C200 Voodoo2 Progress Report

I have gotten my C200 back online and started some preliminary work with the Voodoo2 PCI card. I currently have it plugged into one of the 5V/32bit slots which may or may not be optimal.

Anyways,

1. Linux Kernel 2.4.19-pa2 sstfb Voodoo1/2 framebuffer

Well, the kernel compiled with the sstfb without any errors. When I booted I got a black and white checkerboard pattern on the Voodoo2 monitor. I had disabled the stifb console, thinking that the kernel might pick the sstfb for a console, but it didn't. Just blankness for a while, then a checkerboard pattern.

I think this is encouraging and I think it is working. I'm currently recompiling and will post some more news later as I experiment some more with it. Next I will try and put a console on the sstfb or even try running X on it.

2. glide3-alpha-0.cvs.20010711

This is the Debian source for Glide3 on the Alpha arch, which is also big-endian. Initial compilation failed in multiple places about missing sys/io.h which I have located a file of that name in /usr/include/asm. I'll see if I can figure out how best to correct this and try again.

Cheers!
- Doug

And I'm just happy that I got X/KDE to work on the built in graphics card on my C180...finally. Keep it up since I have a Voodoo2 available to try on my C180 if you're successful.

derek

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Doug,

thanks very much for the report! Looking forward to trying this myself.

X via frame buffer would be great, I'll be happy
to work without glide.

Cheers,
Tobias

nope. alpha is little-endian.

LE: alpha, arm, cris, i386, ia64, superh
BE: m68k, mips, parisc, ppc, s390, sparc

(yes, i know many of these CPUs are bi-endian, but these are the default configs)

Revolutions do not require corporate support.

nope. alpha is little-endian.

LE: alpha, arm, cris, i386, ia64, superh
BE: m68k, mips, parisc, ppc, s390, sparc

(yes, i know many of these CPUs are bi-endian, but these are the default configs)

Revolutions do not require corporate support.

Hrrmm... things aren't quite so easy as I first thought. For one, the Voodoo2 is a 5V PCI card so it will not fit into the Cujo slots, only Dino.

Likewise, glide3-alpha wants to use <sys/io.h> which just isn't there on hppa because that file is particular to alpha and x86 archs as I understand it. I tried hacking it to use <asm/io.h> instead which caused a cascade of about a hundred errors when it got to that point. So glide3-alpha needs some looking at.

On the kernel front, I can build the sstfb module allright, which it must be made as a module or else an invisible HPMC apparently occurs. I know this because after it switches to fb console mode, nothing more is seen and hitting the power button causes instant power-off rather than the normal graceful shutdown.

When I "modprobe sstfb" it appears to load, except it is reporting that my 12Mb card only has 2Mb. The fbset program does not segfault, but complains about "Obsolete Major on /dev/fb1". The con2fb util doesn't report any errors but neither does it seem to do anything, and finally, a subsequent "$export FRAMEBUFFER=/dev/fb1; startx -- :0 -bpp 16 vt06" causes a lockup and suspected HPMC.

So, it seems like this stuff will require some working on. If anybody else wants to help out too that would be great because my time is limited and programming video cards is a bit above my level, but I'll keep tinkering with it in the meantime. I know some assembly and hardware basics but am not very familiar with pa-risc yet.

- Doug

Hrrmm... things aren't quite so easy as I first thought. For one, the Voodoo2 is a 5V PCI card so it will not fit into the Cujo slots, only Dino.

Likewise, glide3-alpha wants to use <sys/io.h> which just isn't there on hppa because that file is particular to alpha and x86 archs as I understand it. I tried hacking it to use <asm/io.h> instead which caused a cascade of about a hundred errors when it got to that point. So glide3-alpha needs some looking at.

On the kernel front, I can build the sstfb module allright, which it must be made as a module or else an invisible HPMC apparently occurs. I know this because after it switches to fb console mode, nothing more is seen and hitting the power button causes instant power-off rather than the normal graceful shutdown.

When I "modprobe sstfb" it appears to load, except it is reporting that my 12Mb card only has 2Mb. The fbset program does not segfault, but complains about "Obsolete Major on /dev/fb1". The con2fb util doesn't report any errors but neither does it seem to do anything, and finally, a subsequent "$export FRAMEBUFFER=/dev/fb1; startx -- :0 -bpp 16 vt06" causes a lockup and suspected HPMC.

So, it seems like this stuff will require some working on. If anybody else wants to help out too that would be great because my time is limited and programming video cards is a bit above my level, but I'll keep tinkering with it in the meantime. I know some assembly and hardware basics but am not very familiar with pa-risc yet.

- Doug

Which means some people can't use it? But you and I have 5V slots allright, don't we.

Mine too!! Things always seem to be more difficult than you'd think at first. In any case I will now try to repeat your initial steps, and I'll be very happy if I get to the checkerboard pattern.

Cheers,
Tobias

The C200 and probably C160, 180, 240, and 360
have two three different busses inside: the
Hewlett-Packard GSC bus, 5V/32bit PCI (dino),
and 3V/64bit PCI (cujo). Some PCI cards are
universal and have two punchouts. The 3V cards
have the punchout close to the outside edge of
the card, and 5V are the other way around.
You can use a 3V/32bit card in a 3V/64bit
slot with no problems. The Voodoo2 is 5V
only and will not fit into one of the Cujo slots.

Right, C200 has both types. See above.

Yeah, not sure what did that. After rebuilding the sstfb as a module and modprobe'ing it, I got a couple of colored blocks, but not the checkerboard. I'm not sure of the exact sequence as I haven't hooked up the spare monitor yet but was switching the VGA cable back and forth. Further testing seems warranted.

My C200 is back offline temporarily. I'm re-wiring my LAN as it has gotten to be a horrendous mess of tangled wires and cables after unplugging and replugging things for several months. Need to straighten it out again :-)

I think I'll put the C200 onto my KVM switch with my X86 box and reconsolidate it. I don't believe I'll be cracking the case open anymore so it can be stowed away better than it is. I put something like 370Mb RAM into it, a cdrom, an EEPro100, and the Voodoo2. It is pretty well maxed out unless I run low on HDD space which seems unlikely considering I just use it as a hobby linux hacking box.

Thats it for now.

- Doug

... and some have an EISA slot provided by Wax. I'm not sure exactly which configurations exist, but the hwdb thinks that Cujo was only used in the C200+, C240+, C360 and J2240. The hwdb is slightly limited in that there's only one profile per name, when it's possible to have different configurations of the same box. All B/C class boxes of that era are guaranteed to have a Dino though, so there's no real problem with requiring the use of a 5V slot.

Revolutions do not require corporate support.