Date: Wed, 25 Jan 1995 22:10:06 +0000 (MST) From: Jeremy Chatfield <jdc@crab.xinside.com> To: fbsd@clem.systemsix.com (Steve Passe) Cc: ljo@po.cwru.edu, freebsd-hackers@freefall.cdrom.com Subject: Re: Joystick driver available Message-ID: <199501260510.WAA08454@crab.xinside.com> In-Reply-To: <199501252027.NAA01604@clem.systemsix.com> from "Steve Passe" at Jan 25, 95 01:27:44 pm
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Steve Passe writes:
>
> > Just buy multi-head capable X server from X Inside. (800) XINSIDE.
> > Costs $99.50 and shoul support multiple PCI cards.
> > I have it,but none of my PCI cards work together... It is still
> > a bit unclear exactly what cards do work.
>
> Talked to them, they evidently have such a beast. Limited
> card support now, but they claim an update will soon fix that.
> No need to do any hardware/OS hacking, they disable vga section
> of cards (via software) and use as PCI devices. Would be a great
> solution EXCEPT for a bonehead like me who insists on having source.
> So discussion now is limited to techniques for accessing PCI video
> cards.
There are limits on what can be combined. These are inherent in the
design of varioous boards and chipsets. The boards that work
together best, are the boards designed to work together... Notably
arbitrary numbers of the Matrox Impression and Matrox Ultima, or two
I-128's.
There are some specific limitations to the use of PCI bus graphics
boards. You can't mix PCI bus and other bus types' graphics boards.
For example, a VGA ISA card cannot be made towork with an I-128.
Chipset limitations:
Weitek P9000
We don't know of any boards, or any way, to have a Weitek P9000, PCI
board coexist with any board. The VGA mode cannot be disabled.
Board limitations:
ATI Mach64
S3 964
STB PowerGraph Pro
Tseng ET4000/W32p
The ATI Mach64 (Graphics Pro Turbo, WinTurbo, Gateway Mach64) must be
in the lowest available PCI slot number. This is the PCI logical
slot number, which can be confusing. For example, an Intel Plato
motherboard has Slot 0 as the middle of the three slots. This is not
a restriction imposed by the X Server, but by the ATI board.
S3 964 boards can be used, but so far as we can see, only one at a
time.
STB Powergraph Pro (Cirrus 5434) seems unhappy paired with anything
else. This may be a 543x limit.
Tseng ET4000/W32p boards are difficult. Some boards (Diamond Stealth
32) insist that they are the boot VGA board, even when they are in
slot3 and two other boards should have priority. These will fail...
Others (Jonas Olsson has the Matrox Comet) will probably work, but
are kind of tricky to have working reliably (some of the graphics
board vendors tell us that it is flat impossible, but that's seems to
be not completely true).
What works:
#9 Imagine 128 (I-128)
#9 GXE64 pro (S3 964)
Matrox Impression Plus (MGA ATHENA)
ATI Graphics Pro Turbo (ATI Mach64)
#9 GXE64 (S3 864)
Tseng VGA/32 (ET4000/W32p)
Diamond Stealth 32 (ET4k/W32p, if in first slot)
etc...
For example (working from the lowest numbered slot, dual head
Accelerated-X 1.2 Beta/3):
ATI Pro Turbo, #9 GXE64pro OK
ATI Pro Turbo, STB Nitro (though the reset is not quite right)
Pro Turbo, Impression Plus OK
Pro Turbo, I-128 OK
Pro Turbo, GXE64 OK
Impression Plus, Imp Plus OK
Tseng VGA/32, Impression Plus OK
Diamond Stealth 32, Impression Plus OK
etc...
What should work and currently fails:
ATI Pro Turbo, Diamond Stealth 64 VRAM
Pro Turbo, Diamond Stealth 64 VRAM FAIL (ST64 display bad)
Pro Turbo, STB Nitro FAIL (5434 not right)
Pro Turbo, 64310 FAIL (machine lockup)
Pro Turbo, STB PowerGraph Pro FAIL (machine lockup)
ST32, GXE64 FAIL (machine lockup)
ST32, I-128 OK - horz too fast
for monitor (acer34t, explicitly configured)
ST32, GXE64p FAIL (machine lockup)
ST32, STB PgPro FAIL (machine lockup)
etc...
As you can see, we've still got some boards that are troublesome in
combination. Testing this is a combinatorial explosion. These lists
are a fraction of the full two-board tested list, and that is only
around the same size as the three board list (we take all two-board
working pairs and add a third board).
A full list should be available when we get to the release, or
shortly thereafter. Running just basic 1024x768x8bpp tests for the
full set of boards, takes days...
Cheers, JeremyC.
--
Jeremy Chatfield, +1(303)470-5302, FAX:+1(303)470-5513, email:jdc@xinside.com
X Inside Inc, P O Box 10774, Golden, CO 80401-0610, USA.
Commercial X Server - for more information please try these services
http://www.xinside.com info@xinside.com ftp.xinside.com
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