Subject: Re: Newbie Mac IIsi questions (Color X11R6)
To: None <port-mac68k@netbsd.org>
From: Cathryn L. Kliegel <kliegel@ix.netcom.com>
List: port-mac68k
Date: 08/30/2002 21:38:47
Hello All:

Thankyou for all of your responses. I have separated my questions to avoid
confusion.

"Cathryn L. Kliegel" wrote:

> 4) Color X11R6. Is there support for internal Mac IIsi video? Would you
> like me to put it there? How would I get started?

Thankyou for the pointers to the Color X servers and to the
xfree86/doc/DESIGN document. It is indeed a bit of work. I have a couple of
questions before I can see how to do this.

1) How do X servers handle reconfiguration of the display? I worked on X
awhile ago and I don't remember how this worked. Can you change screen
resolution or depth on the fly, or do you have to configure the server for
the screen configuration you want and then that is fixed for the lifetime
of the server? Is there a configuration event that is sent to the open
windows to tell them that the screen is changed and they need to reacquire
their display configuration and colors?

2) I know a bit about how the MacIIsi internal video works. I know how the
frame buffer works, the VIA register to poke to change screen depth, the
VIA registers to read to find out the screen resolution, and the address of
the BT478 ramdac. The hole in my knowledge is the register map/pinout for
the BT478, to change the colormap. I have not been successful in finding
any online BT478 documentation, as Brooktree got bought by someone
(Cypress?) who got bought by someone else . . .

Thanks in advance,

James