From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from webmail.speakeasy.net (webmail3.speakeasy.net [216.254.0.83]) by dsl2.external.hp.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id AD5654851 for ; Fri, 21 Feb 2003 18:48:41 -0700 (MST) Message-ID: <20030222014840.12429.qmail@webmail.speakeasy.net> Content-Type: text/plain MIME-Version: 1.0 Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2003 17:48:40 -0800 From: caslivkoff@speakeasy.net To: Dan Baker Cc: parisc-linux@lists.parisc-linux.org Subject: Re: [parisc-linux] X problems... Sender: parisc-linux-admin@lists.parisc-linux.org Errors-To: parisc-linux-admin@lists.parisc-linux.org List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Id: parisc-linux developers list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: On 19 Feb 2003, Grant Grundler wrote: > On Wed, Feb 19, 2003 at 05:42:29PM -0800, Dan > Baker wrote: > > BUT, I did download source code for HP's > > Intel linux visualize driver. I can't get it > > to compile, the assembler tells me there's > > an invalid opcode (??) in the .o file. I'm > > not really a programmer, so I'm hoping > > somebody out there can take a look at what > > they're doing and fix it. Getting this code to compile is not going to get you anywhere. > Well, it's not that easy even for someone who > can read C. > > First, some bad news: o x86 version of the > card has extra VGA cruft+BIOS. PA-Risc version > uses STI firmware for initialization. o IIRC, > the X11 server (or maybe just gfx card > driver?) is a custom, closed source code. > Hopefully I'm wrong and someone will correct > me. o I'll guess that many (most of the?) > interesting bits are in the XF86 hpgfx driver > module. I'm assuming one exists. The X server support for the FX4/FX6 on IA32 was accomplished by a port of Xhp (the HP-UX X server) to Linux. Besides Xhp, the HP-UX OpenGL implementation was ported for 3D. Only the "+" or "pro" versions of these boards were supported. (I have an earlier FX4 which I've never been able to get working under Linux.) Both Xhp and the HP OGL are closed source. A kernel module was needed to interract with the FX4/FX6 similar to the DRI support in XFree86. If you had upgraded your kernel on one of these IA-32 "Visualize" boxes from the stock Red Hat release, you would have needed to re-compile this module. This is the extent of the source code that was provided. As Grant mentioned, these FX4/FX6 boards were NOT the same as the PA versions. They had a VGA BIOS added (via a daughter card) and took-up both an AGP and PCI slot. > Good news: 3d acceleration for x86 cards uses > the same RISC engines as the parisc cards. PA-8000's I believe. 1 on the FX2, 2 on the FX4, 3 on the FX6. > Several years ago I asked someone in the HP > gfx group if they could port the HPUX driver > to parisc-linux but our port wasn't ready then > (I think it is now). The gfx driver interacts > *alot* with the rest of the kernel *and* the > X11 server. The above is what I remember from > conversations with people. While I believe it is possible, resources in the graphics lab are scarse. I suspect that a majority of the code could never be made public, so even if the lab found time to do it once, it would be tough to keep it maintained, etc.