Tech Source GFX 550e User Manual

GFX 550e

Installation and Reference

Manual

Copyright  2006 Tech Source, Inc.

3340 Edgewater Drive

Orlando, FL 32804

[phone]

Publication #65-0266-01 Rev A February 20, 2006

Addendum Information

Date Released: February 20, 2006

Changes made to:

REVISION

CHANGES

DATE

NUMBER

A

Initial Release

02-20-06

The Tech Source logo, Tech Source GFX and Raptor are
trademarks of Tech Source, Inc. X Window System is a
trademark and product of X.org.

All other products or services mentioned in this document are
identified by the trademarks or service marks of their respective
companies or organizations. Tech Source, Inc. disclaims any
responsibility for any references to those trademarks herein.

All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in
any form or by any means without prior written permission of the
copyright owner.

RESTRICTED RIGHTS LEGEND: Use, duplication, or disclosure
by the U.S. Government is subject to restrictions of FAR 52.227­14(g)(2)(6/87) and FAR 52.227-19 (6/87); or DFAR 252.227­7015(b)(6/95) and DFAR 227.7202-3(a).

The product described in this manual may be protected by one
or more U.S. patents, foreign patents, and/or pending
applications.

PREFACE

This publication documents the Tech Source, Inc. GFX
installation and reference. This manual is intended for users
who incorporate the Tech Source GFX graphics cards into their
PCI or PCIe workstations. All systems vary to a degree.
Knowledge of the features of your system and an understanding
of UNIX shell scripts are helpful during the installation process.

WARRANTY

The GFX 550e graphics cards are warranted for one (1) year
from date of shipment. During the warranty period, Tech Source,
Inc. will, at its discretion, repair or replace a defective product at
its expense. Freight charges associated with the repair or
replacement of products under warranty are to be shared by
Tech Source, Inc. and the customer. All customers, domestic
and international, shall bear the freight charges for the product
return. Tech Source, Inc. shall bear the outbound freight
charges up to $13.00 (USD) per returned product, whether
domestic or international. Any additional freight charge shall be
the responsibility of the customer. We suggest that you contact
your dealer first with any questions you may have about the
product. Unlimited technical support (via telephone, facsimile, or
email) is provided for one (1) year from date of shipment. The
installation of any Tech Source, Inc. hardware/software product
is the sole responsibility of the customer.

Customers will be charged an hourly rate plus materials
($300.00 USD minimum) for repairs and/or maintenance
performed by Tech Source, Inc. that are not covered by a Tech
Source, Inc. warranty or maintenance contract.

DOCUMENTATION IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND ALL
EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED CONDITIONS, REPRESENTATIONS
AND WARRANTIES, INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY
OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
PURPOSE OR NON-INFRINGEMENT, ARE DISCLAIMED,
EXCEPT TO THE EXTENT THAT SUCH DISCLAIMERS ARE
HELD TO BE LEGALLY INVALID.

This page intentionally left blank.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 1-1

1.1 Overview 1-1

1.2 Conventions 1-2

HARDWARE INSTALLATION 2-1

2.1 Installation Instructions 2-1

2.2 Resolution Settings 2-3

SOFTWARE INSTALLATION 3-1

3.1 Overview 3-1

3.2 Requirements 3-1

3.3 Installing GFX 550e Driver Software 3-2

3.3.1 CD-ROM Installation 3-2

3.4 Changing Resolution and Bit-Depth on GFX 550e Card 3-4

3.4.1 Interactive Configuration 3-4

3.4.2 Non-Interactive Configuration 3-6

3.4.2.1 Examples 3-8

3.5 Dual-Screen Mode 3-9

3.5.1 GFX 550e Console Display Configuration 3-9

3.5.2 X Windows

3.6 Setting GFX 550e Card as the Console (Optional) 3-10

3.6.1 GFX 550e Card as the Only Framebuffer 3-10

Configuring the Xservers File 4-1

4.1 Overview 4-1

4.1.1 GFX 550e Card as the Console 4-1

4.2 Common Desk Environment (CDE) 4-1

(Dual Screen Mode) Configuration 3-9

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TABLE OF CONTENTS (cont’d)

