*BSD News Article 13306


Return to BSD News archive

Xref: sserve comp.os.386bsd.development:275 comp.os.386bsd.questions:989 comp.os.linux:30931 comp.windows.x.i386unix:949 comp.unix.pc-clone.32bit:2022
Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!constellation!osuunx.ucc.okstate.edu!moe.ksu.ksu.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!network.ucsd.edu!yossarian!bill
From: bill@yossarian.ucsd.edu (Bill Reynolds)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.development,comp.os.386bsd.questions,comp.os.linux,comp.windows.x.i386unix,comp.unix.pc-clone.32bit
Subject: Cirrus XFree86 Driver: Alpha testers wanted
Date: 24 Mar 93 00:52:59
Organization: Institute for Nonlinear Science, UCSD
Lines: 68
Distribution: world
Message-ID: <BILL.93Mar24005259@yossarian.ucsd.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: louise.ucsd.edu

I've got a color driver up and running for the Cirrus 5426 chip. So
far, it has only been tested on my board: a Genoa 8500. If you're
interested in being an alpha tester, send me mail at the address below
(not the one in the From line). Note that you need to be able to
build the XFree server on your system.

Here is the README:

$Header: /usr/local/src/Xaccel/cirrus/RCS/README,v 1.3 1993/03/24 07:03:36 bill Exp $

This is the alpha version of the Cirrus Chipset driver for XFree86. The 
code is best described in terms of what it's not rather than what it is.

WHAT IT DOESN'T DO
-It doesn't use the Hardware BitBLT 
-It doesn't use the Extended Write Modes for Text
-It doesn't use the hardware cursor
-It doesn't do monochrome (use the generic server)
-It doesn't do interlace (Probably not to bad to add, how 
	badly is this needed?)
-It doesn't support any chip other than the 5426 (probably easy to fix,
although getting less easy as we add goodies)

WHAT IT DOES DO
-It supports the following twelve dot clocks
 Clocks 25.2 28.3 41.2 36.1 31.5 40.0 44.9 49.87 65.0 72.2 75.0 80.0
(in that order)


Currently it's just code for a dumb framebuffer. It's not fast, but I find
it tolerable on my machine (which is probably bad news for someone else who 
finds it intolerable on theirs :-).

Most of the fishy code is now gone. Not to say that it won't reappear as 
we add more features.

BUGS
I see the following problems:

-Sparklies. Could be a hardware problem on my bus, could be a bogus 
register someplace. I'm open to suggestions.

-Diagonal Lines. When a client (like xv) really beats on the colormap, 
diagonal lines appear on the display, going from the lower left to the 
upper right. This is undoubtedly some kind of software problem. As to 
what that problem is, I'm clueless.

-The amount of video memory is hardwired in. Cirrus claims that you can't
determine the amount of memory without a bios call. I, feeling that this
is bullshit, am waiting for a call from the Cirrus bios guy.

-The clock probe routine finds different clocks than what the Cirrus 
databook says should be there. Still seems to work. Not clear if it's 
the clock probe hack or the chip doesn't run at the speed it thinks it
runs at.

FIXED BUGS
The problems with moving virtual screen sizes around seems to be fixed.
Send Bug Reports, Flames and Suggestions to me:
______________________________________________________________________________
Bill Reynolds         | Hey Rocky! Watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat!
bill@goshawk.lanl.gov |                                  -Bullwinkle


--
______________________________________________________________________________
Bill Reynolds         | Hey Rocky! Watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat!
bill@goshawk.lanl.gov |                                  -Bullwinkle