[Tfug] A Sun Ultra/Debian Video Question

[Earl J Violet]

On Sun, 21 May 2006 08:16:47 -0700 (PDT) Bexley Hall
<bexley401 at yahoo.com> writes:
> > I got Debian installed and running. I had some
> > trouble with XFree86 configuration; didn't get 
> > it to work.
> 
> Were you able to get things running *with* your
> monitor?  I.e. did it die *while* you were trying
> to get X configured?  (if you specify the mode
> configuration incorrectly, you can drive your
> monitor at rates that it isn't prepared to handle;
> though I would think most modern monitors would
> detect this and just refused to sync to the signal)

I had Debian installed and was using the machine. I shutdown. When I
rebooted, I got a black screen. The green indicator light is on when I
turn the monitor on but then goes to power save mode and stays there. It
is a very old (my guess) monitor with only one resolution listed, at
least that is what I all I can find digging through the Sun web site. GDM
17E10 -- 1152 x 900 @ 66 or 76 Hz (I think I have figured out the acronym
GDM though <grin>). This is the default for booting and for OpenBoot as
far as I can decipher.

There isn't even the normal POST at boot-up.

There was no smoke or strange smells. That was disappointing. 

I think, if X and I killed it, it would have died when trying to run X. 

> > Well, anyway, now my monitor is dead. I tried it on
> > 2 computers with no
> 
> Is this a Sun monitor?  Are these Sun machines that
> you tried it on?  (or, is it multisync and *known*
> to have worked on those computers previously?)

It is a Sun Monitor and worked previously several times on this machine.
The image was quite clear. The machines are Tatung COMPstation U10's.
They claim to be Clones of the Sun Ultra10. From what I can gather on
from some Sun/SPARC Linux web sites, this's true. There are Sun chips on
the mother board and it is a Sun processor. The Video card is a Creator
3D Series 3 which I found a Sun manual on. It even has the plug-in for
the stereoscopic viewer.

I found a Web page on the Tatung web site but all of the links were in
Chinese?!

> Is the screen *black*?  Can you hear the flyback
> singing?

Yes, very black. Not a sound..

> Most modern monitors will give an error indication
> when something is toasted (power indicator changes
> color, blinks, etc.).  Have you looked for docs for
> the monitor to verify that this is the case?

I don't think this is real modern. All I could find related to the SPARC
10/20.

> Have you checked the *pins* in the connector to
> make sure you haven't bent one?  And, that the
> power/signal cable hasn't become detached at
> the monitor end?

The pins are good. The monitor wasn't unplugged between shutdown and
reboot. The Monitor cable is hard wired to the monitor. It worked on both
machines previously.

> > luck. There could have been some conflict between
> > the Creator 3D card and
> > the monitor that I missed. Apparently Sun has some
> > interesting hardware specs.
> 
> <grin>

> > Does anyone knows if a normal PCI card works
> > in the PCI slots? I
> > have a spare monitor left but it's not a Sun. I have
> > an old S3 video
> > board around. Wonder how this combination would
> > work. Any ideas or should
> > I just give it up?

I don't think there is a non-Sun PCI card that would support the OpenBoot
and start-up resolution1152 x 900. That seems to be specific to Sun but
I'm still trying to learn more about OpenBoot and what it does. OpenBoot,
is in and of itself an interesting place to lurk. It looks like I need
another GD Sun Monitor, maybe a multi-sync.

> Never "give up"!  :>  Just step back and reexamine
> what you *think* you know.  (hence the reason for
> all of my questions).  Does the machine (Ultra?)
> still run with a serial console attached?  What
> happens when you plug in your "dead" monitor to
> at* machine?  (from the serial console, make
> sure you have killed off the X server, disable it
> from starting and reboot so you know you have a
> real TEXT getty running on the console) 

This is beyond my scope of experience. Not giving up. 

I am attributing this to "natural causes." 

> 
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