Subject: Re: Sparc graphics and other random ramblings...
To: Eduardo Horvath <eeh@turbolinux.com>
From: Kurt J. Lidl <lidl@pix.net>
List: port-sparc
Date: 08/17/2000 13:01:13
On Thu, Aug 17, 2000 at 09:37:13AM -0700, Eduardo Horvath wrote:
> On Mon, 14 Aug 2000, Gerald Richter wrote:
> 
> > I wasn't thinking of something for major production, just a niche
> > product for those of use that wanna play with more bits in the graphics
> > card... Kinda like that G4 slave core I wanted to build for my 4/110 if
> > I ever got that going...
> 
> Let's ignore the cost of producing a one-off board for now.  (You could
> probably buy a new U5 for less).  You would need to get XFree86 working on
> SPARC.  Do you really want to mess with that can of worms?

Why do you think this is so hard?

I had Xfree86 3.3.6 running on the BSD/OS 4.01 (sparc) version -- it
only took me a little bit of dinking to make it work.  Mostly educating
the system that __bsdi__ != little endian!

The guys at Redhat that have been doing the Sparc work have
contributed drivers for the following sparc board under XFree86
4.0[.1].  Now, these drivers would require some work to get working
under BSD-ish systems, as they have gone down the path towards the
Linux fbcon code, but I don't think they are a lost cause.

There are currently drivers for the following sparc graphics boards:
	sunbw0
	suncg14
	suncg3
	suncg6
	sunggb
	sunleo
	suntcx

Note -- I don't believe that the cg6 driver is accelerated (yet)!  The ffb
driver deals with both the PCI and UPA varients, if I remember
correctly.

I haven't gotten around to writing the equivilent prom walking
routines for BSD/OS that they did for Linux, but it is not an
insurmountable task.  Anybody out there interested in helping?

-Kurt