My original question was that I was trying to install a PowerStorm graphics
card (PBXGB-AA) on an AlphaServer, but even after disabling the VGA on the
system board and in software, I got no video signal in console mode.
I quickly got exactly the tip I needed from Dr. Tom Blinn who stated:
"I have heard through the grapevine (but have not confirmed for myself) that
the VGA compatible graphics options will not work as the console when they
are installed behind the PCI-to-PCI bridge (that is, on a secondary PCI bus,
as you say you have installed it). I gather that the console firmware does
not work with the card on the secondary bus. Since the console firmware has
no device driver for the TGA2 chip on the card it has to use the generic
VBA support to do console I/O, and that's what's not working. Until you
have Digital UNIX and the X server up and running, you probably won't see
anything on the card or the attached
monitor."
Indeed, I moved the graphics card up to slot 11 (a primary PCI slot) and I
got the console output on the monitor. The grapevine appears to have been
right about this one.
I had another small problem because I had enabled the "alias" jumper on the
card, mistakenly believing I had an EV5 system (I admit I really don't know
to what the EV4 versus EV5 refers, and the manual was anything but
forthcoming). I disabled this jumper and added the following line to the
kernel:
controller tga0 at pci0 slot 11 vector tgaintr
and everything works fine! Thanks to the quick and useful help from:
"Dr. Tom Blinn, 603-881-0646" <tpb_at_zk3.dec.com>
Dave Cherkus <cherkus_at_UniMaster.COM>
Hellebo Knut <Knut.Hellebo_at_nho.hydro.com>
and finally
"Sean O'Connell" <sto_at_stat.Duke.EDU>, who had a good way to find out the
device name for the card, since neither sizer nor doconfig showed it. He
suggested booting with the generic kernel and looking for the device in
/var/adm/messages. Don't know if it's the oldest trick in the book, but it
was new to me.
thanks again for the help,
kevin reardon
my original question:
>
>I'm trying to install a new PCI graphics card on my AlphaServer 1000A 4/266
>running DU 3.2F. The graphics card is a PowerStorm 3D30 (PBXGB-AA). I have
>installed it on slot number 3 of the PCI bus (i.e. a secondary PCI slot),
>but I don't get any video signal from the card when I boot (i.e. no
>response from the attached monitor). I have disabled the VGA jumper (J27)
>on the system board and disabled VGA graphics via the ECU utility. The VGA
>jumper on the new graphics board is enabled as well, all to no avail.
>
>When I do a show config (after booting from the standard graphics port), a
>descriptive name of the board appears ("Digital TGA2 Graphics Controller"),
>but without any associated device name (e.g. ewa0.0.0.2000.0 or somesuch).
>The documentation that came with the card says the minimum software version
>is 3.2C, but I see on the supported options list for the AS1000, they list
>the minimum compatible DU revision as 3.2G. What is the real answer? There
>is no mention anywhere about required firmware revisions. I am currently
>running SRM firmware revision: 3.1-23, PALcode: OSF version 1.45-1. Could
>this be the problem?
>
>Has anyone installed one of these cards on an AlphaServer? What foolish
>thing have I overlooked here?
>
>as always, thanks for the help,
>kevin reardon
>
Received on Wed Jan 22 1997 - 19:53:57 NZDT