[parisc-linux] Question (fbdev, fbset, debconf)

[parisc-linux] Question (fbdev, fbset, debconf)

[Tobias Giesen]

Hello,

after a long search in the archives and elsewhere this is seems to be
the only remaining place to ask.

I have a fresh install of Debian 3.0 on my HP Visualize C200. Everything
went fine, except:

X server: no screens found.

So I tried to run fbset or debconf, but even though I said yes when
asked whether I wanted frame buffer support during the installation, and
even though the debconf package is installed, I do not have any fbset or
debonf executables on my hard disk.

There is also no /dev/fbdev.

So which is the command to configure my Linux? How do I get a
/dev/fbdev?

Cheers,
Tobias

RE: [parisc-linux] Question (fbdev, fbset, debconf)

[Tobias Giesen]

> First of all, what kind of graphics card 
> do you have in it?

Hmm - all I know is: A4552A. I didn't see a list of supported
graphics cards anywhere. Where do I look?

In any case I will try a newer kernel.

Cheers,
Tobias

Re: [parisc-linux] Question (fbdev, fbset, debconf)

[B. Douglas Hilton]

An A4552A is a Visualize-FX2. Supposedly a very good
graphics board but sadly AFAIK it is not supported
yet for X11. Unsure if it will work at all. You may
need to run in serial-console mode until it is completed,
or try and get a used cheap Visualize-EG card somewhere.



Tobias Giesen wrote:
>>First of all, what kind of graphics card 
>>do you have in it?
> 
> 
> Hmm - all I know is: A4552A. I didn't see a list of supported
> graphics cards anywhere. Where do I look?
> 
> In any case I will try a newer kernel.
> 
> Cheers,
> Tobias
> 
> 
> 

RE: [parisc-linux] Question (fbdev, fbset, debconf)

[Tobias Giesen]

> get a used cheap Visualize-EG card somewhere.

I see - any other models that will work? I read your post about a
Visualize-24. Also, do all the different Visualize-EG models work?

Best wishes,
Tobias

Re: [parisc-linux] Question (fbdev, fbset, debconf)

[B. Douglas Hilton]

Don't get a Visualize-24 card. I don't think those
work right now either. Your choice of graphics boards
for a C200 is pretty slim. You have to be careful,
I found that out the HCRX-24Z board apparently fried
my onboard LAN devices when I plugged it onto the GSC bus.
I'm selling it on Ebay right now, so don't buy it,
it won't work :-)

Visualize-EG boards were the low-end boards for C-200
and I think C-180 machines. You may be able to scrounge
one if you are patient. I believe the one you want
is the A4450A. Even still it only has 8-bit color.

I'm going to be attempting to get a *Voodoo2* board
working with X, so if you hang around I may be able
to write a HOWTO-hppa-Voodoo2-XFree86 guide, assuming
it works.

In the meantime, consider getting a used dumb terminal.
I have one and it is pretty convenient at times like
these. If I was getting a new one I think I'd take my
chances on a Wyse-30, they are extremely compact, but
I'm not sure how developed their terminfo support is.
I used my dumb terminal to initially bootstrap my
machine.

Or just run a null modem cable into the serial port
of your other linux box and use something like minicom
to be its terminal.

I realize I'm ramlbing here. Well, I believe that people
are working on getting the FX2/4/6 board working, so
don't get rid of it just yet.




Tobias Giesen wrote:
>>get a used cheap Visualize-EG card somewhere.
> 
> 
> I see - any other models that will work? I read your post about a
> Visualize-24. Also, do all the different Visualize-EG models work?
> 

Not sure. Be careful about putting cards from older machines
into the C200. May cause hardware damage.

[parisc-linux] Voodoo2 (was: Question ...)

[Tobias Giesen]

> I'm going to be attempting to get a *Voodoo2* 
> board working with X, so if you hang around 
> I may be able to write a HOWTO-hppa-Voodoo2-
> XFree86 guide, assuming it works.

A very good project that is. If you can make it work I'll get one too. I
assume the Voodoo2 would be initially dead and then activated by
XFree86? Would it need a new BIOS?

Cheers,
Tobias

Re: [parisc-linux] Voodoo2 (was: Question ...)

[B. Douglas Hilton]

If you check back in the archives for this month
Alan Cox wrote in and was talking about the V2.

There is an sstfb framebuffer for the kernel, which
may need some work to use with hppa. Also, XFree86
has a 2D driver for Voodoo1/2 cards which uses the
glide libraries.

But, yes, the V2 card is initially dead until something
wakes it up, so it won't screw up the C200 firmware
hardware scan. The V2 has no BIOS, so thats not an
issue.

