new subsject: Paradise VGA controller

new subsject: Paradise VGA controller

[Henry]

[ stuff deleted ]
> Many thanks to all who gave help.  My next problem is adding the HP
> VGA Board (D1180A) to the vgadb.  It has a Paradise controller on it.
> 640x480x1 works fine, 640x480x8 results in the display wrapping into
> about six parts on the screen with a big black box in the middle.  (If
> anyone has already done this can they get it touch.)  Is there a way to
> leave the message telling me that the VGA card isn't in the database on
> the screen.  Alternatively, is there a way of regenerating the message
> once booted?
> 
I have a Compaq Elite laptop with a Paradise controller on it and experience
similar problems.  I would also be interested in seeing this chip supported.
I was considering writing a controller for the paradise chip as an exercise in
learning the Plan9 development environment, but I have just started a new job
that likely will not leave me much free time.  However, if everybody else is
busier than I am, then I will reconsider.

Henry (henry@instantiated.on.ca)
 Quotes from Samuel Goldwyn, immigrant turned famous movie producer:
 
 Keep a stiff upper chin.

new subsject: Paradise VGA controller

[Stephen]

>I posted something earlier this week about how to take those first, tentative steps
>down the slippery slope to VGA madness. To do any more than 640x480x[18] you need the

Sadly I missed your earlier post, I don't suppose you still have a copy handy
that you could send to me ? I have a Diamond Stealth 64 V1.14 and a CTX1451
monitor which is giving me problems. I can get a good image at 800x600x1
but the screen flickers just too much for it to be usable - It makes me feel
sea sick ! 800x600x8 shows the same symptoms as the chap with the paradise
card, i.e. 4 or 5 ghost images in the last 1/5th of the screen of what is 
approximately in the center of the display. 1024x768x1 just causes the monitor
to loose sync. The monitor specs seem to match those specified for multisync65,
but.... I do have the H and V sync timings for the monitor but have no idea
how to use those to modify the H and V parameters in vgadb to try and improve
matters. I am also a bit worried that the older version of the Diamond card
that I have is just not compatible with the v2.02 driver provided with the
plan9 demo disks.

any help or pointers to docs on the matter would be most appreciated.

stephen

BTW:- why doesn't sam clean its window up properly on exit, acme and mothra
      do so, it was like this in the previous release too - i would have
      thought it would have been tidied up by now.

new subsject: Paradise VGA controller

[jmk]

I posted something earlier this week about how to take those first, tentative steps
down the slippery slope to VGA madness. To do any more than 640x480x[18] you need the
datasheets for the parts on the card: the VGA chip, the RAMDAC and the clock-generator.
You can often get by without any RAMDAC programming for resolutions up to 1024x768.
Sometimes there's more than one way for the VGA and clock-generator to interact and
although VGA cards from different manufacturers may contain the same major components,
they may require different initialisation sequences.

That's why I like the S3 Trio64 and Cirrus CL-GD54xx GUI chips, they contain the RAMDAC
and clock-generator too.