NVidia, Stereo (3D) and LCDs

Andrew Rankin — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 13:35:22 +0000

Back in December 2009 NVidia finally released a graphics driver for Linux that supported Stereo/3d graphics on a few LCD monitors. Since then we have purchased a few different brands of monitors but have decided to standardize on the NVidia supported Alienware AW2310. The Monitor appears very well built and has a fantastic image. When the driver was initially released there was some confusion on how to get the Stereo working on Linux under CentOS or RHEL 5. Since it’s quite simple, I thought I’d share our configuration.

First grab the newest driver from NVidia, and install in whichever kernel you intend to run on the workstation. Next modify your xorg.conf, adding:

Section "Extensions"
   Option         "Composite" "false"
EndSection

This section is required for running any Stereo, whether it be on a CRT or an LCD on RHEL 5. For the description of what it does, I’d suggesting heading over to Archlinux’s Wiki.

Next you’ll need to setup the Screen section to allow for Stereo (Mode of 10 with LCDs):

Section "Screen"
   Identifier     "Screen0"
   Device         "Videocard0"
   Monitor        "Monitor0"
   DefaultDepth    24
   Option         "metamodes" "DFP: 1920x1080_120 +0+0"
   Option         "Stereo" "10"
   SubSection     "Display"
      Depth       24
      Modes      "nvidia-auto-select"
   EndSubSection
EndSection

You’ll also need your monitor and video card setup correctly:

Section "Monitor"
   Identifier     "Monitor0"
   VendorName     "Alienware"
   ModelName      "AW2310"
   HorizSync       30.0 - 140.0
   VertRefresh     56.0 - 120.0
   Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
   Identifier     "Videocard0"
   Driver         "nvidia"
   VendorName     "Videocard vendor"
   BoardName      "NVIDIA Quadro FX (generic)"
EndSection

At this resolution there is not enough bandwidth in a single channel DVI cable to run Stereo, so you will need a dual channel cable. Take note that if you run the system through a KVM, it too will need to support dual channel. I have a single setup running the IOGear GCS1782 and it has functioned flawlessly so far.

For a list of supported hardware, hit up NVidia’s site. Don’t forget to order your 3D Vision Kit.

How To: Accelrys Insight II 2005 on RHEL5

Andrew Rankin — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 20:40:20 +0000

So you want to move your Linux workstations to RHEL5 but still use Insight II? If you have tried (and I know you have), you know that because of the jump in the version of GLIBC to version 2.5, Insight II won’t run. As much as we wish Accelrys would go and compile it against RHEL5, that won’t happen either. So, what does it take to get it to run? RHEL4… No, really. But we are going to be cute about it. Since all Insight needs is a few libraries to run, its just a matter of putting it in a place where it can get to them. My solution to this was making a small chroot environment in which to start up Insight in.

Creating a chroot environment is fairly easy. You’ll need a folder to put it in, and root access to the machine your on to create it. For this example lets use /rhel4_chroot/, so first just create that directory. Next you’ll need access to RPMs from a RHEL4.8 DVD, or really just have a place to pull them from – so it can be a repo or whatever. You’ll want to install a few rpms to that root to make the basic linux environment available when you chroot to that directory. You can do this a number of ways, what I found that you’ll need on a most basic level is the following (from Centos 4.8 Base):

rpm --root "/rhel4_chroot/" -i \
binutils-2.15.92.0.2-25.x86_64.rpm \
glibc-2.3.4-2.43.x86_64.rpm \
glibc-common-2.3.4-2.43.x86_64.rpm \
tzdata-2009f-1.el4.noarch.rpm \
libgcc-3.4.6-11.x86_64.rpm \
basesystem-8.0-4.noarch.rpm \
setup-2.5.37-3.el4.noarch.rpm \
bash-3.0-21.el4.x86_64.rpm \
mktemp-1.5-20.x86_64.rpm \
filesystem-2.3.0-1.x86_64.rpm \
info-4.7-5.el4.2.x86_64.rpm \
libtermcap-2.0.8-39.x86_64.rpm \
ncurses-5.4-15.el4.x86_64.rpm \
zlib-1.2.1.2-1.2.x86_64.rpm \
termcap-5.4-3.noarch.rpm \

This will give you an environment you can chroot too and have a very basic set of tools available. To get to a point where you can run Insight II you’ll need a few more. In my case I didn’t want to play the dependency game, so I just installed everything needed to run yum from within the enviroment:


