Re: Problems with the atyfb driver on Power Mac G3

1st thing for both of you (and other users) - STAY AWAY FROM 2.3.x UNLESS 
YOU KNOW WHY YOU ARE MOVING TO IT!

this is a _developmental_ branch. It has the potential (and some likelyhood)
to corrupt hard drives occasionally, and otherwise behave erratically at
several points along the way. If you are intending to develop - great. But
if you are a user (like me) who wants to use the system reliably, follow the
2.2.x revisions (currently 2.2.10). Odd minor-numbered versions of Linux are
in a state of flux, and are not necessarily even going to compile
(structural changes may be being distributed for driver authors to work
against while drivers are worked on).

Now, the ? files are not a sign of already done damage. They are harmless
(created by a bug in gmc, the gnome file manager) and can be deleted or
ignored.

On a happier note, I checked out 2.2.10 today (use -rlinux_2_2 if you use
cvs to switch branches), and built it, and the dancing pixels and other
artifacts are gone (on a rev 1 G3 desktop with Rage II+, but I had the same
symptoms, so maybe the same fix will help).

I think 2.2.10 has the mach64 work from 2.3.6 backported into it w/o the
other potential problems

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From: "Michael R. Zucca" <redacted>
To: Eric Dorland <redacted>
Cc: linuxppc-dev@lists.linuxppc.ORG
Subject: Re: Problems with the atyfb driver on Power Mac G3
Date: Tue, Jun 29, 1999, 8:30 PM

At 8:44 PM -0400 6/29/99, Eric Dorland wrote:

quoted

Through playing with the mclk and pll arguments (mclk:68,pll:200) I can
reduce the amount of "pixel dancing", but when there is a lot of movement
on the screen it is still quite noticable. I got these values from sheer
experimenting, and could be slowing cooking my chip for all I know.

I'm experiencing the same problem on my PowerCenter 132 with my ATI VR-Pro.
I have a feeling that there is a bug in the Rage-Pro support.

I've also had trouble with the acceleration causing garbage on the screen
in 16 bit mode when I drag windows.

It's entirely possible that we don't have the memory layout quite correct
or something. To add insult to injury I also have an Adaptec Ultra SCSI PCI
card and a 4 Gig drive that Linux is booting off of. I've had some random
files show up like "?:" including the quote characters. Maybe there are
deeper PCI problems or is this just a bug in the Adaptec driver? (With a
the R5 2.2.6 kernel and a 2.3.6 custom compile).

I've been meaning to look into the code but I haven't had the time. Anybody
have some clues? My card *used* to work under 2.1.24 when I added the
support to the original driver ;-)

_______________________________________________________________________
 Michael Zucca - mrz5149@acm.org - http://www.mdc.net/~mrz5149/
 "I will choose a path that's clear. I will choose Freewill. "
  --Rush, Freewill
_______________________________________________________________________

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At 10:58 PM -0400 6/29/99, Kevin Puetz wrote:

this is a _developmental_ branch.

As a past contributor and somebody who does this professionally, I
understand the risks and am happily walking on the hot coals of my own
volition. Thanks for the tip, though :-)

Now, the ? files are not a sign of already done damage. They are harmless
(created by a bug in gmc, the gnome file manager) and can be deleted or
ignored.

I didn't know this as I've never had any experience with GNOME. That is one
nasty little bug, though. Those files can be quite the pain to get rid of.

On a happier note, I checked out 2.2.10 today (use -rlinux_2_2 if you use
cvs to switch branches), and built it, and the dancing pixels and other
artifacts are gone (on a rev 1 G3 desktop with Rage II+, but I had the same
symptoms, so maybe the same fix will help).

I think 2.2.10's driver is just the 2.3.6 driver code. It may be working
for you out of sheer luck or perhaps the fix was enough for Rage II+. The
problem persists on my Rage Pro.

I think 2.2.10 has the mach64 work from 2.3.6 backported into it w/o the
other potential problems

Well, as far as I can tell the 2.3.6 fb code only partially solves the
problem. We probe for the MCLK now but perhaps we should also probe for PLL
clock (are we already?). Can't we just get these values from OF? I thought
I saw an entry in the card's device tree for such stuff.

_______________________________________________________________________
 Michael Zucca - mrz5149@acm.org - http://www.mdc.net/~mrz5149/
 "I will choose a path that's clear. I will choose Freewill. "
  --Rush, Freewill
_______________________________________________________________________



[[ This message was sent via the linuxppc-dev mailing list.  Replies are ]]
[[ not  forced  back  to the list, so be sure to Cc linuxppc-dev if your ]]
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