SUMMARY: Switching Video Modes on SPARC

From: Marco Greene (cmgreene@netcom.ca)
Date: Wed Aug 26 1998 - 11:41:42 CDT


This summary may be a bit late, but nonetheless, it is here.

Many thanks to the following people who responded:
Leo Crombach
Steve Williams
Aleksandar Milivojevic
Stefan Voss
Chris Liljenstolpe
foster@bial1.ucsd.edu

Original question:
How do you change video modes on a SPARC machine; more specifically an IPX?

The responses varied. Some people pointed me to a very useful FAQ on frame
buffer cards for SPARC. It actually answered a lot of questions that I had.
Others gave me some commands that worked under Solaris while others showed
me how to do it at the PROM level.

At the PROM level:
setenv output-device screen:r1152x900x76

Command line: (From foster@bial1.ucsd.edu ) Others also gave me bits and
peices of this.
****
I believe that it depends partly upon the current hardware. For example,
on an Ultra1 Creator you change the resolution using:

    # Change the resolution of the screen from the default
    # value of 1280x1024x76

    /usr/sbin/ffbconfig -res 1152x900x76 now

    # Reset the resolution to the default

    /usr/sbin/ffbconfig -res 1280x1024x76 now

I've put these in my .login file before and after starting Openwindows.

For the cgsix there is a different command that I can't remember off
the top of my head. On a Sparc20 system we once used /usr/kvm/cg14config:

/usr/kvm/cg14config -r 1152x900@66

This might also be at /usr/platform/sun4m/sbin/cg14config .

******

The FAQ:
http://c3-a.snvl1.sfba.home.com/FrameBuffer.html
http://tarl.net/FAQ/FrameBuffer.html
http://www.uark.edu/sunfaq/FrameBuffer.html



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