more VGA stuff

more VGA stuff

[Jeremy]

jmk@plan9.att.com:
> 
> There is a new version of aux/vga available for pickup by ftp, look in the
> pcdist/vga subdirectory (yesterday's vga.386 and vgadb have been removed).
> A description is in the file 'CHANGES'.

I tried out the Aug 8th version of aux/vga, and it worked much better.
The fickering pixels went away, and I got a good clear 1184x888x8
image with a 100MHz dot clock.  However, when I used a 1 (or 4)
bit deep mode, it seemed as though only every second pixel was
being displayed.  Is this something else which needs to be addressed
when pixel multiplexing is turned on in the ramdac?

I also noticed that a hardware cursor is not supported except in
8 bit deep screens; is this a limitation of the #9 GXE64 card, or
in aux/vga (or the kernel driver)?

I'll try the new version out soon, but I didn't see anything in
the changes file which might relate to the 1 bit screen problem,
so I thought I'd mention it.

Thanks,
	J

more VGA stuff

[jmk]

in order to do resolutions >1024x768 the S3 chip must be put into
enhanced mode, which implies 8-bit deep. there are ways to make the
hardware do colour-expansion or whatever to make 1-bit work but it
doesn't fit the plan9 kernel graphics structure. brazil only deals
with 1 and 8 -bit.

the hardware cursor on the S3 chips only works in enhanced mode.
if you have a bt485 or tvp302x ramdac that may work in the non-enhanced
mode but aux/vga is currently set up not to allow the hwgc except
in enhanced mode.

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From:	jeremy@sour.sw.oz.au (Jeremy Fitzhardinge)
Message-Id: <199508100723.AA06760@sour.sw.oz.au>
Subject: Re: more VGA stuff
To:	9fans@cse.psu.edu
Date:	Thu, 10 Aug 1995 03:23:34 -0400
In-Reply-To: <95Aug9.170332edt.45508@colossus.cse.psu.edu> from "jmk@plan9.att.com" at Aug 9, 95 04:46:09 pm
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jmk@plan9.att.com:
> 
> There is a new version of aux/vga available for pickup by ftp, look in the
> pcdist/vga subdirectory (yesterday's vga.386 and vgadb have been removed).
> A description is in the file 'CHANGES'.

I tried out the Aug 8th version of aux/vga, and it worked much better.
The fickering pixels went away, and I got a good clear 1184x888x8
image with a 100MHz dot clock.  However, when I used a 1 (or 4)
bit deep mode, it seemed as though only every second pixel was
being displayed.  Is this something else which needs to be addressed
when pixel multiplexing is turned on in the ramdac?

I also noticed that a hardware cursor is not supported except in
8 bit deep screens; is this a limitation of the #9 GXE64 card, or
in aux/vga (or the kernel driver)?

I'll try the new version out soon, but I didn't see anything in
the changes file which might relate to the 1 bit screen problem,
so I thought I'd mention it.

Thanks,
	J

more VGA stuff

[jmk]

There is a new version of aux/vga available for pickup by ftp, look in the
pcdist/vga subdirectory (yesterday's vga.386 and vgadb have been removed).
A description is in the file 'CHANGES'. All hardware supported by Brazil which
does not require a kernel change is now included (exceptions are the ARK2000PV
found on the Hercules Stingray 64/Video and the C&T 65540 found in some laptops).