Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Thu, 18 Dec 1997 13:56:32 +1030
From:      Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>
To:        Steve Price <sprice@hiwaay.net>
Cc:        questions@FreeBSD.org, FreeBSD Hackers <hackers@FreeBSD.org>
Subject:   Re: Sony GDM-1692B in text mode?
Message-ID:  <19971218135632.16344@lemis.com>
In-Reply-To: <3498969C.2F1CF0FB@hiwaay.net>; from Steve Price on Wed, Dec 17, 1997 at 09:21:00PM -0600
References:  <Pine.OSF.3.96.971217193130.12535A-100000@fly.HiWAAY.net> <19971218131942.58757@lemis.com> <3498969C.2F1CF0FB@hiwaay.net>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Wed, Dec 17, 1997 at 09:21:00PM -0600, Steve Price wrote:
> Greg Lehey wrote:
>> I don't know that particular model.  Is there a problem with it?  Do
>> you have any documentation about it?  What kind of connector does it
>> have?  If it comes with a 15 pin VGA connector, it'll probably work
>> fine in VGA mode.
>
> Actually the subject line is incorrect, it should say GDM-1962B.

Yes, you mentioned that elsewhere.

> The cable is a D15 male to 13W3 female.  It won't work in just
> any VGA mode.  This monitor is a fixed frequency, color monitor
> that originally was shipped with a Sun IPC that I bought at work
> around 1992.

Ah.  That's good news.  That will be 61.8 kHz horizontal, 65 Hz
vertical.

>> If you can't get it to display text, one alternative would be to keep
>> the 13" monitor for text, and use the Sony for X.  This would mean
>> adding a second board, of course.  I think the #9 will coexist with a
>> cheap standard VGA.
>
> My only concern is the boot messages really, since I run
> -current and sometimes things can go awry.  I have thought
> of doing something along the lines of what you are suggesting
> but with a Video A/B selector box.  The big problem I have
> is lack of desk space on which to put a third monitor, which
> is why I asked if anybody had this beast working in text mode. :)

I know the problem.  One of my monitors is on the floor under the
desk.

> I don't profess to know much about video cards, but is there
> anyway for it to tell that it is attached to a fixed frequency
> monitor?  Or is it possible to kludge up a kernel to set the
> required HSYNC/VSYNC frequencies early on in the boot sequence?

I was wondering whether it wouldn't be worthwhile writing a version of
the console driver which would start up in a different mode.  It would
require more work than it appears, since VGAs normally do the text
display themselves, but that wouldn't be possible in graphics mode.

> Hmm... maybe I should ask the above questions in -hackers
> instead of -questions? :)

Good idea.  I'm sure Terry will find many reasons why it won't work
:-)  Following up to -hackers.

Greg



Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?19971218135632.16344>