Date: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 19:07:14 -0700 From: Mark Millard <markmi@dsl-only.net> To: freebsd-ppc@freebsd.org Subject: The default driver/mode used for PowerMac G5 Radeon 9800PRO's messes up all normal text display by default... Message-ID: <D238B09A-7C6D-4F30-B7CB-DFD4029DB9C2@dsl-only.net>
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[Context: Xorg -configure generated xorg.conf file for a G5 (7,2), = except for explicit alternatives noted for noAccel and SubPixelOrder. = Also this is the same SSD used for booting NVidia based PowerMac G5's = (7,11's) that have no such problems for the distinct Xorg -configure = file generated for them. uname -a reports for this SSD: FreeBSD FBSDG5S0 10.0-STABLE FreeBSD 10.0-STABLE #0 r268571: Sun Jul 13 = 06:28:19 UTC 2014 = root@grind.freebsd.org:/usr/obj/powerpc.powerpc64/usr/src/sys/GENERIC64 = powerpc (just freshly installed a day or so ago) and the "portsnap fetch = extract" was executed earlier today. ] The "user experience" report for what I've observed: The PowerPC64 "ATI Radeon 9800PRO NH (AGP)" driver used in a PowerMac G5 = (7,2) messes up *all* normal text display unless Option "NoAccel" is = enabled: menu text, window titles, input fields, label text, all such = text. (Basic desktop display, simple dialogs and windows from programs, = nothing fancy involved.) When the problem exists in my context the = xorg.conf is strictly as generated by Xorg -configure when in this type = of PowerMac. The other normal graphics seem fine: only text is messed up for these = basic displays. But the compositing results are messed up if they are = turned one to try to provide a visual difference around/near windows. With "NoAccel" disabled (acceleration on) so the text problem happens = NONE and BGR for SubPixelOrder are messed up the same way and RGB = SubPixelOrder changes how it looks but the result is still just messed = up text. This is on an Apple ADC FlatPanel. (An Apple ADC CRT also gets = the issue.) Some internal interface to accelerated text handling does = not map things in memory as required as far as I can tell. (But I've = only explored SubpixelOrder and NoAccel changes so far. I've not tried = to make compositing work: I just turned it back off.) I did find one part of one example display that is simple to describe, = possibly due to font size details for my context and my text size = settings: The "Logout Charlie Root" text in the logout dialog had = vertical strips missing (i.e., just the background color showing) from = the middle or sides of letters but enough of each letter was present to = be able to tell what each letter was. The strips might also have had = some small amount of extra space compared to pure what "white-out" would = be (?unsure!). Also with the logout dialog up the whole display got a = significant red tint. All of this may suggest byte/bit order handling issues for the text when = acceleration is enabled. Or possibly the 24 bits of color information in = a 32 bit representation being mishandled relative to acceleration = interfaces for handling such. Unfortunately I'm only around the PowerMac's for a couple of days again = before being far from them for a considerable time. So for now there are = limits to what I can do to help isolate things --nor will I be able to = provide the test case of that G5 until I'm back round them again. But I = figured an explicit note was better then saying nothing. =3D=3D=3D Mark Millard markmi at dsl-only.net
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