Scrambled Picasso IV console

[David Meiklejohn <meikled%zeta.org.au@localhost>]

I'm running NetBSD 1.3 with a Picasso IV graphics card and an NEC E700
monitor.

When I first tried to set up NetBSD, I was unable to use this monitor and had
to resort to my old C= 1960, because the NEC couldn't sync to the default
31kHz 640x480 Picasso IV console mode.  Something wrong in some part of the
timings, but I don't know what.

By saving the settings from the Picasso 96 prefs, I produced some sets of
numbers for graphics modes I have working on the Amiga side.  I put them into
an /etc/grfmodes file, and using that with grfconfig has allowed me to get X
working at 1024x768, and I'm quite happy with it.  I have set up xdm, so when
using my NEC monitor, I would get an initial console which the monitor
couldn't sync to, while the system booted, until coming up with a stable
display when xdm took over.

I tried setting the console mode after booting, using grfconfig, to a 640x480
mode, with different timing parameters.  This produced a stable display, but a
scrambled one.  That is, the mapping of character memory on the display
appeared to be incorrect.  Many text columns are missing, and some characters
from the left of the screen are repeated on the right.  I thought that perhaps
this could be corrected by using iteconfig.  However, when directing iteconfig
to use ttye3 (for the Cirrus display), it complains about an inappropriate
ioctl, which implies that iteconfig cannot set display parameters on a Cirrus
console.

Finally, I found where in grf_cl.c the initial console mode is set, in a
grfcltext_mode struct, called clconsole_mode.  I changed that so it would use
timing parameters which I knew would work, and rebuilt the kernel.  It works
just as before, except now that when NetBSD first boots, I have a nice stable
display, full of scrambled letters!!!  Then X starts up and the system is
usable.

I would like to have a console which can work with my monitor, but I can't
figure out how the parameters I have changed in clconsole_mode affect the
character mapping.  There must be a related data structure somewhere, but I
can't see it.  This very struct is passed to ite_cl.c, so I don't see what
else to adjust.

Does anyone know, and can spare me from having to spend many days work in
pouring through the ite code?

If you do, then thanks in advance!


Regards,
David Meiklejohn