Alan Coopersmith wrote: > Garrett D'Amore wrote: >> I've also noticed, on the same system, btw, that when the screensaver >> activates I get complaints on the console about missing XFree86 misc >> Xserver extensions. (I don't have the precise text handy.) > > You can get rid of those by disabling the fade-to-black option in the > xscreensaver advanced options. > >> If Solaris/JDS is going to start making use of XFree86-specific >> extensions, then I think it is important to get the support for those >> extensions into the Xsun. Unless Sun is going to claim that supporting >> their own hardware isn't "interesting" (or unless Xsun is going to be >> replaced by Xorg sometime before GA -- rumors of the replacement abound, >> but I've never heard an actual plan to do it.) > > We have ported several X extensions that were initiated by XFree86 > into Xsun > in the past (Render, Xfixes,etc.), but have had mixed results, and have > stopped doing so. Xorg is the direction the X server group is > following, > and while we wish the SPARC graphics group would provide drivers for Xorg > soon, cannot compel them to do so. One of our team members has started > looking at bringing up Xorg on SPARC with the opensource ATI radeon > driver > and the XVR-100 card, so if that is successful, we may be able to proceed > without the help of the SPARC graphics team. > The XVR-100 is pretty much a stock Radeon 7000 board with just an Fcode prom on it, so it should be mostly a slam-dunk. We use the same part on a few of our high end mobile workstations. The pfb driver doesn't do anything particularly fancy with it, and is really just a dumbed down radeon driver. (It makes some assumptions about Radeon boards -- such as clocks -- that are only true for the R7k design that the XVR-100 is based upon, but otherwise it is pretty much a normal radeon.)
Heck, would probably be possible to stick an XVR-100 in a PC and use it as a 2nd head with Xorg, although there could be problems because it lacks the BIOS firmware that the Xorg driver wants to parse to get its clocking information. I know that we also believe that support for a few other graphics parts is important. In particular, the ATI m64 is widely used in some of our platforms (as well as some Sun platforms). There is also the pgx64, the various 3DLabs parts, and possibly also the Sun XVR-1000 and 4000 parts. I am willing to help with m64, pfb (XVR-100), and possibly any other boards you can get your hands on. I have experience hacking on Xsun, the driver code, etc. As well as some expertise with the 2D stuff in radeon and m64. Even more so, this would provide us a clean route to getting our particular features (namely support for LCD panels) supported in stock OpenSolaris, so this is a place where I think we are willing to invest some engineering time/help. Please let me know what I can do to help out. -- Garrett D'Amore, Principal Software Engineer Tadpole Computer / Computing Technologies Division, General Dynamics C4 Systems http://www.tadpolecomputer.com/ Phone: 951 325-2134 Fax: 951 325-2191
