[OpenBIOS] next-property

[Mark Cave-Ayland]

On 03/01/14 22:32, Olivier Danet wrote:

>>> I am using the latest, 6.1.2, installed from the full ISO image.
>>> They changed quite a bit the video part in NetBSD 6, overhauled
>>> the console and seem to have forked the TCX X11 driver to add hardware
>>> acceleration.
>>
>> Oh that's interesting. Is there anything here that could be shared
>> with a potential CG6 driver of any sort?
>>
>> FWIW for testing you could also try my CG3 patchset here:
>> https://github.com/mcayland/qemu/tree/cg3-final but you'll probably
>> want to replace the QEMU,cgthree.bin ROM in QEMU with the one from
>> OpenBIOS SVN trunk.
>>
> I will try !

Great let me know how you get on :)

>>> I managed yesterday to boot NetBSD and run X in 256 colours mode !
>>
>> Fantastic!
>>
>>> Changes so far :
>>>
>>> OpenBIOS :
>>> - The "next-property" stuff. Called when starting the X server.
>>> - "keyboard" property detail. Else keyboard input does not work.
>>> - TCX properties modifications. For TCX/Dumb framebuffer selection.
>>
>> The latter is interesting; is it possible for the OS to detect the
>> framebuffer as a CG3/CG6 at all?
>>
> The modifications were necessary to prevent the dumb framebuffer from
> taking control of the console during
> boot. It is almost a bug in NetBSD.
> The 'name' property is used for identifying the device type :
> "SUNW,tcx", or "cgsix"...
> I have never met a real CG3 !
>
>>> QEMU :
>>> - Old bug "!TC on DATA XFER" in esp.c driver
>>
>> I seem to remember Blue posted a potential patch for this, but I
>> wasn't able to find it again?
>>
>>> - TCX hardware acceleration stuff in tcx.c and sun4m.c (for memory
>>> regions):
>>> blitter, stippler, hardware cursor.
>>
>> Fascinating.
>>
>> As always, I'm happy to apply any OpenBIOS patches and to help get the
>> others into QEMU as required.
>>
>>
>> ATB,
>>
>> Mark.
> I will try the truecolor mode and check for regressions and post the
> diffs soon.
>
> The acceleration parts of TCX used by NetBSD are really very simple, the
> actual hardware
> is probably quite limited, much simpler than CG6.
> The hardware cursor part is probably quite similar, as is the palette.
>
> http://sourceware.mirrors.tds.net/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-release-6/xsrc/external/mit/xf86-video-suncg6/dist/src/
>
> http://sourceware.mirrors.tds.net/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-release-6/xsrc/external/mit/xf86-video-suntcx/dist/src/
>
> The Xsun sources which were published a while ago included the CG6
> driver, iirc.
>
> Having a reasonably complete TCX driver is probably doable and
> interesting for Solaris (6/7/8/9 ???).

Well the CG3 framebuffer code above will boot my Solaris 7 ISO in 
1024x768 graphics mode, and current SVN trunk FCode ROMs for TCX and CG3 
work with both OBP and OpenBIOS :)  Unless someone wants to sponsor 
development of course ;)


ATB,

Mark.