METEOR(4)

NAME
meteor - video capture driver

SYNOPSIS
video meteor

DESCRIPTION
The meteor driver provides support for a PCI video capture. It allows the capture of 24 bit RGB, 16 bit RGB and 16 bit YUV output formats.

Meteor Driver Installation
To use the Matrox Meteor card in your system, you need a computer that support the PCI (preferably the Type 2 or better) interface bus. It is recommended that the system has as more than 16 MB of RAM since this capture card directly deposits the image to system RAM.

The files required for Matrox Meteor card are:
/sys/pci/meteor.c
/sys/i386/include/ioctl_meteor.h (also known as:
/usr/include/machine/ioctl_meteor.h)
For FreeBSD release versions 2.1 and earlier, the following patch files are also required:
meteor/usr/sys/i386/i386/conf.patch
meteor/usr/sys/conf/files.patch
meteor/sys/i386/conf/LINT.patch
These files are available for anonymous ftp at:
ftp://joy.cs.ndsu.nodak.edu/pub/meteor.tgz

1) In the configuration file, add the line (as shown in meteor/usr/sys/i386/conf/LINT.patch):

device meteor0

2) There is also a couple of optional parameters you may use

options METEOR_ALLOC_PAGES=xxx specifies the number of contiguous pages to allocate when successfully probed. The default number of pages allocated by the kernel is 151. This means that there are (151*4096) bytes available for use.

options METEOR_DEALLOC_PAGES deallocate all pages when closing the device. Note, the chance of contiguously re-allocating new pages are very small. The default behavior is to not deallocate pages.

options METEOR_DEALLOC_ABOVE=xxx deallocate all pages above the specified number. The default action is to not deallocate above any pages.

3) Make and install the kernel.

4) Make the special file name:

mknod /dev/meteor0 c <major> 0 The major number is determined by the placement of the device in conf.c. The patch supplied with the driver will make the major number 67.

Meteor Capture Modes
The Meteor capture driver has three modes of capture operation.

1) Conventional read(2) interface.

This mode is the easiest and slowest to use. This mode is great for capturing a single field at little programming cost.

In this mode, the user opens the device, set the capture mode and size (See: METEORSETGEO ioctl call), and uses the read system call to load the data into a buffer.

meteor_read.c; read 400x300 RGB24 into a viewable PPM file

#include <sys/fcntl.h>
#include <machine/ioctl_meteor.h>
extern int errno;
#define ROWS 300
#define COLS 400
#define SIZE (ROWS * COLS * 4)
main()
{
	struct meteor_geomet geo;
	char buf[SIZE],b[4],header[16],*p;
	int i,o,c;
	if ((i = open("/dev/meteor0", O_RDONLY)) < 0) {
		printf("open failed: %d, errno);
		exit(1);
	}
				/* set up the capture type and size */
        geo.rows = ROWS;
        geo.columns = COLS;
        geo.frames = 1;
        geo.oformat = METEOR_GEO_RGB24 ;
        if (ioctl(i, METEORSETGEO, &geo) < 0) {
		printf("ioctl failed: %d, errno);
		exit(1);
	}
	c = METEOR_FMT_NTSC;
        if (ioctl(i, METEORSFMT, &c) < 0) {
		printf("ioctl failed: %d, errno);
		exit(1);
	}
	c = METEOR_INPUT_DEV0;
        if (ioctl(i, METEORSINPUT, &c) < 0) {
		printf("ioctl failed: %d, errno);
		exit(1);
	}
	if ((c=read(i, &buf[0], SIZE)) < SIZE) {
		printf("read failed %d %d %d, c, i, errno);
		close(i);
		exit(1);
	}
	close(i);
	if ((o = open("rgb24.ppm", O_WRONLY | O_CREAT, 0644)) < 0) {
		printf("ppm open failed: %d, errno);
		exit(1);
	}
		/* make PPM header and save to file */
	strcpy(&header[0], "P6 400 300 255 ");
	header[2] = header[6]  = header[10] = header[14] = ';
	write (o, &header[0], 15);
		/* save the RGB data to PPM file */
	for (p = &buf[0]; p < &buf[SIZE]; ) {
		b[2] = *p++;		/* blue */
		b[1] = *p++;		/* green */
		b[0] = *p++;		/* red */
		*p++;			/* NULL byte */
		write(o,&b[0], 3);	/* not very efficient */
	}
	close(o);
	exit(0);
}

 2) Memory mapped single capture or unsynchronized continuous capture.

