'lo,

I've got a PowerStorm 4d20 (similar vain as to your card) that I've been 
attempting to get working under alpha-netbsd with little success so 
far.  I know that it's been accomplished by other people, just not by me.

The VGA chip (cirrus logic) is for doing text mode console stuff only.  
The real work in a graphics mode is being done in the IBM asic & r4500 chip.

The audio jack is for 3d glasses... i'm not sure what kind and don't 
believe i've ever seen a pair.

In reguards to using your trio, i've got a s3 trio 64 i've been using 
under netbsd as a temporary solution due to the powerstorm not working 
(doesn't even boot to text mode appropriately).  I have been unable to 
get the trio to work under X11 with neither netbsd nor linux.  If you 
don't get text mode after the secondary boot loader with your 'serious 
video card', try installing the trio and install the system using 
that... at least that way you'll get text on your screen.  (another 
solution would be to use serial consoles).

If your card has a rotary switch, try setting it to 'C' (640x480x60hz).

The rotary switch determines screen resolution in a non-arc bios system.

I'm not sure if the TurboChannel cards (your PM*) matches the PCI cards, 
but here's a list of the PowerStorm 3d20/4d20 rotary switch definitions:

http://h71000.www7.hp.com/wizard/wiz_2041.html

---

After some disgust.... I decided to go ahead and try all of the video 
modes on the rotatary knob.... and to my delight (and annoyance) one 
(only one) mode worked!

640x480@60hz works.... has some graphical corruption on the screen 
(corrupted pixels), so i'd assume it's something with the given mode or 
bad vram (i HOPE it's not the latter).

So, it's nice to have made some progress.... I can now boot the card and 
it'll happily exist in the console world (with the bits of corruption) 
... and I *can* indeed get X up and running (and the corruption seems to 
stay on certain bitmaps or something... so... we'l see).  I'll take the 
machine to work where I have a more competent monitor (the one I'm 
working with is a bit aged and may be very picky about the different 
resolutions it supports).... and hope the corruption goes away.  Will 
post more info in a few days.

In reguards to the rotary switch..... for anyone pulling hair as well.. 
i found putting a jumper on both 'alias' and 'vga_en' as well as 
changing the rotary switch to 'C' to give me a working system under 
netbsd (linux appears to only use the VGA side of the card...).

-Will

p.s. sorry for delay, i've been naughty and sending html emails.... so 
this is a combination of a couple emails into one post...

Sean Davis wrote:

>On Mon, Nov 10, 2003 at 07:35:07PM +0900, Toru Nishimura wrote:
>  
>
>>Sean Davis dive@endersgame.net asked;
>>
>>    
>>
>>>I pulled a full-length PCI video card out of my AlphaStation 600 5/266, and
>>>in addition to the VGA connector on the back, it has what looks like an
>>>audio jack. Anybody have any idea what -that- is supposed to be/do?
>>>      
>>>
>>It sounds like one of TGA/TGA2 or PV equipped PCI video card.  The jack
>>is designed for "3D view" by "stereo glasses" device, which has been found
>>in other desktop WS at that time like SGI Indy.
>>    
>>
>
>Ah, neat. Is X likely to be able to use this card? I don't need the "3d
>view" feature, although that does sound interesting. I bet the glasses for
>it are rather hard to find now ;)
>
>-Sean
>
>--
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>  
>