From plan9.att.com!jmk Wed Oct 18 00:02:27 1995 From: jmk@plan9.att.com To: steve@ecf.toronto.edu Date: Tue, 17 Oct 1995 23:51:53 -0400 Subject: configuring and debugging VGA Message-Id: <95Oct18.000224edt.9940@cannon.ecf.toronto.edu> Status: RO here's the vga info i promised. One of the biggest problems with Plan 9 on the PC is the awful VGA device and the equally awful programme to set it up, aux/vga. Here's a quick rundown on what to do if Plan 9 fails to recognise the VGA card on startup, i.e. the screen is left in the green-on-black text mode; or the screen is in 640x480 VGA mode but attempting to use higher resolutions causes weird effects. In this case skip to 1) below. If the system hangs on boot before a message from dossrv appears on the CGA screen then aux/vga blew it. Aux/vga can be prevented from running by commenting out the 'monitor=' line in plan9.ini, /bin/termrc will only run aux/vga if the environment variable 'monitor' is set. The screen will be left in CGA mode. Two warnings about this: a) make sure nothing fancy (such as a window manager) is started in lib/profile; b) DEL is interpreted by the window manager so it will be impossible to interrupt anything. If this doesn't work then the PC/VGA just isn't compatible with Plan 9. 1) At the command prompt execute aux/vga -pv > /tmp/x (ramfs may need to be started first if there's no writeable /tmp yet). Aux/vga defaults to 'monitor=vga' and resolution 640x480x1. 2) Look in /tmp/x for any obvious errors. There may be a section which says e.g. controller not in ./vgadb 0xC0000 55 AA 40 EB 04 37 34 30 30 E9 0A 15 00 00 00 00 U.@..7400....... 0xC0010 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 49 42 ..............IB 0xC0020 4D 20 56 47 41 20 43 6F 6D 70 61 74 69 62 6C 65 M VGA Compatible 0xC0030 20 42 49 4F 53 2E 20 00 BB 66 DB 01 EF 01 81 00 BIOS. ..f...... 0xC0040 00 FF 00 0A 51 75 61 64 74 65 6C 20 53 33 20 38 ....Quadtel S3 8 0xC0050 36 43 38 30 35 20 45 6E 68 61 6E 63 65 64 20 56 6C805 Enhanced V 0xC0060 47 41 20 42 49 4F 53 2E 20 56 65 72 73 69 6F 6E GA BIOS. Version 0xC0070 20 32 2E 31 33 2E 30 32 45 30 31 0D 0A 43 6F 70 2.13.02E01..Cop 0xC0080 79 72 69 67 68 74 20 31 39 38 37 2D 31 39 39 32 yright 1987-1992 0xC0090 20 51 75 61 64 74 65 6C 20 43 6F 72 70 2E 2C 20 Quadtel Corp., 0xC00A0 41 20 50 68 6F 65 6E 69 78 20 54 65 63 68 6E 6F A Phoenix Techno 0xC00B0 6C 6F 67 69 65 73 20 4C 74 64 20 43 6F 6D 70 61 logies Ltd Compa 0xC00C0 6E 79 2E 0D 0A 41 6C 6C 20 52 69 67 68 74 73 20 ny...All Rights 0xC00D0 52 65 73 65 72 76 65 64 0D 0A 00 00 00 00 00 00 Reserved........ 0xC00E0 00 00 00 00 4F 72 63 68 69 64 20 54 65 63 68 6E ....Orchid Techn 0xC00F0 6F 6C 6F 67 79 20 46 61 68 72 65 6E 68 65 69 74 ology Fahrenheit This is a dump of part of the VGA BIOS and can be used to add an entry to /lib/vgadb for this card: ctlr 0xC0044="Quadtel S3 86C805 Enhanced VGA BIOS. Version 2.13.02E01" ctlr=vga 3) Now try the default vga mode again by executing aux/vga -lpv > /tmp/xx Again, look in /tmp/xx for obvious errors. Output is redirected to capture any screen output that would be destroyed by the switch to VGA mode. Usually this will have the desired effect and the system will be in VGA mode. 4) With this in place aux/vga should work without complaint for resolution 640x480x1 as this requires no additional programming of the graphics chip, RAMDAC or clock generator. To proceed to higher resolutions and clock rates it's necessary to know more about the VGA card, specifically which graphics chip, RAMDAC and clock generator are used; inspect the card and see