Thank you very much to the following people who responded to my
question regarding the PS 4D10T graphics board.
Bryan Lavelle <Bryan.Lavelle_at_digital.com>
Dr. Tom Blinn, 603-884-0646" <tpb_at_doctor.zk3.dec.com>
Serguei Patchkovskii <patchkov_at_ucalgary.ca>
Thomas Leitner <tom_at_finwds01.tu-graz.ac.at>
Christian Hasse <c.hasse_at_itm.rwth-aachen.de>
Tom Webster <webster_at_ssdpdc.lgb.cal.boeing.com>
Jim R Jones <Jim_R_Jones_at_notesbridge.cummins.com>
Erik Persson <erik_at_ikp.liu.se>
Original question:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hello managers,
I have a problem with the 4D10T graphics board in a PW 500au.
Has anyone running a PW 500au with the 4D10T graphics board. I ordered this
machine some days ago with the statement from the Digital Distributor that the
graphics board will be working.
Now (after I got the machine) the board works only with 640x480. I got the
answer from DIGITAL support that this graphics board is not supported in a PW
500au machine.
Solution:
~~~~~~~~~
The Powerstorm 4D10T is not supported in the PersonalWorkstation 500au. You
don't get any support from DEC.
There is a beta software available for OPEN3D for this board
(
http://www.service.digital.com/open3d/kit-free/open3d_kit.html). I have
installed this software on my machine and it works so far. I don't have any
experiences about performance or bugs until now.
The following steps are needed to install the software:
1. You must run DUX 4.0D
2. You must run OPEN3D 4.8
(
http://www.workstation.digital.com/drivers/graphics/O3D480.tar) including the
license
3. untar and install the beta software kit
4. boot the machine with the generic kernel
5. build a new kernel with doconfig
6. restart the machine
After the restart the Xserver should start with a high resolution (1280x1024).
You can change the color depth with the option "-vclass0 TrueColor" in the file
/usr/dt/config/Xservers (if you using dtlogin).
In the moment my board is running with 16 bit color dept, not with 24 bit like I
expected. I don't know the reason in the moment.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> From Bryan Lavelle <Bryan.Lavelle_at_digital.com>
Yes, go back to your distributor and take up the issue with them. If they
lied, get them to give you an option that is supported.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Dr. Tom Blinn, 603-884-0646" <tpb_at_doctor.zk3.dec.com>
If the board is supported, it's probably only supported by the Open3D
software, which you would need to install separately. I don't know from
personal experience if that will solve your problems. You should read the
Open3D Software Product Description and release notes to determine whether
the option is supported by Open3D. Whether Open3D will make it work right
on that system type is also a question for the Open3D Software Product
Description and release notes.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>From: Serguei Patchkovskii <patchkov_at_ucalgary.ca>
4D10T is listed by the system options catalog as supported in 500a, but not
500au. In practice, this probably means that it is supported by NT, but not
by DU or VMS.
You can get system options catalogs at
http://www.digital.com/soc/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>From: Thomas Leitner <tom_at_finwds01.tu-graz.ac.at>
Du musst die neueste Version von Open3D installieren. Dort ist der
X-Windows Server fuer dieses Board dabei. Open3D ist auf der Associated
Products CD drauf. Du kannst es aber auch vom Internet laden. Leider
faellt mir der URL nicht mehr ein. Jedenfalls: Stelle sicher, dass Du die
aktuellste Version 4.9 hast.
Und nochwas: Du brauchst ein Lizence Pak dafuer!
....
Ich habe nun doch noch einen Url gefunden. Leider nur mit einem Beta Kit aber
immerhin:
http://www.service.digital.com/open3d/kit-free/open3d_kit.html
...
Eine nicht Beta Version gibts auf:
http://www.workstation.digital.com/drivers/graphics/O3D480.tar
....
Ich habe zwar Open3D 4.8 installiert, aber eine andere Grafikkarte im
Einsatz. Wenn Du sagst dass der X Server nicht hochfaehrt: Was
ist denn die Fehlermeldung? Check das File /var/adm/X0msgs dafuer.
Um den X Server zu checken empfehle ich das System kurzfristig ohne X zu
betreiben indem Du folgendes machst:
# /sbin/rc3.d/S95xlogin stop
# mv /sbin/rc3.d/S95xlogin /sbin/rc3.d/XS95xlogin
Sodann kannst Du nach dem Booten auf der Console ohne X einloggen.
