2024-01-26

I “broke” the display two days ago when trying to fix a package upgrade issue that was stopping the graphics card driver from working, I think. The main error seemed to be that there was a newer version of some package installed, but an older version was needed, so I finally just tried removing everything. Then the display stopped working. So I decided to re-install the OS from scratch.

I had just finally gotten the 3DPixx glasses to work reliably, too! The trick had been to run PsychLinuxConfiguration in Octave, which I had apparently neglected to do last October during my first try at setting everything up.

Will need to re-install:

• MATLAB
• Octave
• PTB
• NOT all my old files; they are still there, because /home was/is on a different partition!

From my usb drive with 22.04.01 LTS.

2024-01-26

Copied (pulled) git repo “CRT” to grogu.

Did:

sudo cp -p xorg.conf.new.1024x768_120 /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/xorg.conf

… then rebooted. It worked! Display was in 1024×768 mode by default, with 119.8 Hz option available.

Output (partial) of lspci -v:

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Polaris 20 XL [Radeon RX 580 2048SP] (rev ef) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
	Subsystem: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Polaris 20 XL [Radeon RX 580 2048SP]
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 139
	Memory at a0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
	Memory at b0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=2M]
	I/O ports at 3000 [size=256]
	Memory at b2200000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256K]
	Expansion ROM at 000c0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
	Capabilities: <access denied>
	Kernel driver in use: amdgpu
	Kernel modules: amdgpu

2024-01-26

Octave via apt.

PTB via NeuroDebian:

http://neuro.debian.net/install_pkg.html?p=octave-psychtoolbox-3

2024-01-26

I.e. from their website:

https://www.amd.com/en/support/previous-drivers/graphics

Unlike last attempt, I paid attention to the exact OS version number, and downloaded the one that matches the version given by uname -a: 22.04.1

Did:

dpkg -i amdgpu-install_5.4.50401-1_all.deb

No errors when installing, unlike last time.

However, VBLSyncTest and all other PTB demos I have tried have all failed.

The end of the error message, which is mostly repeats of the first line here:

PTB-ERROR: PsychOSKDGetBeamposition: Invalid headId -1 provided! Must be between 0 and 5. Aborted.
PTB-WARNING: PsychGetCurrentGPUSurfaceAddresses(): Invalid headId -1 (greater than max 5) provided for DCE-4+ display engine!
PTB-WARNING: Couldn't even collect one single valid flip interval sample! Sanity range checks failed!
PTB-WARNING: Could be a system bug, or a temporary timing problem. Retrying the procedure might help if
PTB-WARNING: the latter is the culprit.
PTB-WARNING: Couldn't collect valid flip interval samples! Fatal VBL sync failure!
PTB-WARNING: Either synchronization of doublebuffer swapping to the vertical retrace signal of your display is broken,
PTB-WARNING: or the mechanism for detection of swap completion is broken. In any case, this is an operating system or gfx-driver bug!
PTB-WARNING: PsychGetCurrentGPUSurfaceAddresses(): Invalid headId -1 (greater than max 5) provided for DCE-4+ display engine!
 
 
PTB-INFO: OpenGL-Renderer is Intel :: Mesa Intel(R) UHD Graphics 630 (CFL GT2) :: 4.6 (Compatibility Profile) Mesa 23.0.4-0ubuntu1~22.04.1
PTB-INFO: VBL startline = 768 , VBL Endline = -1
PTB-INFO: Beamposition queries unsupported or defective on this system. Using basic timestamping as fallback.
PTB-INFO: Timestamps returned by Screen('Flip') will be therefore less robust and accurate.
PTB-INFO: Measured monitor refresh interval from VBLsync = 0.000000 ms [inf Hz]. (0 valid samples taken, stddev=1000000000.000000 ms.)
PTB-INFO: Reported monitor refresh interval from operating system = 16.689197 ms [59.918999 Hz].
PTB-INFO: Small deviations between reported values are normal and no reason to worry.
 
