All-
A professor here on campus has had many problems with his AlphaStation 200
4/233 (it and its first replacement appear to have been `lemons'), and to
make the situation right the machine has been replaced with another
AlphaStation 200 4/233, but the new machine has a couple different (better)
hardware options that we would like to take advantage of. He received no
new documentation with this system and a search of the alpha-osf-managers
mailing list archives didn't turn up the information I'm looking for.
The new machine came with a video card that has the part # PBXGA/CA-CN on it,
which according to page two of the ZLXp-E1/E2/E3 PCI Graphics Options Owner's
Guide means that the card is a ZLXp-E3. When the machine (which is running
3.2d-1) boots, vga0 is identified as having 32MB and a resolution of 1024x768.
According to the owner's guide the PBXGA-CA can do 24 + Z planes with 16Mb of
memory -- no mention of what the maximum supported amount of memory is on the
card.
Based on the chart on page six of the owner's guide, the graphics card came
with the dip switches set to setting six (which explains why vga0 is identified
as 1024x768). Because the professor has a VRC21-HA monitor, I thought it might
be useful to switch the dip switches to switch setting 0 (same refresh rate
but higher pixel frequency and monitor resolution), so I tried switching
to setting 0.
Upon reboot, vga0 was identified as 32Mb 1280x1024 (yay!) and the text
appeared to be smaller. Once xdm started the color appeared to be slightly
different as well. That's when we noticed the major problem -- the cursor
was no longer visible. The cursor was still present (tracking the mouse and
clicking brought up menus and changed the focus as expected), it just wasn't
visible. I've since switched the dip switches back to setting 6, but it would
be nice to know why the cursor disappeared but everything else was fine.
What do I need to do to successfully set up the card so that the professor can
take maximum advantage of the graphics capabilities? What color level is
supported at 1280x1024? Any X configuration changes necessary? This is my
first experience on an AlphaStation with a graphics card better than the
ZLXp-E1, so any tips are appreciated. If all of this is documented in the man
pages and I've missed it, please let me know.
Tim
--
Tim Mooney mooney_at_dogbert.cc.ndsu.NoDak.edu
Information Technology Services (701) 231-1076 (Voice)
Room 242-J1, IACC Bldg. (701) 231-8541 (FAX)
North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58105
Received on Wed Sep 18 1996 - 23:52:27 NZST