Dann kann der X Server testhalber gestartet werden mit:
# /usr/bin/X11/X :0
Ach ja nochwas: Du brauchst Digital Unix 4.0D um Open3D 4.8
zu betreiben.
Ich kenne auch jemanden der genau so eine Konfiguration im Einsatz
hat und zwar: Christian Hasse <c.hasse_at_itm.rwth-aachen.de>.
Du kannst ihn nach seiner genauen Konfiguration fragen.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Christian Hasse <c.hasse_at_itm.rwth-aachen.de>
Leider stimmt das nicht ganz. Ich habe lange ueberlegt, ob ich
mir die Karte kaufen sollte. Aufgrund der Probleme und der
Nichtverfuegbarkeit von Open3D 4.9 habe ich mir dann doch
eine ZLXp-L2 gekauft, aber egal.
...
Es koennte daran liegen, dass Du keinen neuen Kernel gebaut hast.
Ich wuerde folgendes probieren. Mit dem generischen Kernel booten
- cp /vmunix /vmunix.save
- cp /usr/sys/conf/VANIR /usr/sys/conf/VANIR.old
- shutdown
>>> boot -fi genvmunix (an der SRM Console)
jetzt ein neues Konfigurationsfile fuer den Kernel bauen
- cd /usr/sys/conf
- sizer -n VANIR (oder wie heisst die Kiste?)
das File liegt jetzt in /tmp
- cp /tmp/VANIR /usr/sys/conf/VANIR
jetzt neuen Kernel bauen
- /usr/bin/doconfig -c VANIR
- mv /usr/sys/VANIR/vmunix /vmunix
- /usr/sbin/shutdown -r now
Und dann viel Glueck. Wenn der Kernel naemlich nicht die
Karte kennt, oder sie in einem anderen PCI Slot steckt,
dann bekommt man die Fehlermeldung "no graphics console
driver configured". Mit DU ist sehr viel hardverdrahted,
z.B. in welchem PCI Slot was steckt. D.h. irgendwelche
Karten umstecken und dann das Konfigurationsfile nicht
aendern funktioniert nicht.
> Eine zusaetzliche Frage haette ich noch. In welchen PCI-Slot
>haben Sie die Karte
>eingebaut? Ich weiss, dass es bei den 3D30-Karten mit einigen
>Slot Probleme gab.
Ich hatte, als mein System noch unter Linux lief, darauf geachtet, dass
die Karte im ersten Slot steckt. Jetzt ebenfalls, allerdings ist jetzt
der 2te Slot leer, da die Karte so gross ist, dass sie den 2ten
blockiert.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Tom Webster <webster_at_ssdpdc.lgb.cal.boeing.com>
Compaq/Digital support is only giving you half the answer. The 4D10T is
supported on PWa[u] systems, but it is only supported under WindowsNT.
We had a situation where a system that was being furnished to us came in
with a 4D10T (the NT media and licenses were included with the system)
and DU 4.x was seperately boxed -- I imagine this is the same way that
you got hit.
> Can anybody give me a hint how I can use the board in my machine (or not).
Well, you can:
1. Load WinNT
2. Run in 640x480 mode, or just text mode.
3. Try to convince your DEC/Compaq sales critter that they meesed up
and you should have a 3D30 card in the system and a little bit of
credit.
The 3D30 is the lowest-end card currently supported by DU on the PWs
and will provide 256 colors at 1280x1024 at 72Hz. The 3D30s are pretty
cheap, the sad part is that getting a better card for DU is expensive.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Jim R Jones" <Jim_R_Jones_at_notesbridge.cummins.com>
I do not remember which graphics board we are running but we had to install
open3d on the systems. After the install the system went into high
resolution.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Erik Persson <erik_at_ikp.liu.se>
That card is not yet supported by Digital under Digital Unix, but there is
a beta Open3D kit with drivers for that card available from
http://www.service.digital.com/open3d/kit-free/open3d_kit.html
I don't know how well it works though.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dirk Oede Email: oede_at_aei-potsdam.mpg.de
Max-Planck-Institut fuer Graviationsphysik WWW:
http://www.aei-potsdam.mpg.de
Albert-Einstein-Institut Tel: +49-331-27537-15
Schlaatzweg 1, D-14467 Potsdam (Germany) Fax: +49-331-27537-98
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Received on Thu Jan 07 1999 - 10:57:07 NZDT