Xwsfb on DECstation 5000/133 with PMAGB-B

[George Harvey <fr30%dial.pipex.com@localhost>]

Hi,

Over the holiday period, I dug out my 5000/133 with a view to updating the NetBSD installation and giving X11 a try. Having discovered that NetBSD 9.3 didn't include an X server for this model, I had a look at the mailing list and found David Brownlee's post from 4th Dec. 2021 (thread is 'Missing X binary') with a link to a test distribution with Xwsfb support. I have downloaded the sets and installed them.

My 5000 has a PMAGB-B card, it displays the text console normally but after running 'startx', the monitor reports 'no signal' and goes blank. Logging in over the network, I can see that both the X server and ctwm are running and there are no obvious errors in Xorg.0.log. The kernel is version 9.99.92 and the PMAGB is reported as:

  sfb0 at tc0 slot 0 offset 0x0: 1280x1024, 8bpp
  wsdisplay0 at sfb0 kbdmux 1

Is there a more recent kernel version and/or X server that I should try?

I also have a PMAGD-AA card but that is listed as unsupported so I haven't tried it.

George