PCI video card on SGI O2

PCI video card on SGI O2

[sknauert]

I'm trying to get a PCI video card to work on my O2, currently running
Debian Etch (2.6.18). I first thought this was an X.org issue and posted
to their mailing list, and was told that Linux-MIPS might lack some
necessary support (mainly Legacy PCI Adressing), so I thought I'd roll up
my sleves and try to port this. Sadly, I ran into vast amounts of trouble.
I sent a couple e-mails to developers asking for some help but got little
response. So I thought I would try the main mailing list.

My main issues are:

1) Getting a newer kernel to boot on the O2. The 2.6.20 source I get off
of linux-mips.org will not boot. I used the same .config and gcc-4.1 as my
working 2.6.18.

2) Is legacy addressing even the issue? Compiling in generic VGA
framebuffer (or card specific framebuffer support) causes the kernel not
to boot. I can give the error from ARCs if desired. Is the issue in the O2
framebuffer code? Is this a limitation of the O2?

3) I tried a Voodoo 1, ATI Mach 64, S3 Virge DX, GX, etc., I actually have
a Millenium I but it won't fit in the O2. I mention these since they were
listed here http://www.linux-mips.org/wiki/PCI_graphics_cards as
potentially working. I'm assuming I need more kernel support?
Surprisingly, the character device drivers will compile and boot, and
lspci and other tools will recognize the card as a VGA device. I just
can't get a console or X to use them.

4) The only Linux port with working legacy addressing is ia64, which uses
seemly very different PCI structures than MIPS. Any good documentation on
this?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Re: PCI video card on SGI O2

[Samium Gromoff]

At Tue, 8 May 2007 02:24:20 -0400 (EDT),
sknauert@wesleyan.edu wrote:
[snip]
> 3) I tried a Voodoo 1, ATI Mach 64, S3 Virge DX, GX, etc., I actually have
> a Millenium I but it won't fit in the O2.

Are you sure those have/need not to have proper BIOSen flashed onto them?

As i imagine, a videocard with x86 cr^Bode flashed into it is pretty useless,
or worse than useless, on anything but x86...

regards, Samium, Gromoff

Re: PCI video card on SGI O2

[Geert Uytterhoeven]

On Tue, 8 May 2007, Samium Gromoff wrote:
> At Tue, 8 May 2007 02:24:20 -0400 (EDT),
> sknauert@wesleyan.edu wrote:
> [snip]
> > 3) I tried a Voodoo 1, ATI Mach 64, S3 Virge DX, GX, etc., I actually have
> > a Millenium I but it won't fit in the O2.
> 
> Are you sure those have/need not to have proper BIOSen flashed onto them?
> 
> As i imagine, a videocard with x86 cr^Bode flashed into it is pretty useless,
> or worse than useless, on anything but x86...

You can run the x86 emulator to execute the BIOS code. IIRC, (some version of)
the X server has such an emulator included.  But that indeeds need `legacy I/O
port' access to work.

It's a pity the Millenium doesn't fit, as matroxfb is about the only
frame buffer device that can initialize a graphics card from scratch,
without help from the BIOS...

Gr{oetje,eeting}s,

						Geert

--
Geert Uytterhoeven -- There's lots of Linux beyond ia32 -- geert@linux-m68k.org

In personal conversations with technical people, I call myself a hacker. But
when I'm talking to journalists I just say "programmer" or something like that.
							    -- Linus Torvalds

Re: PCI video card on SGI O2

[Attila Kinali]

On Tue, 8 May 2007 09:22:02 +0200 (CEST)
Geert Uytterhoeven <geert@linux-m68k.org> wrote:

> It's a pity the Millenium doesn't fit, as matroxfb is about the only
> frame buffer device that can initialize a graphics card from scratch,
> without help from the BIOS...

Why does the Millenium not fit?
I'm asking because OGP might be a good replacement
card for such systems (when it will be finished).
And if the Millenium has some problems working in such
systems, we could try not to do the same mistake with OGP.

			Attila Kinali
-- 
Praised are the Fountains of Shelieth, the silver harp of the waters,
But blest in my name forever this stream that stanched my thirst!
                         -- Deed of Morred

Re: PCI video card on SGI O2

[sknauert]

> On Tue, 8 May 2007 09:22:02 +0200 (CEST)
> Geert Uytterhoeven <geert@linux-m68k.org> wrote:
>
>> It's a pity the Millenium doesn't fit, as matroxfb is about the only
>> frame buffer device that can initialize a graphics card from scratch,
>> without help from the BIOS...
>
> Why does the Millenium not fit?
> I'm asking because OGP might be a good replacement
> card for such systems (when it will be finished).
> And if the Millenium has some problems working in such
> systems, we could try not to do the same mistake with OGP.
>
> 			Attila Kinali
> --
> Praised are the Fountains of Shelieth, the silver harp of the waters,
> But blest in my name forever this stream that stanched my thirst!
>                          -- Deed of Morred
>
>
Wow, so many responses... I'll try to answer everyone. The O2, has a PCI
cage on a daughter card which is 6.875" deep. A 64-bit PCI card with no
overhang will just barely fit.