rpm --root "/rhel4_chroot/" -i \
yum-2.4.3-4.el4.centos.noarch.rpm \
coreutils-5.2.1-36.el4.centos.x86_64.rpm \
python-2.3.4-14.7.el4.x86_64.rpm \
libacl-2.2.23-5.4.el4.x86_64.rpm \
python-elementtree-1.2.6-5.el4.centos.x86_64.rpm \
python-sqlite-1.1.7-1.2.1.x86_64.rpm \
libxml2-python-2.6.16-12.6.x86_64.rpm \
yum-metadata-parser-1.0-8.el4.centos.x86_64.rpm \
grep-2.5.1-32.4.el4.x86_64.rpm \
pam-0.77-66.26.x86_64.rpm \
pcre-4.5-4.el4_6.6.x86_64.rpm \
sed-4.1.2-7.el4.x86_64.rpm \
rpm-python-4.3.3-32_nonptl.x86_64.rpm \
rpm-4.3.3-32_nonptl.x86_64.rpm \
glib2-2.4.7-1.x86_64.rpm \
elfutils-0.97.1-5.x86_64.rpm \
popt-1.9.1-32_nonptl.x86_64.rpm \
beecrypt-3.1.0-6.x86_64.rpm \
rpm-libs-4.3.3-32_nonptl.x86_64.rpm \
findutils-4.1.20-7.el4.3.x86_64.rpm \
db4-4.2.52-7.3.el4.x86_64.rpm \
libxml2-2.6.16-12.6.x86_64.rpm \
libstdc++-3.4.6-11.x86_64.rpm \
audit-libs-1.0.16-4.el4.x86_64.rpm \
shadow-utils-4.0.3-66.RHEL4.x86_64.rpm \
elfutils-libelf-0.97.1-5.x86_64.rpm \
cracklib-2.8.9-1.3.x86_64.rpm \
cracklib-dicts-2.8.9-1.3.x86_64.rpm \
libselinux-1.19.1-7.4.x86_64.rpm \
bzip2-libs-1.0.2-14.el4_7.x86_64.rpm \
sqlite-devel-3.3.6-2.x86_64.rpm \
sqlite-3.3.6-2.x86_64.rpm \
chkconfig-1.3.13.5.EL4-1.x86_64.rpm \
python-urlgrabber-2.9.8-2.noarch.rpm \
centos-release-4-8.x86_64.rpm \
openssl-0.9.7a-43.17.el4_7.2.x86_64.rpm \
krb5-libs-1.3.4-62.el4.x86_64.rpm \
initscripts-7.93.34-1.centos4.x86_64.rpm \
udev-039-10.29.el4.x86_64.rpm \
ethtool-6-1.x86_64.rpm \
SysVinit-2.85-34.4.x86_64.rpm \
gawk-3.1.3-10.1.x86_64.rpm \
net-tools-1.60-39.el4.x86_64.rpm \
lvm2-2.02.42-5.el4.x86_64.rpm \
device-mapper-1.02.28-2.el4.x86_64.rpm \
util-linux-2.12a-24.el4.x86_64.rpm \
audit-1.0.16-4.el4.x86_64.rpm \
hotplug-2004_04_01-7.10.x86_64.rpm \
usbutils-0.11-7.RHEL4.1.x86_64.rpm \
hwdata-0.146.33.EL-17.noarch.rpm \
e2fsprogs-1.35-12.24.el4.x86_64.rpm \
libsepol-1.1.1-2.x86_64.rpm \
sysklogd-1.4.1-28.el4.x86_64.rpm \
module-init-tools-3.1-0.pre5.3.11.x86_64.rpm \
kernel-2.6.9-89.EL.x86_64.rpm \
mkinitrd-4.2.1.13-4.x86_64.rpm \
kudzu-1.1.95.26-1.x86_64.rpm \
cpio-2.5-16.el4.x86_64.rpm \
gzip-1.3.3-17.rhel4.x86_64.rpm \
hal-0.4.2-8.EL4.x86_64.rpm \
dbus-0.22-12.EL.9.x86_64.rpm \
dbus-glib-0.22-12.EL.9.x86_64.rpm \
tar-1.14-12.5.1.RHEL4.x86_64.rpm \
mingetty-1.07-3.x86_64.rpm \
less-382-4.rhel4.x86_64.rpm \
iputils-20020927-22.el4.x86_64.rpm \
iproute-2.6.9-4.el4.x86_64.rpm \
psmisc-21.4-4.1.x86_64.rpm \
procps-3.2.3-8.17.x86_64.rpm \
which-2.16-4.x86_64.rpm \
MAKEDEV-3.15.2-3.x86_64.rpm \
gdbm-1.8.0-24.x86_64.rpm \
gmp-4.1.4-3.x86_64.rpm \
libattr-2.4.16-3.1.el4.x86_64.rpm \
readline-4.3-13.x86_64.rpm \
expat-1.95.7-4.x86_64.rpm \
newt-0.51.6-10.el4.x86_64.rpm \
libcap-1.10-20.x86_64.rpm \
slang-1.4.9-8.x86_64.rpm

Now you see what I mean by “the dependency game”. Now if you don’t want to waste the space you can skip yum and figure out the exact dependencies for Insight, its really up to you since its just an issue of space and what you want available. After yum was installed I went ahead and chrooted to the enviroment and added the “Compatibility Arch Development Support” yum group along with openmotif21-2.1.30-11.RHEL4.6, bind-utils, compat-libstdc++-296.i386, xorg-x11-Mesa-libGLU and copied over the basic network files (hosts, resolv.conf and nsswitch.conf). If from within your chroot enviroment yum gets upset about the rpm database, this is due to RHEL5 rpm using a different database than RHEL4 – you’ll just need to clear them out:

rm -rf /var/lib/rpm/__db*

You’ll want to remount your systems /dev and /tmp folders for use within the chroot environment, for example:

/bin/mount -o bind /dev /rhel4_chroot/dev/
/bin/mount -o bind /tmp /rhel4_chroot/tmp/

At this point Insight should run, you’ll need to devise an easy way for your users to do it – likely some sort of sudoers allowances to run the mount/unmount of the above directories along with the command to run insight as them within the chrooted environment. Don’t forget to run a ‘yum clean all’ to clean out the rpms yum downloaded.

The environment ended up being about 700MB in this state – which was fine for us.

rm -rf /var/lib/rpm/__db*

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NVidia, Stereo (3D) and LCDs

How To: Accelrys Insight II 2005 on RHEL5