but then switches to the standard monitor. This happens no matter if the standard monitor is connected or not.

The groovyarcade live disk works, so my goal does seem possible. (One option might be to modify groovyarcade to start stepmania, but i can't figure out if it is a full distribution-- I would need many packages I currently get through debian in order for stepmania to work.)

I started playing with xrandr to try to set the display to arcade settings in the hope that the card might smarten up and switch. No go. Here's what I did: (retyped)

$ cvt 640 400 15
Modeline "640x400_15.00" 4.75 640 664 720 800 400 403 409 412 -hsync +vsync
$ xrandr --newmode  "640x400_15.00" 4.75 640 664 720 800 400 403 409 412 -hsync +vsync
$ xrandr --addmode VGA-0 "640x400_15.00"
$ xrandr --output VGA-0 --mode "640x400_15.00"
(This should have changed the graphics mode. There was no change.)
$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1024 x 768, maximum 4096 x 4096
VGA-0 disconnected 640x400+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
    640x400_15.00   14.4*
DVI-0 connected 1024x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
    1024x768           60.0
    800x600             60.3     56.2
    848x480             60.0
    640x480             59.9
S-video disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
$ xrandr --output VGA-0 --primary
(no switch)


VNCing from elsewhere and doing the xrandr commands modified the view I was getting through VNC, but nothing was displayed on the arcade monitor.

I have copied the xorg.conf file from groovyarcade to debian, but without luck.

I've searched for config files, modeconfig lines, etc, without luck.

I'm banging my head against the wall at this point, and I'm about to go back to windows.. I don't like it, but it worked.

Thanks for any help.

[Dirk the Daring]

Anyone? This seems like such a basic part of building a mame cabinet that it would be located in a FAQ somewhere....