The single capture mode is designed for conferencing tools such as nv.
These tools need to control the starting of the image capture and also
need several frames a second. The continuous capture mode is designed
for applications that want free-running data.

In this mode, the user opens the device, set the capture mode
and size (See: METEORSETGEO ioctl call), memory maps the frame buffer
memory into the user process space, and issues either the
single-capture or the continuous capture call (See: METEORCAPTUR ioctl
call) to load the data into the memory mapped buffer.

As explained in the METEORCAPTUR ioctl call, the single frame capture
ioctl will block until the capture is complete, the continuous capture
will return immediately.

		meteor_mmap_single_continuous.c

#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/mman.h>
#include <sys/fcntl.h>
#include <machine/ioctl_meteor.h>
extern int errno;
#define ROWS 480
#define COLS 640
#define SIZE (ROW * COLS * 2)
main()
{
	struct meteor_geomet geo;
	char buf[SIZE];
	char *mmbuf;
	int i,c;
	if ((i = open("/dev/meteor0", O_RDONLY)) < 0) {
		printf("open failed);
		exit(1);
	}
        geo.rows = ROWS;
        geo.columns = COLS;
        geo.frames = 1;
        geo.oformat = METEOR_GEO_RGB16 ;
        if (ioctl(i, METEORSETGEO, &geo) < 0) {
		printf("ioctl failed: %d, errno);
		exit(1);
	}
	c = METEOR_FMT_NTSC;
        if (ioctl(i, METEORSFMT, &c) < 0) {
		printf("ioctl failed: %d, errno);
		exit(1);
	}
	c = METEOR_INPUT_DEV0;
        if (ioctl(i, METEORSINPUT, &c) < 0) {
		printf("ioctl failed: %d, errno);
		exit(1);
	}
        mmbuf=(char *)mmap((caddr_t)0, SIZE, PROT_READ,
		MAP_SHARED, i, (off_t)0);
#ifdef SINGLE_MODE
			/* single frame capture */
	c = METEOR_CAP_SINGLE ;
        ioctl(i, METEORCAPTUR, &c);	/* wait for the frame */

	/* directly access the frame buffer array data in mmbuf */
#else
			/* continuous frame capture */
	c = METEOR_CAP_CONTINOUS ;
        ioctl(i, METEORCAPTUR, &c);	/* returns immediately */

	/* directly access the frame buffer array data in mmbuf */
	c = METEOR_CAP_STOP_CONT ;
        ioctl(i, METEORCAPTUR, &c);	/* close will also stop capture */
#endif
	close(i);
	exit(0);
}

 3) Memory mapped, multi-frame ring buffer synchronize capture.

This continuous capture mode is synchronized with the application that
processes up to 32 frames. This gives the advantages of both single and
continuous capture modes.

The kernel notifies the application of a new data by raising an
application defined signal. The driver also shares a structure with
the application that allows them to communicate which frame has been
written by the kernel and which frame has been read by the application.

The shared structure starts on the first page after your data. The
structure address can be found by calculation:

(number_rows * number_columns * pixel_depth + 4095) & 0xfffff000

	or

((number_rows * number_columns * pixel_depth + 4095)/4096) * 4096

The shared structure is of type struct meteor_mem. The two most
important fields are called active and num_active_buf. active
is a bitmap of frames written by the kernel. num_active_bufs is
a count of frames marked in the active field. When a frame is read
in by the driver, the num_active_bufs count is tested, if this
count is below the threshold of number of active frames (value
in meteor_mem's hiwat variable), the bit representing frame
number in the buffer is stored in the active variable, the
num_active_bufs is incremented, the kernel then raises the specified
signal to activate the user application. The user application's
responsibility when getting the signal is to check the active bitmap
to determine the lowest active frame, use the data as the application
desires, clear the bitmap entry for that frame, and decrement the
num_active_bufs. If the threshold of number of active frames (hiwat)
has been exceeded, no new frames or signal from the kernel will occur
until the num_active_bufs is less than or equal to lowat.

