Re: Graphics Window Setup

From: Don Williams (dwilli10_at_san.rr.com)
Date: 10/15/03 

Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2003 05:50:23 GMT

"Bela Lubkin" <belal@sco.com> wrote in message
news:20031015050539.GE7782@sco.com...
> Don Williams wrote:
>
> > Bela points out there is a BTL, OSS653A, to fix the initial VGA
Recognition
> > problem with some mother boards.
> >
> > The ltr for that loader mentions the Intel 845 series boards (what I
have),
> > and some IBM, Gateway, and Compaq systems and systems using AMI Bios
issued
> > between early 2002 and mid-2003.
> >
> > I upgraded to Bios Version P10 which is dated 08/08/2003. That's the
latest
> > I could find as of a few days ago and it doesn't fix the problem.
> >
> > I'm running a manually patched version of 5.0.6 but when I set the
system to
> > boot from the OSR 5.0.6 CD I get a blank screen and then a flashing
cursor,
> > no text, which is how it all started after the mother board change.
This is
> > what caused the need for a patch.
> >
> > I don't know whether that problem has been fixed in 5.0.7 because the
ltr
> > mentions that the BTL can be used with 5.0.2, 5.0.4, 5.0.5, 5.0.6, and
> > 5.0.7. Seems that if it were fixed in 5.0.7 that wouldn't be mentioned
in
> > the lttr about the BTL.
>
> It was supposed to be fixed in OSR507, but the fix didn't work. At the
> time, nobody could point me at a machine that actually duplicated the
> problem, so I put in the best fix I could come up with without a test
> machine, and it wasn't good enough. Actually it's sort of good enough.
> OSR507 doesn't need oss653a, you can use a boot string "cn.primary=vga".
> Since oss653a does _work_ with OSR507, I documented it that way, giving
> 507 users two choices.
>
> The problem you're referring to is a conflict between the OSR5 kernel
> console driver and your machine's BIOS. It has little to no bearing on
> the X server.
>
> > My Open Server thinks the graphics device is a VESA SiS, Standard VGA,
VESA
> > SiS VBE (3.0) 1024X768 256-color.
> >
> > I don't know whether that came from the OS recognizing the board or from
the
> > patch I typed in to force the system to be forced unconditionally to set
for
> > a VGA card.
>
> The patch was so the console driver would recognize the card; so you
> could get text mode to work. X11 graphics drivers run as user
> processes. The string you show came from the machine's video BIOS and
> was obtained by user-level tools that call into the BIOS.
>
> You have an old hand-patch from when I was developing what became
> oss653a. oss653a is a cleaned-up version of the same thing. Both fix
> only text-mode problems.
>
> >Bela<

So it's possible the OS did pick up the graphics card definition with this
current mother board.

I understand about the text-mode fix and thanks to you the hand patch works
fine without having to worry about a BTL.
I'm going to make a floppy with oss653a on it and then boot from the CD just
to see how that works. That would be a nice thing to have available in case
I have to do a re-install and don't want to do the hand patch again.

Thanks,

DAW

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