On Mon, 22 Dec 1997, Michael R Zucca wrote:

> Actually, sounds like your card's PrimaryInit code is switching modes to
> 24 bit mode. Unfortunately, I don't think Paul's code will adjust for willy
> nilly mode changes like this.

Actually, it does try to handle this situation.  After calling the
board's Driver at the Open entry point, it attempts to set the modeback
to the same bit-depth that the system was booted in.  It appears that
this is not working on the 24STV.  :(

> Try booting NetBSD in Millions of colors mode. That way, your card will simply
> stay in 24 bit mode when SLOTMAN runs the PrimaryInit code and the console
> will be visible as *one* screen :)

Well, almost!  If the Initialization routines display a logo, that logo
will still be in the frame buffer.  (At least on my card at home, the
card does not store the original frame buffer before displaying the
logo.)  But boot in 24-bit mode anyway, so that the console code will be
properly set-up.

> It will be slow but once you get X going, the X server will switch the card
> into 8 bit mode and things will pick up speed again.

Also, if you down-load the grftest program (also available at
ftp.whooppee.com), it will set things back to 1-bit mode when it
finishes.  Furthermore, the grftest program should be used to check that
SLOTMAN can successfully manipulate your card's mode.

> A solution to this problem might be to have the grf driver check the bit depth
> at startup and either switch it back to the one stored or reinit the console
> to the new depth.

As noted above, it does _try_ to do this.  But it sounds like the mode
switching stuff might be broken (or at least different) on the card in
question.


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