The driver loads the frames in a round-robin fashion. it is expected
that the user removes them in the same order. The driver does not
check to see if the frame is already active.

The frame_size and number of frames in the buffer are also provided
to the meteor_mem structure, but changing these fields in the
application will not change the operation of the driver.

In programming for this mode, the user opens the device, sets the
geometry, mmaps the data/common control structure, then starts the
continuous capture mode. A special signal catcher is required to
process the frames as they are read by the kernel.

When specifying the geometry (See: ioctl METEORSETGEO), it
is important that the number of frames is set greater than 1.

		skeleton_capture_n.c

#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/mman.h>
#include <sys/fcntl.h>
#include <sys/signal.h>
#include <machine/ioctl_meteor.h>
int video;	/* made global if you wish to stop capture in signal handler */
caddr_t data_frames;
struct meteor_mem *common_mem;
extern int errno;
#define FRAME_MAX
void
usr2_catcher()
{
#ifdef SIGNAL_STOP
	struct meteor_capframe capframe;	/* for ioctl */
#endif
	char *frame;
				/* find frame */
	frame = (char *) (data_frames + sig_cnt * common_mem->frame_size) ;
	/* add frame processing here */
					/* deactivate frame */
	common_mem->active &= ~(1 << (sig_cnt % 16));
	common_mem->num_active_bufs--;
				/* process next frame on next interrupt */
	sig_cnt = ((sig_cnt+1) % FRAME_MAX);
#ifdef SIGNAL_STOP
	if (some_condition_requiring_stopping) {
		capframe.command=METEOR_CAP_STOP_FRAMES;
		if (ioctl(i, METEORCAPFRM, &capframe) < 0) {
			printf("METEORCAPFRM failed %d, errno);
			exit(1);
		}
	}
#endif
}
main()
{
	struct meteor_geomet geo;
	int height, width, depth, frames, size;
	struct meteor_capframe capframe;
	if ((i = open("/dev/meteor0", O_RDONLY)) < 0) {
		printf("open failed);
		exit(1);
	}
	printf("test %d %d, errno, i);
        height = geo.rows = 120;
        width= geo.columns = 320;
        frames = geo.frames = FRAME_MAX;
	depth = 2;			/* 2 bytes per pixel for RGB*/
        geo.oformat = METEOR_GEO_RGB16;
        if (ioctl(i, METEORSETGEO, &geo) < 0) {
		printf("METEORSETGEO failed %d, errno);
		exit(1);
	}
	c = METEOR_FMT_NTSC;
        if (ioctl(i, METEORSFMT, &c) < 0) {
		printf("ioctl failed: %d, errno);
		exit(1);
	}
	c = METEOR_INPUT_DEV0;
        if (ioctl(i, METEORSINPUT, &c) < 0) {
		printf("ioctl failed: %d, errno);
		exit(1);
	}
	size = ((width*height*depth*frames+4095)/4096)*4096;
			/* add one page after data for meteor_mem */
	data_frames = mmap((caddr_t)0, size + 4096, PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE,
						MAP_SHARED, i, (off_t)0);
	if (data_frames == (caddr_t) MAP_FAILED) return (0);
			/* common_mem is located at page following data */
	common_mem = (struct meteor_mem *) (y + size);
	signal(SIGUSR2, usr2_catcher);		/* catch new frame message */
	capframe.command=METEOR_CAP_N_FRAMES;
	capframe.signal=SIGUSR2;
	capframe.lowat=12;		/* must be < hiwat */
	capframe.hiwat=14;		/* must be < FRAME_MAX */
					/* start the sync capture */
        if (ioctl(i, METEORCAPFRM, &capframe) < 0) {
		printf("METEORCAPFRM failed %d, errno);
		exit(1);
	}
	/* this is the background working area, or you can sleep */
		/* to stop capture */
	capframe.command=METEOR_CAP_STOP_FRAMES;
        if (ioctl(i, METEORCAPFRM, &capframe) < 0) {
		printf("METEORCAPFRM failed %d, errno);
		exit(1);
	}
}

Meteor IOCTL Call and Parameters

The Meteor capture driver has ioctl requests for capturing, reading card status, for setting and reading the geometry, and for setting and reading the attributes.