You can see images of the PCI cage here:
http://hardware.majix.org/computers/sgi.o2/images/o2.18.big.jpg
http://hardware.majix.org/computers/sgi.o2/images/o2.26.big.jpg

The Millenium I that I have does not fit, physically. It is 7.5" deep. I
already removed the metal cage (only using the daughter board), but the
end of the metal cage butts up against the metal housing, so while I might
be able to fit a 7.25" PCI card this way (though it would be unsupported
and this might not be the best idea) 7.5" is just too big. For example, I
have a 3ware Escalade 8500 which is 7" deep and does not fit. It would fit
without the metal cage (I only mention since its a PCI 64-bit card I have
handy, I know putting an SATA RAID card into an O2 would be silly).

If the Open Graphics Project (assuming this is the OGP you refer to) board
does not have overhang, i.e. it is just the size of a 32 or even 64 bit
PCI slot, it will fit the O2 just fine.

Re: PCI video card on SGI O2

[sknauert]

> On Tue, 8 May 2007, Samium Gromoff wrote:
>> At Tue, 8 May 2007 02:24:20 -0400 (EDT),
>> sknauert@wesleyan.edu wrote:
>> [snip]
>> > 3) I tried a Voodoo 1, ATI Mach 64, S3 Virge DX, GX, etc., I actually
>> have
>> > a Millenium I but it won't fit in the O2.
>>
>> Are you sure those have/need not to have proper BIOSen flashed onto
>> them?
>>
>> As i imagine, a videocard with x86 cr^Bode flashed into it is pretty
>> useless,
>> or worse than useless, on anything but x86...
>
> You can run the x86 emulator to execute the BIOS code. IIRC, (some version
> of)
> the X server has such an emulator included.  But that indeeds need `legacy
> I/O
> port' access to work.
>
> It's a pity the Millenium doesn't fit, as matroxfb is about the only
> frame buffer device that can initialize a graphics card from scratch,
> without help from the BIOS...
>
> Gr{oetje,eeting}s,
>
> 						Geert
>
> --
> Geert Uytterhoeven -- There's lots of Linux beyond ia32 --
> geert@linux-m68k.org
>
> In personal conversations with technical people, I call myself a hacker.
> But
> when I'm talking to journalists I just say "programmer" or something like
> that.
> 							    -- Linus Torvalds
>

X.org should have the x86 emulation, it's called Int10 and I have enabled
it. However, I get the following errors:

(EE) end of block range 0x1ffffef < begin 0xfffffff0
(EE) end of block range 0xfef < begin 0xffffff0

with all my cards when I try to use it. These are repeated many times, I
can provide full error logs if anybody wants. My guess is this is
indicating I'm lacking proper support for the emulation to work correctly,
whether this is framebuffer support or purely legacy addressing.

Re: PCI video card on SGI O2

[Ulrich Eckhardt]

On Tuesday 08 May 2007 09:22, Geert Uytterhoeven wrote:
> It's a pity the Millenium doesn't fit, as matroxfb is about the only
> frame buffer device that can initialize a graphics card from scratch,
> without help from the BIOS...

I'm not sure if this is the same thing you are referring to, but I have a G4 
Mac Mini which has a Radeon 9200 chip. The autodetection does not find a BIOS 
ROM (is that what you meant?) but it works nonetheless, both with FB and 
X.org. From reading the sources, it seems that this is even normal, in 
particular for embedded graphic chips as typically found in laptops.

Uli

-- 
Sator Laser GmbH
Geschäftsführer: Ronald Boers, Amtsgericht Hamburg HR B62 932

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Re: PCI video card on SGI O2

[Geert Uytterhoeven]

On Wed, 9 May 2007, Ulrich Eckhardt wrote:
> On Tuesday 08 May 2007 09:22, Geert Uytterhoeven wrote:
> > It's a pity the Millenium doesn't fit, as matroxfb is about the only
> > frame buffer device that can initialize a graphics card from scratch,
> > without help from the BIOS...
> 
> I'm not sure if this is the same thing you are referring to, but I have a G4 
> Mac Mini which has a Radeon 9200 chip. The autodetection does not find a BIOS 
> ROM (is that what you meant?) but it works nonetheless, both with FB and 
> X.org. From reading the sources, it seems that this is even normal, in 
> particular for embedded graphic chips as typically found in laptops.

Open Firmware in your Mac Mini has F-code to initialize the Radeon 9200.

