This also applies to the graphics options for the SS5, in all likelihood.
I'd love to be able to get 24-bit on my ss5/170!

On Wed, 28 Feb 2001, Michael Wolfson wrote:

# At 2:21 PM -0800 2/28/01, Erik E. Fair wrote:
#
# :)I would, but I lack the experience to do anything with graphics
# :)devices, not to mention that there's no public documentation of the
# :)device...
#
# There is always the Solaris source code that we could clean-room, plus I
# think sparclinux might support it.
#
# :)I will contribute $100 to the beer bounty fund, though; I want 24-bit
# :)SX graphics on my SS20/85 to work, too.
#
# Wow!  Cool!  Only a couple more people willing to contribute that much and
# we might just hire a Wasabi programmer (of course it'd also be good PR for
# them too).
#
# Then, once we get audio and MP, an SS20 running NetBSD would be a
# phenomenal platform (wishful thinking, I know).
#
# :)One avenue to pursue: the SS20 is almost certainly EOL now

I think the entire Sun4m set falls into this category.

# Anyone with contacts at Sun hanging around here?

Matt Jacob seems to have been somewhat helpful in this arena, although
the last I heard from him on this was also that there are no docs,
even within Sun, on how to drive the graphics boards.  I think that
looking at the Solaris drivers might not be a bad place to start.

It would occur to me that the how-to-access-the-registers bit is the
tricky thing; everything after that would be the acceleration.

I'd settle for slow 24-bit just because the Sun4m series aren't really
fast enough to animate anything decently anyway.

				--*greywolf;
--
*BSD: Mach 3 stealthOS, undetectable by media radar.