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO CHECK FOR ERRORS ON THESE RETURNING IOCTLs. Errors indicate that something is very wrong with the ioctl and the application should not attempt to proceed further with capturing. The meteor capture driver still makes attempts to stop the next capture step if an error occurred in a previous step but was ignored by the application programmer.

1) ioctl requests METEORSETGEO and METEORGETGEO
METEORSETGEO and METEORGETGEO are used to set and read the input size, input device, and output format for frame capture.

These ioctl routines use the meteor_geomet structure that has the following entries:

rows
    number of rows (lines high) in output image

columns
    number of pixels in a row (width) in output image

frames
    number of frames in buffer. Should be 1, unless using the multi-framed synchronous capture mode (METEORCAPFRM) which REQUIRES frames to be larger than 1.

    Note: if rows, columns or frames is not changed, then the existing values are used. The system defaults is 640x480x1.

oformat
    you may choose one of the following output format:

    METEOR_GEO_RGB16
        RGB 16 bits xrrrrrgg gggbbbbb default)

    METEOR_GEO_RGB24
        (RBG 24 bits packed in 32 bits: 00000000 rrrrrrrr gggggggg bbbbbbbb)

    METEOR_GEO_YUV_PACKED
        (4-2-2 YUV 16 bits packed. byte format: u0 y0 v0 y1 u1 y2 v1 y3 ...)

    METEOR_GEO_YUV_PLANER
        (4-2-2 YUV 16 bits planer format: rows * columns bytes of y rows * column / 4 bytes of even u rows * column / 4 bytes of even v rows * column / 4 bytes of odd u rows * column / 4 bytes of odd v)

The METEORSETGEO ioctl will fail if more than one entry from a category is selected. It is highly recommended that a METEORSETGEO is done before capturing data because you cannot guarantee the initial mode the card.

The METEORSETGEO will also attempt to reallocate a new contiguous kernel buffer if the new geometry exceeds the old geometry. On other hand, if the new geometry will fit in the existing buffer, the existing buffer is used.

If METEORSETGEO fails the ioctl() will return a value of -1 and the external variable errno will be set to:

EINVAL
    invalid meteor_geomet structure pointer, rows, columns, frames were invalid.

ENOMEM
    could not allocate the contigous block.

2) ioctl requests METEORSFMT and METEORGFMT

METEORSFMT and METEORGFMT are used to set and read the camera input standard format.

Possible formats are:

METEOR_FMT_NTSC
    NTSC (default mode)

METEOR_FMT_PAL
    PAL

METEOR_FMT_SECAM
    SECAM

METEOR_FMT_AUTOMODE
    Autodetect.

3) ioctl requests METEORSINPUT and METEORGINPUT

METEORSINPUT and METEORGINPUT are used to set and read the camera input device. Using the DB9 connector on the Meteor card, 4 input devices can be connected and an input camera can be selected with this ioctl.

Possible formats are:

METEOR_INPUT_DEV0
    (default if none specified)

METEOR_INPUT_DEV_RCA
    (same as METEOR_INPUT_DEV0)

METEOR_INPUT_DEV1

METEOR_INPUT_DEV2

METEOR_INPUT_DEV_SVIDEO
    (same as METEOR_INPUT_DEV2)

4) ioctl request METEORSTATUS

METEORSTATUS is used to read the status of the Meteor capture card and returns the following information:

METEOR_STATUS_ID_MASK
    4 bit ID of the SAA7196 scaler chip.

METEOR_STATUS_DIR
    0 = scaler uses internal source.
    1 = scaler uses external data of expansion bus.

METEOR_STATUS_OEF
    0 = even field detected.
    1 = odd field detected.

METEOR_STATUS_SVP
    VRAM Port state:
    0 = inputs HFL and INCADDR inactive.
    1 = inputs HFL and INCADDR active.

METEOR_STATUS_STTC
    0 = TV horizontal time constant (slow).
    1 = VCR horizontal time constant (fast).

METEOR_STATUS_HCLK
    0 = Horizontal Phase Lock Loop locked.
    1 = Horizontal Phase Lock Loop unlocked.

