On Tue, 18 Sep 2001, R. C. Dowdeswell wrote:

> On 7093235:0 seconds since the Beginning of the UNIX epoch
> "B. James Phillippe" wrote:
> >
> >I have NetBSD-1.5 installed on my AS 200 and am more-or-less in good
> >shape.  However, I have a strange display problem at the console (I'm
> >not messing with X yet).  My ZLXp-E2 adapter is configured (via DIP
> >switch) to a console mode of 1152x900, 66Hz, 93Mhz (position 4).  This
> >provides a nice, sharp white-on-black display at said resolution while
> >in SRM.  However, once the kernel boots the resolution seems to stay at
> >1152x900, but the display is shifted to the right and slightly down, and
> >the background is green.  There is also some ghosting (which I know from
> >previous experience to be a hardware issue with the ZLXp-E? boards, and
> >requires shorting two pins to resolve*).  I tried setting tga_sync_green
> >to no avail (just wiped out my display when set to "1", display is as
> >described when set to "2").  I have a standard multisync peecee-type
> >monitor which has otherwise worked fine with my Alpha.
> >
> >Any ideas?
>
> Well, not off the top of my head for this one, except that I know that
> I've used the ZLXp-E2 on an AS 200 4/233 without running into those
> problems.

Yes, I have used this hardware with one of those other OpenSource OS' for
Alpha (Linux-2.2, if it matters) without such problems.  Plus, the SRM
console is displayed perfectly in all the resolutions my monitor supports.
This is definitely a kernel issue; the problem begins as soon as the tga is
initialized at bootup, and goes away if I halt back to the SRM.

> Hmmm.  Hold on a sec.
>
> Are you in a position to build a kernel?  If so, try the attached patch
> in sys/dev/ic.  This may change your symptoms, but it is just a guess.

I would really like to test this out.  Unfortunately, I'm still hobbling a
bit.  I have only about 10 hours of flight-time on NetBSD, running a stock
1.5 install, and I haven't been able to locate the kernel source or
compilation instructions yet (though I haven't looked hard).  I was
planning on powering through the upgrade to 1.5.2 first and seeing if the
problem was still present, then starting to poke around in the kernel.  I
actually have some kernel development experience with the TGA frame-buffer
driver in Linux-2.2 (I added the VESA screenblank code).  So I'm
comfortable getting my hands dirty.

> Other than that, have you tried any other graphics resolutions than
> 1152x900? Just to see if they work?  That might help narrow the problem
> down a bit.

Yes, I reverted from 1152x900 to vanilla 640x480 and the distortion is
less, but still obvious and bothersome.

Thanks for the helpful response!  I'll follow up when I get a chance to
test the diff.

-bp
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