Custom board based on PPC405 and PCI Graphic controler problem.

[Alex Deucher]

On 4/2/07, powerpc440 <powerpc440 at googlemail.com> wrote:
> Alex Deucher wrote:
> > On 3/29/07, powerpc440 <powerpc440 at googlemail.com> wrote:
> >> Michel Dänzer wrote:
> >> > On Wed, 2007-03-28 at 16:12 +0200, powerpc440 wrote:
> >> >
> >> >> I have a custom board, based on PowerPC ppc405ep CPU. On the board
> >> are 3 PCI
> >> >> devices: sATA, USB and PCI Slot. sATA, USB and PCI working already
> >> good, but
> >> >> still I have some troubles with a Graphic Controler on PCI slot.
> >> The graphic
> >> >> card is standard 3.3V PCI Radeon 7000. I have compile xorg 7.2,
> >> and try to
> >> >> start the X server with radeon driver. The X server starts, the
> >> monitor is
> >> >> found with the correct model, but no picture is appears. After
> >> several seconds
> >> >> the whole board freeze.
> >> >>
> >> >
> >> > The radeon drivers rely on the firmware for low-level
> >> initialization of
> >> > the card. Does it do that? Do you get a picture on bootup before the X
> >> > server starts?
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> Thank you for the answer!
> >>
> >> I don't have any firmware on the board. The boot loader (u-boot)
> >> initialize the units: CPU, Memory, PCI, etc., but does nothing with
> >> Graphic adapters. I can see only that, the video card is found on PCI
> >> bus ("lspci -v" give to me: Class 0380: 1002:5940 (rev 01) - Radeon 9200
> >> Pro). The very first interaction with the card is xorg's radeon driver.
> >> Now I see why no picture appears before or after X server starts.
> >>
> >> Are there any driver, or some another possibility, trough I can make
> >> graphic low-level initialization before X server or kernel fb device?
> >>
> >> Thank you in advance!
> >>
> >
> > you might be able to post it with a vbe tool and x86emu.
> >
> > Alex
> >
> Hi,
>
> I can't compile vbetools on my  PPC board, seems to be platform
> compatibility problems, also with x86emu key enabled. I think that,
> vbetools till now is only for x86, and AMD 64bit platforms suitable.
> Are there another possibility, trough I can initialize the Graphic
> Adapter for non x86 platforms?

The xserver has a built in version of x86emu for posting cards,
although I've not used it on non-x86 platforms.  I think others have
gotten it working though.

> Another question - can a xorg's nVidia driver working without  firmware
> for low-level init?
>

I don't think so, but Aaron would probably know better.  Most modern
cards require posting to be set up properly.  The smi501 chips should
work without post, but they are somewhat hard to find and I haven't
gotten a chance to finish and merge the driver into mainline.

Alex