METEOR_STATUS_FIDT
    0 = 50 Hz Field detected.
    1 = 60 Hz Field detected.

METEOR_STATUS_ALTD
    0 = no line alternating color burst detected.
    1 = line alternating color burst detected (PAL/SECAM).

METEOR_STATUS_CODE
    0 = no color information detected.
    1 = color information detected.

5) ioctl request METEORCAPTUR

METEORCAPTUR is used to single frame capture or unsynchronized continuous capture.

The single frame capture ioctl request will return only after a frame has been captured and transfered to the frame buffer.

The unsynchronized continuous capture will return immediately and data is directly deposited into the buffer when it is available. Since this is unsynchronized, it is possible the data is being written by the kernel while being read by the application.

These ioctl routines use the following settings: following entries:

METEOR_CAP_SINGLE
    capture one frame

METEOR_CAP_CONTINOUS
    unsynchronized continuous capture

METEOR_CAP_STOP_CONT
    stop the unsynchronized continuous capture

If METEORCAPTUR fails the ioctl() will return a value of -1 and the external variable errno will be set to:

EINVAL
    invalid capture command value

ENXIO
    there is not internal buffer to hold the frame. this indicates the previous set geometry ioctl failed.

EIO card is already capturing.

6) ioctl request METEORCAPFRM

METEORCAPFRM is used for synchronous capture of multiple frames.

This ioctl routines use the meteor_capture structure that has the following entries:

command
    possible values for command are:

    METEOR_CAP_STOP_FRAMES stop the capture does not use the
        other variable in structure.

    METEOR_CAP_N_FRAMES start the capture using the other
        variables in the structure as inputs

signal
    signal to send to application when a new frame has been captured. This signal will only be raised if the captured frame is saved.

lowat
    see below

hiwat
    see below

When a new frame is completed, the driver checks the current unread frame count stored in shared variable (the shared variable are stored in the meteor_mem structure) num_active_buf, if the count is larger than hiwat, the driver will not store any new frames and will not send capture signal to the user application until the num_active_buf is lower than lowat.

If METEORCAPFRM fails the ioctl() will return a value of -1 and the external variable errno will be set to:

EINVAL
    invalid meteor_geomet structure pointer or bad command.

ENXIO
    there is not internal buffer to hold the frame. this indicates the previous set geometry ioctl failed.

EIO card is already capturing.

7) ioctl requests METEORSCHCV and METEORGCHCV

METEORSCHCV and METEORGCHCV are used to set and get the chrominance gain control and effects the UV output amplitude.

If METEORSCHCV or METEORGCHCV fails the ioctl() will return a value of -1 and the external variable errno will be set to:

EINVAL
    EINVAL invalid unsigned char pointer.

8) ioctl requests METEORGHUE and METEORSHUE

METEORGHUE and METEORSHUE are used to get and set the hue. The signed character has legal values are from +127 which represent +178.6 degrees to -128 which represents -180 degrees.

If METEORGHUE or METEORSHUE fails the ioctl() will return a value of -1 and the external variable errno will be set to:

EINVAL
    invalid signed char pointer.

9) ioctl requests METEORSCOUNT and METEORGCOUNT

METEORGCOUNT is used to get the count of frame errors, DMA errors and count of the number of frames captured that have occurred since the device was opened. METEORSCOUNT can be used to reinitialize the counters.

This ioctl routines use the meteor_counts structure that has the following entries:

fifo_errors
    number of FIFO errors since device was opened.

dma_errors number of DMA errors since device was opened.

frame_count number of frames captured since device was opened.

If METEORSCOUNT or METEORGCOUNT fails the ioctl() will return a value of -1 and the external variable errno will be set to:

EINVAL
    invalid meteor_counts structure pointer.

Known Bugs:

1) IIC register is difficult to set. We got around that by adding a long wait at each IIC register write.

2) We had difficulties getting the Meteor capture card to work on systems that used NCR chipset SCSI cards. It is possible that the Meteor and NCR SCSI could work together using the newer TRITON motherboards.

Authors:

Jim Lowe
    (james@miller.cs.uwm.edu)

Mark Tinguely
    (tinguely@plains.nodak.edu)