[Sunhelp] ZX Framebuffer on a SS2/Solaris 7

[Sean]

Hi everyone,
I have a SparcStation 2 running Solaris 7 and was wondering if it was
possible to use a ZX fb with this setup. When I installed the card and
booted the machine I got an error message that the system couldnt find a
device driver for the console framebuffer and it booted into text mode.

[Bill Bradford]

Post by Sean
Hi everyone,
I have a SparcStation 2 running Solaris 7 and was wondering if it was
possible to use a ZX fb with this setup. When I installed the card and
booted the machine I got an error message that the system couldnt find a
device driver for the console framebuffer and it booted into text mode.

[James Lockwood]

Support for the ZX card stopped in Solaris 2.6; I'm not sure (I dont
remember) if its even supported in the SS2 at all. I dont think so; I
think the drivers are for sun4m or better, only (the manual talks about
a SS2, but I remember seeing a bug on sunsolve saying that was a typo).

The ZX was partially supported on the SS2 in Solaris 2.4. Support for
sun4c was removed after 2.4, and support for sun4m/sun4u was removed after
2.6.

You can use it under Sol7 if you copy the drivers off a 2.6 CD, but it
will be unaccelerated (e.g., really really slow).

It was never terribly fast at 2D. With 3rd-party OpenGL drivers it's not
a bad card if you never do texturing and stick to under 4 lights.

-James