WARNING: Couldn't compute a reliable estimate of monitor refresh interval! Trouble with VBL syncing?!?
 
WARNING: Mismatch between measured monitor refresh interval and interval reported by operating system.
This indicates massive problems with VBL sync.
 
 
----- ! PTB - ERROR: SYNCHRONIZATION FAILURE ! -----
 
One or more internal checks (see Warnings above) indicate that synchronization
of Psychtoolbox to the vertical retrace (VBL) is not working on your setup.

Notice that the refresh interval is given as roughly 60 Hz. It is always given as this value, no matter what I set the monitor to do, and verified via glxgears.

Installed in /usr/local/MATLAB/R2023a/

2024-01-26

On previous try had installed SPM12, but because the HolesFMRI study was done in SPM8, I wanted to try this for consistency.

Installed in /usr/share/MATLAB/spm8

See:

https://www.bobspunt.com/software/bspmview/

Installed in /usr/share/MATLAB/spm8/toolbox

From

https://vpixx-support.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/support/pages/41123939/Software+Download

Did

dpkg -i vpixx-software-tools.deb 

2024-01-29

PTB VBLSyncTest still not working – maybe I should try installing Screen.mex because right now I think PTB is calling a file named Screen.m.

anthony@grogu:~$ locate Datapixx.mex
/usr/local/share/VPixx Software Tools/Software Tools/Matlab/mexfiles/Windows/matlab/Datapixx.mexw64
/usr/local/share/VPixx Software Tools/Software Tools/Matlab/mexfiles/linux/matlab/Datapixx.mexa64
/usr/local/share/VPixx Software Tools/Software Tools/Matlab/mexfiles/macOS/matlab/Datapixx.mexmaci64

octave:3> Datapixx('Open?')
 
In place of the expected Octave .mex binary plugin file this placeholder file was executed:
 
  Datapixx.m
 
This MEX file seems to be missing or inaccessible on your Octave path or it is dysfunctional:
 
  Datapixx.mex
 
The following directory should be the *first one* on your Octave path:
 /usr/share/psychtoolbox-3/PsychBasic/Octave5LinuxFiles64/ 
 
 
NOTE: You may want to acquire paid support for future issues like this.
Please type 'PsychPaidSupportAndServices' to learn more.
 
 
error: Missing, inaccessible or dysfunctional Psychtoolbox Mex file for this system, or Octave path wrong. Read the help text above carefully!!\n
error: called from
    AssertMex at line 113 column 5
    Datapixx at line 24 column 1

Did this, like I had done during First Try. I.e. made link named “Datapixx.mex” to Datapixx_octave5.mex file.

anthony@grogu:Downloads$ sudo ln -sf /usr/local/share/VPixx\ Software\ Tools/Software\ Tools/Matlab/mexfiles/linux/octave/Datapixx_octave5.mex /usr/share/psychtoolbox-3/PsychHardware/DatapixxToolbox/DatapixxBasic/Datapixx.mex

This worked, in the sense that doing the following worked instead of giving the error above:

octave:3> Datapixx('Open')
ans = 1

2024-01-30

Now to try a similar thing with Screen.mex?

Well, I was wrong (above) when I thought that PTB was calling Screen.m instead of Screen.mex:

octave:5> which Screen
'Screen' is a function from the file /usr/share/psychtoolbox-3/PsychBasic/Screen.mex

So, I don't think there is anything to do for this goal.

2024-01-30

I'm following my documentation from the First Try.

First, check which version of the Linux kernel is currently installed:

anthony@grogu:~$ uname -a
Linux grogu 6.5.0-15-generic #15~22.04.1-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Fri Jan 12 18:54:30 UTC 2 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

2024-02-20

I eventually broke the x server or whatever so that there were no graphics, and decided to do a clean install of Xubuntu instead of trying to fix it. I never got PTB to work even a little bit, although I did get progressively “better” error messages. At the end, the error message was only complaining that I had the wrong versions of mesa-related packages.