VGADB(6) for more details. From cse.psu.edu!9fans-outgoing-owner Mon Aug 7 10:11:30 1995 Message-Id: <9508071256.AA01136@symbionics.co.uk> Comments: Authenticated sender is From: "Nigel Roles" Organization: Symbionics Communications To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu Date: Mon, 7 Aug 1995 09:56:40 -0400 Subject: Diamond Stealth VRAM 64 Priority: normal X-Mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.01) Sender: owner-9fans@cse.psu.edu Precedence: bulk Reply-To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu Status: RO These are the /lib/vgadb settings I use to support my Stealth VRAM 64 (PCI) in case anyone finds them useful: ctlr 0xC0045="Stealth 64 Vers. 1.05" # Diamond Stealth VRAM 64/PCI link=vga hwgc=s3hwgc ctlr=vision864 link=ibm8514 ramdac=bt485-135 clock=icd2061a link=s3clock I don't have a very capable monitor, so I haven't explored the outer limits much, just 1024x768x1 From cse.psu.edu!9fans-outgoing-owner Mon Sep 25 20:31:54 1995 From: jmk@plan9.att.com To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu Date: Mon, 25 Sep 1995 20:13:22 -0400 Subject: Re: Success w/ Diamond Stealth VLB ? Message-Id: <95Sep25.202203edt.78424@colossus.cse.psu.edu> Sender: owner-9fans@cse.psu.edu Precedence: bulk Reply-To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu Status: RO In general, there are at least three things you need to know: VGA chip RAMDAC clock generator Even then, you need to know how they interact. What did the /lib/vgadb entry you tried look like? From cse.psu.edu!9fans-outgoing-owner Tue Sep 26 10:25:02 1995 From: jmk@plan9.att.com To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu Date: Tue, 26 Sep 1995 09:53:52 -0400 Subject: Re: Success w/ Diamond Stealth VLB ? Message-Id: <95Sep26.101210edt.78470@colossus.cse.psu.edu> Sender: owner-9fans@cse.psu.edu Precedence: bulk Reply-To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu Status: RO ctlr 0xC0060=" Diamond Computer Systems" link=vga hwgc=s3hwgc ramdac=att20c490 link=s3clock clock=icd2061a ctlr=s3805 link=ibm8514 that looks reasonable, although i'd take out the hwgc line until the rest of it works. altering the order is sometimes necessary, depends on the hardware just how things are connected and settle after changes. it may also be a problem with it being a VLB card, never tried one of those before. From cse.psu.edu!9fans-outgoing-owner Tue Oct 17 23:47:25 1995 From: Steve Kotsopoulos To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu Subject: vgadb entry for ACER P60 (S3/Trio64 chipset) PCI video card Message-Id: <95Oct17.233549edt.10092@cannon.ecf.toronto.edu> Date: Tue, 17 Oct 1995 23:33:07 -0400 Sender: owner-9fans@cse.psu.edu Precedence: bulk Reply-To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu Status: RO Since there is a new pcdist in the works, you may want to add this: plan9% diff /lib/orig /lib/vgadb 66a67 > 0xC0044="Phoenix S3 TRIO64 Enhanced VGA BIOS. Version 1.3-08" From cse.psu.edu!9fans-outgoing-owner Thu Oct 26 15:17:23 1995 Received: from colossus.cse.psu.edu ([130.203.1.2]) by cannon.ecf.toronto.edu with SMTP id <9774>; Thu, 26 Oct 1995 15:17:18 -0400 Received: by colossus.cse.psu.edu id <78664>; Thu, 26 Oct 1995 14:57:56 -0400 Received: from plan9.att.com ([192.20.225.252]) by colossus.cse.psu.edu with SMTP id <78711>; Thu, 26 Oct 1995 14:36:44 -0400 From: jmk@plan9.att.com To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu Date: Thu, 26 Oct 1995 14:13:45 -0400 Subject: re: Problem with Hercules Dynamite Power Message-Id: <95Oct26.143644edt.78711@colossus.cse.psu.edu> Sender: owner-9fans@cse.psu.edu Precedence: bulk Reply-To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu Status: RO These are the Hercules entries I have. They all work as far as I know. ctlr 0xC0189="Hercules ISA Bus Dynamite(tm) BIOS. Ver. 8.00N-A2b(04/29/94)" link=vga clock=ics2494-304 ramdac=att20c491-90 # really a MUSIC MU9C4910 ctlr=et4000-w32i hwgc=et4000hwgc ctlr 0xC0189="Hercules PCI Bus Dynamite(tm) BIOS. Ver. 8.00N-B1a(03/30/94)" link=vga clock=ics2494-324 ramdac=stg1702-135 ctlr=et4000-w32p hwgc=et4000hwgc ctlr 0xC0189="Hercules PCI Bus Dynamite(tm) BIOS. Ver. 8.00N-D2g(11/28/94)" 0xC01AD="Ver. 8.00N-D2h(05/31/95)" 0xC0076="Tseng Laboratories, Inc. 06/28/94 V1.0CN" # Cardex Challenger link=vga ramdac=ics534x-135 ctlr=et4000-w32p hwgc=et4000hwgc ------ original message follows ------ >From cse.psu.edu!9fans-outgoing-owner Thu Oct 26 14:06:36 EDT 1995 Received: by colossus.cse.psu.edu id <78643>; Thu, 26 Oct 1995 13:52:59 -0400 Received: from alf.zfn.uni-bremen.de ([134.102.4.22]) by colossus.cse.psu.edu with SMTP id <78629>; Thu, 26 Oct 1995 13:48:11 -0400 Received: from blue.lrw.uni-bremen.de by alf.zfn.uni-bremen.de (AIX 3.2/UCB 5.64/4.940318) id AA29494; Thu, 26 Oct 1995 18:27:18 +0200 Received: from black.lrw.uni-bremen.de by lrw.uni-bremen.de (5.0/SMI-SVR4) id AA26303; Thu, 26 Oct 1995 18:26:00 +0100 Received: by black.lrw.uni-bremen.de (5.0/SMI-SVR4) id AA19206; Thu, 26 Oct 1995 18:25:21 +0100 Date: Thu, 26 Oct 1995 13:25:21 -0400 From: a82@blue.lrw.uni-bremen.de (Henner Gratz) Message-Id: <9510261725.AA19206@black.lrw.uni-bremen.de> To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu Subject: Problem with Hercules Dynamite Power Content-Length: 1924 Sender: owner-9fans@cse.psu.edu Precedence: bulk Reply-To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu Hello Plan9 users! After the installation of the 4 diskette system, I'm now trying to configure the system. Unfortunately I have some trouble with my Hercules Dynamite VGA card. Up to now I used the vgadb that came with the diskette system (the updated one from plan9.att.com) and everything seems to be okay. Because I wasn't able to get a good color monitor, I have to use a (very) old black/white VGA monitor (14"), until there is enough money for a better one... But now I discovered, that my Hercules Dynamite Power 2MB PCI has a newer ROM Version than the ones used by the AT&T folks. Because adding an entry to vgadb seems to be easy in this case, I simply added one and start Plan9. The system boots normally, but now I get four identical pictures on the screen. Is there someone out there with the same firmware release, who has solved this problem? Here are the VGA cards board informations: Hercules product : Hercules Dynamite Power PCI Model number : D902 Bus type : PCI Windows accelerator chip : ET4000-W32p Display memory size : 2048K DRAM Video BIOS Version : 8.00N-D2h (05/31/95) RAMDAC type(s) : ICS 5340/5341 (PowerPort) Monitor : 31.5 KHz, b&w And here is my vgadb entry: ctlr 0xC0184="Hercules PCI Bus Dynamite(tm) BIOS. Ver. 8.00N-D2h(05/31/95)" 0xC0076="Tseng Laboratories, Inc. 07/25/94 V8.00N" link=vga ramdac=ics534x-135 ctlr=et4000-w32p hwgc=et4000hwgc Thank you very much for your help! Tschuess, Henner -- =============================================================================== Henner Gratz Email: a82@lrw.uni-bremen.de Leeuwarder Str. 16A Fax (at home): +49-(0)421-58 52 10 D-28259 Bremen Tel (at home): +49-(0)421-58 51 84 GERMANY ===============================================================================