Re: Need accelerated 24 bit video - wsfb driver for Expert3D-lite not working

On Sat, 17 Sep 2011 13:45:02 -0400
Mike Malopolski <[email protected]> wrote:

> >> X -configure locks the Blade video & keyboard.  When run from ssh, shows
> >> sunffb, wsfb, and wildcatfb drivers exist but says can't find any device.
> >>
> >> Only way to get X windows output is to manually create a xorg.conf with
> >> the wildcatfb driver specified:
> >> Section "Device"
> >> Identifier "Expert3D-lite"
> >> BusID   "PCI:0:1:0"
> >> Driver "wildcatfb"
> >> EndSection
> >> (see below xorg.conf for full configuration)
> >
> > Yes, autoconfiguration for ifb(4) has been broken since
> > the upgrade to xserver 1.7. I've meant to fix it several times but
> > never actually managed to do it.
> >
> > Patches are welcome :)
> >
> >>
> >> This leaves me with 8bit unaccelerated video output that is unusable as a
> >> graphic workstation.
> >
> > This is also sad but true, and as far as I know there is little to no
> > publically available documentation (and few developpers interested) to
> > write a driver for the 3dlabs wildcat family.
> 
> I have a Sun Ultra 80 loaded (4x 450Mhz UltraSparc II, 4GB of RAM), it has an
> Expert3D in it, so I am in the same boat, manually got 8-bit unaccelerated
> graphics working, I would love to be able to actually have it run lite X stuff
> (blackbox, etc.)
> 
> I have an interest in writing a driver for it. The only drawbacks are that I
> don't have a lot of time, and I have never wrote a "real" driver, just a few
> examples. I consider myself well versed in C, and I have tinkered with x86
> assembly (never used SPARC assembly). I also live in the US, which I know may
> be an issue for some areas of OpenBSD.
> 
> I have wanted to learn how to write drivers for a while, and I would like my
> Ultra 80 to be more usable. Has anybody ever attempted this? Is it a
> nightmare? Are the any hardware specs available? I can look into these
> questions as well, I just wondered if anyone knows.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Mike.
> 
> 

My understanding is that the hardware documentation is non-existant. 

However, if there is an effort made, I have an XVR-600 I can send to a willing developer or use for testing purposes!


-- 
TCJ <[email protected]>