[parisc-linux] C3000 video options

[parisc-linux] C3000 video options

[Elliott Potter]

Hello all,

I just got my fancy new Visualize C3000 workstation and am busily
installing linux on it.  Whee!  So far, things have gone smoothly but I
I've come across the issue that the computer has an fx4 graphics card,
which is apparently unsupported.  I stared at list archives for a while
and found that the A4977A Visualize EG card is supported, and I'm
working on picking up one of those.  But it seems a shame to take this
nice 64-bit PCI generally kick-butt card out and stuff in an entry-level
32-bit PCI card with 8-bit color depth.  Are there other options?  So
far I've seen:

1) At some point, hp released the fx5 and fx10 graphics adapters, which
replaced the fx4 and fx6 cards, and said that they would be supported
under Linux.  But they accomplished that by releasing a binary form of
its proprietary X server, which is no longer supported.  The Customer
Advisory:
http://wwss1pro.compaq.com/support/reference_library/viewdocument.asp?source=WV031007_CW01.xml&dt=3
suggests that "customers can purchase current graphics adapters that are
more powerful than hp fx5 or fx10 graphics adapters for a fraction of
the original cost."  But they don't say (for example) what graphics
adapters, or if they have linux support.  Did they come out with
something?

2) Someone posted on the list that you could get a PCI Nvidia Voodoo2
card and maybe it would work, but when he tried it he got nothing except
corrupted nvram.  That doesn't sound very promising, but I thought I'd
ask.

3) There are other PCI graphics cards (even 64-bit PCI) out there that
work on other *nix systems (AS/*****, SUN, etc.); is everyone's (or just
HP's) firmware so different that one has to get a graphics card just for
the HP?



TIA,
--
Elliott

Re: [parisc-linux] C3000 video options

[M. Grabert]

On Sat, 14 Feb 2004, Elliott Potter wrote:

> Hello all,

[...]

> 1) At some point, hp released the fx5 and fx10 graphics adapters, which
> replaced the fx4 and fx6 cards, and said that they would be supported
> under Linux.  But they accomplished that by releasing a binary form of
> its proprietary X server, which is no longer supported.  The Customer

It's ix86-Linux only.

> 2) Someone posted on the list that you could get a PCI Nvidia Voodoo2
> card and maybe it would work, but when he tried it he got nothing except
> corrupted nvram.  That doesn't sound very promising, but I thought I'd
> ask.

Someone tried Voodoo2, but no success report so far.

Somebody had success with a ATI Rage XL graphics card and a 2.4.22 kernel
(and a special no-bios patch). He had some colour issues 'though.
Unfortunatelty the patch doesn't work on the 2.4.24 kernel anymore;
I contacted the developer of this patch, and he said he's busy with some
other things, and porting it to 2.4.24 (or even 2.6) will be low priority.

> 3) There are other PCI graphics cards (even 64-bit PCI) out there that
> work on other *nix systems (AS/*****, SUN, etc.); is everyone's (or just
> HP's) firmware so different that one has to get a graphics card just for
> the HP?

You'll be lucky to get any (ix86) PCI graphics card working on Linux/PA-RISC.
The best bet would be to get a Visualize-EG, or some graphics card that
doesn't require initialization via (ix86-)BIOS (eg. Matrox Millenium).

Greetings,
  Max

Re: [parisc-linux] C3000 video options

[Elliott Potter]

> On Sat, 14 Feb 2004, Elliott Potter wrote:
>
> > Hello all,
>
> [...]
>
> > 3) There are other PCI graphics cards (even 64-bit PCI) out there that
> > work on other *nix systems (AS/*****, SUN, etc.); is everyone's (or just
> > HP's) firmware so different that one has to get a graphics card just for
> > the HP?
>
> You'll be lucky to get any (ix86) PCI graphics card working on Linux/PA-RISC.
> The best bet would be to get a Visualize-EG, or some graphics card that
> doesn't require initialization via (ix86-)BIOS (eg. Matrox Millenium).

I had secretly hoped that an Open Firmware card would work, because
there are several reasonable cards out there that fit in newer Apples
and Suns.  But I haven't found anything indicating that they would.

Now the Matrox Millenium -- I've got one of those; the original MGA
Millenium.  Is that the one you mean?  Do other (newer) Matrox cards
also do this (such as the G450)?  I don't know how you tell that the
card doesn't require initialization via x86 BIOS.

Now I'm excited!  I'm going to stick the Matrox card in there and see
what happens.

Thanks,
--
Elliott

Re: [parisc-linux] C3000 video options

[M. Grabert]

On Sat, 14 Feb 2004, Elliott Potter wrote:

> > You'll be lucky to get any (ix86) PCI graphics card working on Linux/PA-RISC.
> > The best bet would be to get a Visualize-EG, or some graphics card that
> > doesn't require initialization via (ix86-)BIOS (eg. Matrox Millenium).
>
> I had secretly hoped that an Open Firmware card would work, because
> there are several reasonable cards out there that fit in newer Apples
> and Suns.  But I haven't found anything indicating that they would.

HP-UX/PA-RISC doesn't use Open Firmware.

> Now the Matrox Millenium -- I've got one of those; the original MGA
> Millenium.  Is that the one you mean?  Do other (newer) Matrox cards
> also do this (such as the G450)?  I don't know how you tell that the
> card doesn't require initialization via x86 BIOS.

Read the user manual:
http://www.matrox.com/mga/support/user_manuals/mill/milleng.pdf

Nobody tried to get a Matrox Millenium working on Linux/PA-RISC IIRC.
But the chances are good (works on PPC, SPARC etc.)

You should/have to use the matroxfb kernel driver.
Try to set the dip switches to "VGA disable", and maybe pass the
"noinit" and/or "nobios" options to the linux boot prompt.

