From: teunis <teunis@computersupportcentre.com>
  To  : ggi-develop@eskimo.com
  Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1998 20:23:54 -0700 (MST)

Re: Virge lock ups

On Sun, 30 Aug 1998, Jon M. Taylor wrote:

> On Sun, 30 Aug 1998, Ray Glendenning wrote:
> 
> > Hi
> > 
> > When I try to use the virge driver, it consistently locks my machine solid
> > after a random number of console switches (of mode switches ie running a
> > libggi proggie).  This happens if I compile kgicon and the kernel for both
> > SMP (not sure if this is safe) or UP.  I have even compiled kgicon into
> > the kernel (using my own patch) to see elimenate vgacon from the equation
> > (well, you never know!).
> > 
> > It crashes just after 'dump_state' finishes printing its stuff (I have a
> > dumb terminal as console), so it is somewhere in the chip programming
> > part.  I'm willing to crash my machine some more if someone can tell me
> > where to put debugging stuff so we can eliminate this crash (or am I the
> > only one this is happening to???)
> > 
> > Cheers for any help
> 
> 	The Virge driver is largely a straight copy of the Trio64 driver. 
> The Trio64 driver also exhibits this behavior.  When I was using my
> Trio64V+ to do the initial kgicon development, my machine would lock hard
> approximately every sixth or seventh time I inserted the kgicon.o module. 
> This pattern persisted across reboots, so I'm doubting that the problem is
> cruft building up in the driver.  More likely is that some registers are
> being programmed incorrectly somewhere in a way which is somehow
> cumulative, and after a certain number of modesets the problem reaches a 
> critical point and the next modeset locks the bus.
> 
> 	There are a lot of things that the Trio and Virge drivers do
> wrong, incompletely or not at all: 

[clip nice helpful "TODO" list :]

Now going to rewrite ViRGE driver.  This could take a week or two so be
forewarned.  (and if the ViRGE driver is that unstable.... *sigh*.  I
haven't gotten the current one to work on my system although the VGA
driver works fine.  Sounds like I've got pickier hardware)

G'day, eh? :)
	- Teunis