Information for W32 Chipset Users

Information for W32 and ET6000 Chipset Users : Information for W32 Chipset Users
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1. Information for W32 Chipset Users

XF86_W32 gets phased out, now that the SVGA server with XAA acceleration is at least as fast as the W32 server but supports more cards and for some even higher color depths. For details about using the XF86_SVGA with W32 cards, look below. Note that currently not all cards that are accelerated by XF86_W32 are accelerated by XF86_SVGA at this moment (only ET6000 and ET4000W32p to be exact).

XF86_W32 is supposed to be the stable server for cards that worked before and have trouble with the new XF86_SVGA. Use this server when the SVGA server fails to work for you (this happens on some ET4000W32 ISA cards), or when it refuses to accelerate anything (on ET4000W32i for example).

Since XFree 3.2A, this server has not been updated. This means that some (known) bugs have not been fixed. They are fixed in the SVGA Tseng driver (or replaced by others...), so if you have problems, try the SVGA server instead.

XF86_W32 is basically XF86_SVGA with the drawing code completely replaced with one based on X11R6's mi/cfb code and modified for the ET4000/W32 series. Even though it accepts the same keywords as XF86_SVGA, those not applicable to the ET4000/W32 series are silently ignored; e.g., the keyword "SpeedUp" is a no-op. The server currently supports the w32, w32i, w32p and et6000 chips. For a complete list, see the sign-on message printed by XF86_W32. The server only supports 256 colors.

Just as with XF86_SVGA, you can specify a virtual world that has a width that is a multiple of four. The size of the virtual world is constrained by the amount of the available video RAM. XF86_W32 can use more than 1 M of video RAM, but it reserves 1 K for internal use. If you have 1 M, XF86_W32 claims you have 1023 K; you get to specify the virtual world as 1152x900, but not 1152x910.

For most cards the maximum clock is set to 86 MHz according to the Tseng databooks. For a non-interlaced 1280x1024x(256 colors) at say 135-MHz, you need a w32p (with its 16-bit RAMDAC bus) with a multiplexing RAMDAC so that the w32p sees only (135/2 = 67.5) MHz, not 135 MHz. This requires special code only provided for cards using the ICS5341 GENDAC or the STG1703. This code seems to work fine for most people, except, with the ICS5341, for a small band of frequencies around 90MHz.

If you have problems with the server. Try the following:

Put Option "slow_dram" in the Device Section.
Put Option "pci_burst_off" in the Device Section.
Put Option "w32_interleave_off" in the Device Section.
Take out the Hercules monochrome adapter, if you have one. Many configurations of the ET4000/W32 series do not allow one in the system.
Get a motherboard with its local bus running at 33 MHz. Many, if not all, ET4000/W32 boards will surely behave in a funny way on a 50-MHz bus. You may have to use a wait state or two, but first try without any.
Cold-boot your machine. Do not run anything that messes with the video hardware, including other X servers, before running XF86_W32.
In case of an ET6000 card, try specifying chipset "et6000" in the Device Section. The card normally auto-probes from the PCI bus, but on some systems, another on-board VGA card, although disabled, may cause the ET6000 server to want to use the other card.
Try XF86_SVGA. If it works, put the following in your XF86Config:
Ramdac "generic"

Note that the built-in power saver (for a "green" monitor) has not been tested. Also do not expect it to work on a board without a w32p_rev_c or later chip. This option is currently disabled completely, because it causes video memory corruption (or even a crash). The SVGA server (XF86_SVGA) supports VESA DPMS, and doesn't corrupt the screen.