Groovymame on Linux xrandr cannot find mode

[RobeeJ]

In my struggle to get a smooth installation on my cabinet that doesn't go disk thrashing and ruining a good game of pac-man, I've moved from Vista to Arch Linux, and after all sorts of random video lag issues thought maybe I should give groovymame a try.

With the default config, it runs in a tiny part of the screen, at about 3-4x too fast, and the console moans that xrandr cannot find mode 288x244_60.61. So I guess the reason for the small image is it's running in its native 1600x1200 resolution still.

This is with an LCD monitor and nvidia graphics card.

Is there a way to prevent groovymame from trying to switch the mode? Or always switch it to 1600x1200@60 and let the graphics card do the resizing?

Thanks in advance for any help!

[Francesco]

I'm not expert at all but i have seen there is a mame.ini config file, that defaults to resolution auto.

Maybe try to change it with resolution 1600x1200.

See this  http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,144854.msg1506274.html#msg1506274

(my problem is moreless the opposite!)

[Calamity]

Just specify 'lcd' a your monitor type, that will make GM use your monitor's default mode. For an LCD Windows is a better choice.

[RobeeJ]

Thanks for the replies!

Setting monitor to lcd works (at least on the command line or when I have a clear out of mame.ini files all over the system and create a new clean one) and gives me a full screen, but I'm still having some issues.

If I leave "video" set to "auto" then groovymame uses nearly 100% cpu and the game (pacland say) runs at about half speed. If I set "video" to "opengl" then it uses about 50% but the game runs at twice the speed it should.

For both I always get this switchres error:

Code: [Select]

SwitchRes: [pacland] (1) horizontal (288x224@60.61)->(1600x1200@60.00)
X Error of failed request:  BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes)
  Major opcode of failed request:  140 (RANDR)
  Minor opcode of failed request:  18 (RRAddOutputMode)
  Serial number of failed request:  29
  Current serial number in output stream:  30
xrandr: cannot find mode 1600x1200_60.00
Average speed: 236.86% (72 seconds)
X Error of failed request:  BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes)
  Major opcode of failed request:  140 (RANDR)
  Minor opcode of failed request:  19 (RRDeleteOutputMode)
  Serial number of failed request:  29
  Current serial number in output stream:  30
Any advice?

[Calamity]

Make sure to use opengl, but download one of the latest Linux GM binaries (0.159 or 0.160) that have the sdl2 speed issue already fixed.

Also, turning off -modeline_generation should fix xrandr complaining.

[RobeeJ]

Thanks for persevering with me.

The xrandr complaints are gone now, but still having the speed issue. I've tried 160, 159 and 158 precompiled linux 64 binaries and they all do the same thing. :/

[Calamity]

Do you mean it runs at 200%?

[RobeeJ]

For say Pac-land, anywhere between 330% and 380%. :/

[Calamity]

Without a log I can only guess. But it looks like the syncrefresh feature is not working at all with your Nvidia in Linux. GM without syncrefresh is worthless. Anyway you may try forcing syncrefresh off (use horizont.ini or vertical.ini for that, mame.ini won't work), that will fix the speed at the cost of poor scrolling.

[RobeeJ]

So, I didn't bother forcing syncrefresh off because it would make GM worthless like you said. As a last ditch attempt to fix things, I thought I'd try the open source nvidia driver (nouveau) and see if that made any difference, and...

...it looks like it has fixed it! I now have smooth scrolling and no random jerks.

I obviously need to do more than play a couple of games of Pac Man to be totally sure, but if I don't post again within a fortnight saying otherwise, anyone reading this can assume that this solved the problem for me.

Thanks again for your help!