The G450 is supported by the matroxfb driver, but I don't know whether
it can be initialized by the kernel driver, or whether this is just
limited to the old Matrox Millenium (2064W chipset).

> Now I'm excited!  I'm going to stick the Matrox card in there and see
> what happens.

Good luck!
I'm really interested in getting a PCI graphics card to work myself.

Greetings,
 Max

Re: [parisc-linux] C3000 video options

[Grant Grundler]

On Sun, Feb 15, 2004 at 04:10:00AM +0000, M. Grabert wrote:
> HP-UX/PA-RISC doesn't use Open Firmware.

V-class uses Openboot. SPP-UX used it directly and later when HP
bought Convex, a "PDC Compat" layer was added so HPUX would boot
with fewer modifications.

If someone with access to older V-class firmware source wanted
to port that to palo, I'd think that would be an interesting project.

grant

Re: [parisc-linux] C3000 video options

[Helge Deller]

On Sunday 15 February 2004 04:36, M. Grabert wrote:
> > 2) Someone posted on the list that you could get a PCI Nvidia Voodoo2
> > card and maybe it would work, but when he tried it he got nothing except
> > corrupted nvram.  That doesn't sound very promising, but I thought I'd
> > ask.
> 
> Someone tried Voodoo2, but no success report so far.

I tested/fixed Vodoo2 and it should work with kernel 2.4 and 2.6 on HPPA.
Maximum resolution is 800x600 @16bpp though.

> Somebody had success with a ATI Rage XL graphics card and a 2.4.22 kernel
> (and a special no-bios patch). He had some colour issues 'though.
> Unfortunatelty the patch doesn't work on the 2.4.24 kernel anymore;
> I contacted the developer of this patch, and he said he's busy with some
> other things, and porting it to 2.4.24 (or even 2.6) will be low priority.

The "no-card-bios" patch is at least in kernel 2.6 and I tried it recently 
with a ATI Mach64 w/ 2MB (not XL!!). I got some crashes, but chances 
are pretty high that this could be made work.
 
Helge

Re: [parisc-linux] C3000 video options

[Alan Cox]

On Sul, 2004-02-15 at 09:27, Helge Deller wrote:
> I tested/fixed Vodoo2 and it should work with kernel 2.4 and 2.6 on HPPA.
> Maximum resolution is 800x600 @16bpp though.

1024x768@16bpp on Voodoo2, 800x600 on Voodoo1.

Re: [parisc-linux] C3000 video options

[Helge Deller]

On Sunday 15 February 2004 17:06, Alan Cox wrote:
> On Sul, 2004-02-15 at 09:27, Helge Deller wrote:
> > I tested/fixed Vodoo2 and it should work with kernel 2.4 and 2.6 on HPPA.
> > Maximum resolution is 800x600 @16bpp though.
> 
> 1024x768@16bpp on Voodoo2, 800x600 on Voodoo1.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought it would go up to 1024x768@16bpp only
if you attached two Voodoo2 cards to each other with the optional
cable ?

Helge

Re: [parisc-linux] C3000 video options

[Alan Cox]

On Sul, 2004-02-15 at 20:25, Helge Deller wrote:
> Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought it would go up to 1024x768@16bpp only
> if you attached two Voodoo2 cards to each other with the optional
> cable ?

The cards have 2 or 4Mb of memory for frame buffer (texture ram is
seperate). There is a hardware 1024 pixel width limit in the engine.

For 2D you need a front buffer (1024x768x16)
For 3D you need front back and depth (1024x768x16x3)

So 1024x768 2D is fine on a single card but 3D needs SLI

Re: [parisc-linux] C3000 video options

[Alan Cox]

On Sul, 2004-02-15 at 03:36, M. Grabert wrote:
> Someone tried Voodoo2, but no success report so far.

Voodoo2 fb works for some cards. I'm currently debugging an accelerated
2D Voodoo2 driver that should work bi-endian with some tiny fixes

> You'll be lucky to get any (ix86) PCI graphics card working on Linux/PA-RISC.
> The best bet would be to get a Visualize-EG, or some graphics card that
> doesn't require initialization via (ix86-)BIOS (eg. Matrox Millenium).

Older S3, Matrox fit that, the XFree86 code has an x86 emulator which
will boot some more cards tho it does fail on some too where real vm86
works (eg C&T video BIOS)

Alan

Re: [parisc-linux] C3000 video options

[Elliott Potter]

On Sun, 15 Feb 2004, Alan Cox wrote:

> On Sul, 2004-02-15 at 03:36, M. Grabert wrote:
> > [...]
> > You'll be lucky to get any (ix86) PCI graphics card working on Linux/PA-RISC.
> > The best bet would be to get a Visualize-EG, or some graphics card that
> > doesn't require initialization via (ix86-)BIOS (eg. Matrox Millenium).
>
> Older S3, Matrox fit that, the XFree86 code has an x86 emulator which
> will boot some more cards tho it does fail on some too where real vm86
> works (eg C&T video BIOS)

I've got the matroxfb driver built as a module, but so far all I can get
it to do is hard lock the machine (yay, ext3!  Otherwise I'd be in real
trouble).  I'm fiddling with driver options, but it's slow going because
of all the rebooting.  Last one I tried was

modprobe matroxfb_base noaccel nopciretry nobios noinit nomtrr
Warning:
/lib/modules/2.4.24-pa0/kernel/drivers/video/matrox/matroxfb_base.o
symbol for parameter mtrr not found

...then the hard lock.  I'm going to try it with just "nomtrr" next
time; that mtrr warning error comes up every time.



Ideally, this card will work on the machine, because I've got one (and I
don't have a Voodoo* or S3*).  We'll see...
--
Elliott