Gr{oetje,eeting}s,

						Geert

--
Geert Uytterhoeven -- There's lots of Linux beyond ia32 -- geert@linux-m68k.org

In personal conversations with technical people, I call myself a hacker. But
when I'm talking to journalists I just say "programmer" or something like that.
							    -- Linus Torvalds

Re: PCI video card on SGI O2

[Atsushi Nemoto]

On Tue, 8 May 2007 02:24:20 -0400 (EDT), sknauert@wesleyan.edu wrote:
> 3) I tried a Voodoo 1, ATI Mach 64, S3 Virge DX, GX, etc., I actually have
> a Millenium I but it won't fit in the O2. I mention these since they were
> listed here http://www.linux-mips.org/wiki/PCI_graphics_cards as
> potentially working. I'm assuming I need more kernel support?

IIRC, patch for ATI Rage XL without BIOS was floating around a while
ago (kernel 2.4 era?), but never merged to mainline in good shape.
And the halfway codes are removed at kernel 2.6.16.

commit cb639258f92b2407c50f79a95364f42932481389
Author: Antonino A. Daplas <adaplas@gmail.com>
Date:   Mon Jan 9 20:53:13 2006 -0800

    [PATCH] fbdev: atyfb: Remove BIOS-less booting
    
    CONFIG_ATYFB_XL_INIT option is broken for a long time.  It will always cause a
    kernel hang.
    
    Since no one has fixed this problem for some time now, remove it from atyfb.


---
Atsushi Nemoto

Re: PCI video card on SGI O2

[Alan Cox]

> 3) I tried a Voodoo 1, ATI Mach 64, S3 Virge DX, GX, etc., I actually have
> a Millenium I but it won't fit in the O2. I mention these since they were
> listed here http://www.linux-mips.org/wiki/PCI_graphics_cards as
> potentially working. I'm assuming I need more kernel support?
> Surprisingly, the character device drivers will compile and boot, and
> lspci and other tools will recognize the card as a VGA device. I just
> can't get a console or X to use them.

The voodoo1 and voodoo2 should work - they are not VGA devices and don't
have any compatibility vga gunk on them at all. You will need the voodoo
frame buffer and/or X server driver, neither of which needs BIOS support.
There is no 3D support on them as I could never be bothered to write the
3D engine bootstrap code.

Alan

Re: PCI video card on SGI O2

[sknauert]

>> 3) I tried a Voodoo 1, ATI Mach 64, S3 Virge DX, GX, etc., I actually
>> have
>> a Millenium I but it won't fit in the O2. I mention these since they
>> were
>> listed here http://www.linux-mips.org/wiki/PCI_graphics_cards as
>> potentially working. I'm assuming I need more kernel support?
>> Surprisingly, the character device drivers will compile and boot, and
>> lspci and other tools will recognize the card as a VGA device. I just
>> can't get a console or X to use them.
>
> The voodoo1 and voodoo2 should work - they are not VGA devices and don't
> have any compatibility vga gunk on them at all. You will need the voodoo
> frame buffer and/or X server driver, neither of which needs BIOS support.
> There is no 3D support on them as I could never be bothered to write the
> 3D engine bootstrap code.
>
> Alan
>
>
I agree the Voodoo 1 should work. The issue here is that I can compile in
tdfx character support for the kernel and still have it boot, but can't
boot with tdfx framebuffer support on the O2 for some reason. With just
character support lspci IDs the card

00:03.0 PCI VGA compatible controller: ...

However, trying to start X.org gives the following errors:

(EE) TDFX(0): V_BIOS address 0x0 out of range
(EE) end of block range 0x1ffffef < begin 0xfffffff0
(EE) end of block range 0xfef < begin 0xffffff0

Re: PCI video card on SGI O2

[Alan Cox]

> I agree the Voodoo 1 should work. The issue here is that I can compile in
> tdfx character support for the kernel and still have it boot, but can't
> boot with tdfx framebuffer support on the O2 for some reason. With just
> character support lspci IDs the card
> 
> 00:03.0 PCI VGA compatible controller: ...

That isn't a Voodoo 1 if it reports PCI VGA compatible controller. What
PCI ident values does it show. Also the tdfx framebuffer is for the later
chips not the Voodoo1 or Voodoo2 - they use sstfb.

It looks like your card is something else - a Banshee or Rush perhaps ?

Re: PCI video card on SGI O2

[sknauert]

>> I agree the Voodoo 1 should work. The issue here is that I can compile
>> in
>> tdfx character support for the kernel and still have it boot, but can't
>> boot with tdfx framebuffer support on the O2 for some reason. With just
>> character support lspci IDs the card
>>
>> 00:03.0 PCI VGA compatible controller: ...
>
> That isn't a Voodoo 1 if it reports PCI VGA compatible controller. What
> PCI ident values does it show. Also the tdfx framebuffer is for the later
> chips not the Voodoo1 or Voodoo2 - they use sstfb.
>
> It looks like your card is something else - a Banshee or Rush perhaps ?
>
>
You're quite right. What I have is not a Voodoo 1, but a Banshee. The full
output of lspci does say:

00:03.0 PCI VGA compatible controller: 3Dfx Interactive, Inc. Voodoo
Banshee (rev 03)

Sorry, hadn't had that card in the O2 for awhile.