how do i adjust video position?

[drspastic]

ok my nice new 233 is ready for some bash fun...but wait...theres one liittle problem;

the screen image is missing about 3 characters from the left  so the output of most of the important commands is rather meaningless,

#iwconfig

   no wireless extensions

0  no wireless extensions


can anyone help me move the screen image to the right? hopefully without using another machine.

[Cure]

Give us some more information, what are you connecting to and what cables are you using?  Ex: TV, vga monitor, component to rgb, etc?  Do you have the Serial to USB cable?

The more information you give, the faster the reply.

[drspastic]

its the 233 micro and output is via composite rca (the only video port on it.
i dont have my serial wire dug out the box yet, and when i do it will have to be hosted by an even slower 300mhz machine.

[pvillads]

I have the same problem using a normal TV with the RCA composite TV output. I need this just to get in touch with the board long enough to get a wireless connection and SSH running, so I no longer need to use the family TV. It really is not usable, since (as the first author said), it does not show the first few characters. Also, the quality is really poor, even with a short cable. I really wish the board had VGA, HDMI or even just a DB-9 serial port that was usable with normal off-the-shelf USB-to-serial cables.

[drspastic]

funny this, but i just got my a13 running on vga debian console and that was also shifted 2.5 characters off screen to the left...just the same with my 233.
lucky that on a vga i have a control to bring it back, but only manual. the auto shift on the monitor couldnt reach it as it was too far. it seems the firmware lacks a small delay at the start of each scan line, i will assume that this firmware is the same on a13 and 233.
one difference on the 233 rca video is that the bottom line of the screen is also off the map, so after a few lines in bash, i need to command a clearscreen or i am typing into the void!
its something devs can work around when writing their own apps, but for us noobs just trying to get stuff working its a royal pain. i imagine when i get x running the start menu and taskbar will be hidden.
oh yes i DO intend running x on the 233, i know it can do it, i run x on a 300mhz amd geode!
as for video quality, well im afraid thats what you will get with composite video. its not the fault of olimex, its a fault of the way electrons flow through wire. you wont notice how bad it is when plugging playstation into your telly because they use a very low amount of pixels. 625 lines on a european tv and then divide that by 2 because of interlacing. composite video is only half the definition of vga.
i just played an episode of futurama on my 233 and ok the video was a lot slower than the audio, but thats running a fatty of an operating system. i bet when someone fine tunes the os it will play video fine.

[pvillads]

It really is quite useless.

Just for the record, I hooked up my raspberry board using the same RCA cable to the same TV, and the result was a model of clarity and crispness.

I wonder how Olimex could have passed the boards through their quality assurance? Is everyone using an external terminal? How are you supposed to edit the configuration files required to set up the system? As far as I can see, there is no setup of the terminal ($TERM) to use, so even using vi will not work.

I think I will just have to abandon further work with this board, or pony up for the spcial USB to serial cable required (and that should have been included out of the box, if that is the only working option).

I think the problem may be that Olimex is getting into a market segment that has been created by the Raspberry PI, where customers expect things to actually work. Yes, it is not third party, and No, you cannot sell products with it inside, and Yes, they are often sold out, but they work, and the price difference is negligible. Shipping a product that cannot actually show a console on a screen, and does not have wireless drivers out of the box is just lack of attention to detail.

BR PV

[drspastic]

imo thats a little unfair on olimex, they aim at a different sector. of course most people will use serial terminal as they will use the boards as dedicated controllers. the tv out is an extra fun feature.
i choose to use tv out because of poverty and sheer bloody mindedness, i have serial leads, you can build your own for a couple of dollars. even the smallest electronic store will have the max232 chip, or you can use transistors, or cut the plug off an old nokia usb lead.
once i get to know the board im hoping the tv port can be used to output other high speed signals for example a baseband signal to modulate software defined radio
give the boys a chance to iron out the niggles, im sure with some tweaking of the graphics module in whatever linux kernel you want to use and the graphics will be better, but i dont care about the quality, just want to see those 2.5 characters to the left..
also would like to see a write up on installing x, that is easier to tweak into the centre. i installed x server but i cant figure out how to tell it to use the tv as its output display.

i tried a few wifi dongles on my micro, im using an rt3070 based one i scrapped out of a broken android tablet... i think these are used in most arm gear on the market. it was picked up straight away by the arch kernel, and its running flawless. just try a few different wifi cards or recompile the kernel with the modules you need. the same wifi wont work on linaro on my a13, so i guess i will have to learn to do just that. nightmare for me becauuse i dont have a fat fast pc to do compiling on.
maybe i will see if the a13 can compile its own kernel...its the fastest computer in my household.

[Chris]

I've an original 2.6 kernel released by Freescale with perfectly working TV out, get it from here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5RB6TqFSILBMVZPUnRrWjNEdjg/view?usp=sharing

> cat /proc/version
Linux version 2.6.35.3_OLinuXinoR4 (hehopmajieh@hehopmajieh-office) (gcc version 4.7.1 20120421 (prerelease) (GCC) ) #11 PREEMPT Mon May 21 10:27:52 EEST 2012

[drspastic]

Sorry to wake the thread but im interested in that freescale kernel. Has it been fully tested on the imx233? Can you link to an sd image ready cooked?