[parisc-linux] howdy and 720/50 framebuffer question

[parisc-linux] howdy and 720/50 framebuffer question

[Steve Pacenka]

Greetings,

I have a couple of 720's and a couple of 735's to rehabilitate.  The
PARISC-Linux developers have done truly excellent work on the kernel and
Debian adaptations for this architecture.  If this can yield reasonable
GNU/Linux installs including X, the machines will go on display in our
recycling showroom as examples of reuse of discarded cool hardware. 
Maybe someone will then adopt them to give them new homes.

I'm stymied about X on a 720/50.  Starting from an 0.9.3 ISO which
worked fine for a base install, the default video seems to be a one bit
B&W buffer (text overlay plane?).  fbset -i says there's no device at
/dev/fb0, which does exist in the filesystem; XFree86 subsequently
doesn't load the framebuffer driver.  There's no Penguin at boot.  I've
tried later precompiled kernels through -pa33, compiling my own from
CVS, and appending video=stifb at a boot prompt with and without sti=0. 

The hardware is there:

"1. Coral SGC Graphics (10) at 0xf8000000 [1], versions 0x4, 0x0, 0x77"


This is some kind of 24 plane framebuffer, right?  I'd be satisfied with
8 bit color from it.

Any hints for additional instrumentation or settings?

-- thanks, SP
   Babbage's Basement volunteer and workstation curator
       http://www.lightlink.com/babbages/workstations.html

Re: [parisc-linux] howdy and 720/50 framebuffer question

[Christoph Plattner]

An interesting question at this point. I also have a 720, but I never
tested the graphics display up to now (I only use it via serial line).

My 720 has a single board graphics card with three BNC connectors
on it. Is this really a 24bit graphics or a 8bit graphics. The only
thing I know, is that the resolution was used with 1280x1024 under
HP-UX 9.05 (or similar...).

One day I will carry up my 21" monitor and try the grpahics on this 
machine !

Christoph


Steve Pacenka wrote:
> 
> Greetings,
> 
> I have a couple of 720's and a couple of 735's to rehabilitate.  The
> PARISC-Linux developers have done truly excellent work on the kernel and
> Debian adaptations for this architecture.  If this can yield reasonable
> GNU/Linux installs including X, the machines will go on display in our
> recycling showroom as examples of reuse of discarded cool hardware.
> Maybe someone will then adopt them to give them new homes.
> 
> I'm stymied about X on a 720/50.  Starting from an 0.9.3 ISO which
> worked fine for a base install, the default video seems to be a one bit
> B&W buffer (text overlay plane?).  fbset -i says there's no device at
> /dev/fb0, which does exist in the filesystem; XFree86 subsequently
> doesn't load the framebuffer driver.  There's no Penguin at boot.  I've
> tried later precompiled kernels through -pa33, compiling my own from
> CVS, and appending video=stifb at a boot prompt with and without sti=0.
> 
> The hardware is there:
> 
> "1. Coral SGC Graphics (10) at 0xf8000000 [1], versions 0x4, 0x0, 0x77"
> 
> This is some kind of 24 plane framebuffer, right?  I'd be satisfied with
> 8 bit color from it.
> 
> Any hints for additional instrumentation or settings?
> 
> -- thanks, SP
>    Babbage's Basement volunteer and workstation curator
>        http://www.lightlink.com/babbages/workstations.html
> 
> _______________________________________________
> parisc-linux mailing list
> parisc-linux@lists.parisc-linux.org
> http://lists.parisc-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/parisc-linux

-- 
-------------------------------------------------------
private:	christoph.plattner@gmx.at
company:	christoph.plattner@alcatel.at

Re: [parisc-linux] howdy and 720/50 framebuffer question

[Steve Pacenka]

On Tue, 2002-06-04 at 19:08, Christoph Plattner wrote:
> An interesting question at this point. I also have a 720, but I never
> tested the graphics display up to now (I only use it via serial line).
> 
> My 720 has a single board graphics card with three BNC connectors
> on it. Is this really a 24bit graphics or a 8bit graphics. The only
> thing I know, is that the resolution was used with 1280x1024 under
> HP-UX 9.05 (or similar...).

Christoph,

The monochrome text plane is 1280x960 on my current victim.  It has four
BNC video connectors of which I use R, G+sync, and B.


> One day I will carry up my 21" monitor and try the grpahics on this 
> machine !

We have several large HP monitors too; I can barely lift the larger
ones.  Not very sharp, but I've only seen them in poor lighting
conditions.

-- thanks, SP