Steps to get it to work:

  a.  Compile Glide 2x on hppa (hopefully easy)
  b.  Tweak XF86Config-4 to get it to work (shouldn't be a big deal)
  c.  Tinker with the kernel sstfb code (probably challenging)


I think that a V2 would be a nifty board for these
HPPA boxen, as the documentation for the original
HP cards is lost / gone, and supporting them is
extremely problematic these days. And V2 cards
are pretty plentiful and very inexpensive these
days. Not to mention, they were real powerhouses.

Most of the HP graphics cards used this top-secret
"color recovery technology" which used a special
dithering method to reduce graphics data to 8bpp,
then the card somehow restored it to 24bpp. What
this means is that for all intents and purposed
all HP cards will be limited to 8bpp unless someone
can reverse engineer this stuff, which is probably
very unlikely to ever happen.

With a V2, at least you have a good chance of 16bpp
which to me is good enough. These boxes will never
be big gaming rigs, but 16bpp is nice for the newer
window managers and generally makes for an appealing
looking display.

I have a $15 V2 board winging its way to me now.
I suppose I oughtta get working on compiling glide.
I'll make the full debian source / binary / etc
available on my little Netwinder server if it works.



Tobias Giesen wrote:
>>I'm going to be attempting to get a *Voodoo2* 
>>board working with X, so if you hang around 
>>I may be able to write a HOWTO-hppa-Voodoo2-
>>XFree86 guide, assuming it works.
> 
> 
> A very good project that is. If you can make it work I'll get one too. I
> assume the Voodoo2 would be initially dead and then activated by
> XFree86? Would it need a new BIOS?
> 
> Cheers,
> Tobias

Re: [parisc-linux] Voodoo2 (was: Question ...)

[Alan Cox]

On Sat, 2002-08-24 at 04:29, Tobias Giesen wrote:
> > I'm going to be attempting to get a *Voodoo2* 
> > board working with X, so if you hang around 
> > I may be able to write a HOWTO-hppa-Voodoo2-
> > XFree86 guide, assuming it works.
> 
> A very good project that is. If you can make it work I'll get one too. I
> assume the Voodoo2 would be initially dead and then activated by
> XFree86? Would it need a new BIOS?

The voodoo2 has no BIOS to worry about. Glide can bring it up from
nothing

Re: [parisc-linux] Voodoo2 (was: Question ...)

[Alan Cox]

On Sat, 2002-08-24 at 05:13, B. Douglas Hilton wrote:
> Most of the HP graphics cards used this top-secret
> "color recovery technology" which used a special
> dithering method to reduce graphics data to 8bpp,
> then the card somehow restored it to 24bpp. What

The required algorithm is on the HP web site with complete C code for
doing the dither. 

http://www.hp.com/workstations/support/documentation/manuals/user_guides/graphics/GAG11/3_XWindows11.html#HPColorRecovery

Kudos to HP's manual writers. The only bits that are not directly
covered is whether the processing is automatic or we have to bang bits
on the video board to turn on the modes



unsigned char dither_pixel_for_CR(RedValue,GreenValue,BlueValue,Xp,Yp)
  int   RedValue, GreenValue, BlueValue, Xp, Yp;
{
    static short        dither_red[2][16] = {
      {-16,  4, -1, 11,-14,  6, -3,  9,-15,  5, -2, 10,-13,  7, -4,  8},
      { 15, -5,  0,-12, 13, -7,  2,-10, 14, -6,  1,-11, 12, -8,  3,
-9}};
    static short        dither_green[2][16] = {
      { 11,-15,  7, -3,  8,-14,  4, -2, 10,-16,  6, -4,  9,-13,  5, -1},
      {-12, 14, -8,  2, -9, 13, -5,  1,-11, 15, -7,  3,-10, 12, -6, 
0}};
    static short        dither_blue[2][16] = {
      { -3,  9,-13,  7, -1, 11,-15,  5, -4,  8,-14,  6, -2, 10,-16,  4},
      {  2,-10, 12, -8,  0,-12, 14, -6,  3, -9, 13, -7,  1,-11, 15, -5}
};
    int                 red, green, blue;
    int                 x_dither_table, y_dither_table;
    unsigned char       pixel;

    /* Determine the dither table entries to use based on the pixel
address */
    x_dither_table = Xp % 16;   /* X Pixel Address MOD 16 */
    y_dither_table = Yp % 2;    /* Y Pixel Address MOD 2 */

    /* Start with the initial values as supplied by the calling routine
*/
    red   = RedValue;
    green = GreenValue;
    blue  = BlueValue;

    /* Generate the red dither value */
    red += dither_red[y_dither_table][x_dither_table];
    /* Check for overflow or underflow on red value */
    if (red > 0xff) red = 0xff;
    if (red < 0x00) red = 0x00;

    /* Generate the green dither value */
    green += dither_green[y_dither_table][x_dither_table];
    /* Check for overflow or underflow on green value */
    if (green > 0xff) green = 0xff;
    if (green < 0x00) green = 0x00;

    /* Generate the blue dither value */
    blue += (dither_blue[y_dither_table][x_dither_table]<<1);
    /* Check for overflow or underflow on blue value */
    if (blue > 0xff) blue = 0xff;
    if (blue < 0x00) blue = 0x00;

    /* Generate the pixel value by "or"ing the values together */
    pixel = ((red & 0xE0) | ((green & 0xE0) >> 3) | ((blue & 0xC0) >>
6));
    return(pixel);
}

For HCRX the code is

unsigned char dither_pixel_for_CR(RedValue,GreenValue,BlueValue,Xp,Yp)
  int           RedValue,GreenValueBlueValue,Xp,Yp;
{
    static short        dither_red[2][16] = {
      {-16,  4, -1, 11,-14,  6, -3,  9,-15,  5, -2, 10,-13,  7, -4,  8},
      { 15, -5,  0,-12, 13, -7,  2,-10, 14, -6,  1,-11, 12, -8,  3,
-9}};
    static short        dither_green[2][16] = {
      { 11,-15,  7, -3,  8,-14,  4, -2, 10,-16,  6, -4,  9,-13,  5, -1},
      {-12, 14, -8,  2, -9, 13, -5,  1,-11, 15, -7,  3,-10, 12, -6, 
0}};
    static short        dither_blue[2][16] = {
      { -3,  9,-13,  7, -1, 11,-15,  5, -4,  8,-14,  6, -2, 10,-16,  4},
      {  2,-10, 12, -8,  0,-12, 14, -6,  3, -9, 13, -7,  1,-11, 15,
-5}};
    int                 red, green, blue;
    int                 x_dither_table, y_dither_table;
    unsigned char       pixel;

    /* Determine the dither table entries to use based on the pixel
address */
    x_dither_table = Xp % 16;   /* X Pixel Address MOD 16 */
    y_dither_table = Yp % 2;    /* Y Pixel Address MOD 2 */

    /* Start with the initial values as supplied by the calling routine
*/
    red   = RedValue;
    green = GreenValue;
    blue  = BlueValue;

    /* Generate the red dither value */
    if (red >= 48) /* 48 is a constant required by this routine */
       red=red-16;
    else
       red=red/2+8;
    red += dither_red[y_dither_table][x_dither_table];
    /* Check for overflow or underflow on red value */
    if (red > 0xff) red = 0xff;
    if (red < 0x00) red = 0x00;

    /* Generate the green dither value */
    if (green >= 48) /* 48 is a constant required by this routine */
       green=green-16;
    else
       green=green/2+8;
    green += dither_green[y_dither_table][x_dither_table];
    /* Check for overflow or underflow on green value */
    if (green > 0xff) green = 0xff;
    if (green < 0x00) green = 0x00;

    /* Generate the blue dither value */
    if (blue >= 112) /* 112 is a constant required by this routine */
       blue=blue-32;
    else
       blue=blue/2+24;
    blue += (dither_blue[y_dither_table][x_dither_table]<<1);
    /* Check for overflow or underflow on blue value */
    if (blue > 0xff) blue = 0xff;
    if (blue < 0x00) blue = 0x00;

    pixel = ((red & 0xE0) | ((green & 0xE0) >> 3) | ((blue & 0xC0) >>
6));
    return(pixel);
}

Re: [parisc-linux] Voodoo2 (was: Question ...)

[Derek Engelhaupt]

Keep us posted since I just so happen to have a Voodoo2 sitting in my
OLD HP 166MHz Pavilion....;)

derek


--- Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk> wrote:
> On Sat, 2002-08-24 at 04:29, Tobias Giesen wrote:
> > > I'm going to be attempting to get a *Voodoo2* 
> > > board working with X, so if you hang around 
> > > I may be able to write a HOWTO-hppa-Voodoo2-
> > > XFree86 guide, assuming it works.
> > 
> > A very good project that is. If you can make it work I'll get one
> too. I
> > assume the Voodoo2 would be initially dead and then activated by
> > XFree86? Would it need a new BIOS?
> 
> The voodoo2 has no BIOS to worry about. Glide can bring it up from
> nothing
> 
> _______________________________________________
> parisc-linux mailing list
> parisc-linux@lists.parisc-linux.org
> http://lists.parisc-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/parisc-linux


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Finance - Get real-time stock quotes
http://finance.yahoo.com

RE: [parisc-linux] Voodoo2 (was: Question ...)

[Tobias Giesen]

Hello,

so if we use the Voodoo2 for X only (with the video jumper cable), do we
still need a challenging kernel modification?

Cheers,
Tobias

RE: [parisc-linux] Voodoo2 (was: Question ...)

[Alan Cox]

On Sun, 2002-08-25 at 17:54, Tobias Giesen wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> so if we use the Voodoo2 for X only (with the video jumper cable), do we
> still need a challenging kernel modification?

Shouldnt do. Its actually best done with two monitors for debugging btw.
That way you can see what blew up 8)