ADVANCED FEATURES 5-1

5.1 Overview 5-1

5.2 8+24 Simultaneous Visuals 5-1

5.3 Cached Pixmaps 5-1

5.4 OpenGL Support 5-2

REMOVING GFX 550e DRIVER SOFTWARE 6-1

6.1 Overview 6-1

TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE 7-1

7.1 Who To Call For Help 7-1

7.2 Email Address 7-1

7.3 Website 7-2

CHANGING THE CONSOLE RESOLUTION A-1

A.1 Overview A-1
A.1.1 Reason for Changing the Console Resolution A-1
A.1.2 Guidelines for Changing the Console Resolution A-2
A.1.3 EDID Auto-Detect Feature A-2
A.2 Output-Device Method A-3
A.3 Video-Mode Method A-3
A.4 Video-Timing Method A-5
A.5 Troubleshooting A-7

CARD SPECIFICATIONS B-1

B.1 GFX 550e Card Specifications B-1
B.2 GFX 550e Cabling B-2

B.2.1 Digital Monitors B-2
B.2.2 Analog Monitors B-3
B.3 Special Adapter for Some Sun Monitors B-4

USING NVEDIT TO MODIFY NVRAM C-1
C.1 NVRAM Edit Commands C-1

ii

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Overview

Thank you for purchasing a Tech Source GFX 550e card.

The GFX 550e card is a low profile single slot PCI Express
graphics card. The target for this card is the new Sun
Microsystems servers with PCI Express slots such as the Sun
Fire T2000. The card can support up to two DVI or two analog
outputs. The card can also simultaneously support 8 and 24-bit
visuals.

Some of the salient features are:

• 32MB framebuffer

• Low Profile PCI Express card with x1 interface

• Dual head display

• Support for multiple resolutions

For more specifications, refer to Appendix B.

This product is currently supported on Solaris 10. Support for
other versions of the OS may be available. Please email Tech
Source at [e-mail] for inquiries about support
for other versions of Solaris.

From this point forward, Tech Source, Inc. will be referred to as
Tech Source or TSI.

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GFX 550e Installation and Reference Manual

1.2 Conventions

This manual will follow certain conventions throughout.

Whenever a variable name, command name, directory, or
filename is used in a paragraph, they will appear in a mono-
spaced font.

At times the reader will be instructed to enter commands at a
prompt. In this case a transcript of a sample session will be
provided where a prompt will be followed by the commands the
reader is to enter. The entire transcript will be in a mono-
spaced font with the prompt in a normal weight and the user's
entries in bold.

The prompt used in a transcript varies depending on the
circumstances. The following are some common prompts and
when they are used:

prompt# used when the user is required to have root

privileges

prompt% used when the user is not required to have root

privileges

ok prompt displayed when the user is in Boot PROM

mode

1-2

Chapter 2

HARDWARE INSTALLATION

2.1 Installation Instructions

The GFX 550e graphics card installation is simple and consists
of a few easy steps. These installation instructions presume that
you are familiar with the Solaris operating system.

NOTE: Remember which cables go to which connectors. You
may want to label the cables and connectors before
disconnecting them.

Step 1: Turn your computer OFF, remove the

computer’s cover, find an available PCIe slot,
and remove the bracket and screw. Ground
yourself by touching the metal part on the case.

Step 2: Install the GFX 550e card firmly into the PCIe

slot. Take care to press it evenly and snugly
into the slot. Once you are certain that the card
is installed properly into the slot, secure it with
the bracket screw.

Step 3: Secure the computer’s cover, attach any

previously removed cables, and connect the
video cable to your monitor.

The port on the GFX 550e supports two displays
with a custom splitter cable attached to the port.
The splitter cable that is packaged with the card
has two DVI-I connectors. (Please refer to
Appendix B for more information on the cables
or for information about the required adapters for
supporting analog monitors.)

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GFX 550e Installation and Reference Manual

Please note that some Sun monitors may
require a DB-15 to 13W3 adapter (Refer to
Appendix B, Section B.3).

Step 4: Turn ON the monitor before turning ON the

computer so that the GFX 550e card can auto­detect the proper resolution for your monitor.

NOTE: If the system is currently using a secondary graphics
device, read section 3.6 on configuring the console device. The
console device is the screen on which the boot up messages
appear. A monitor must be connected to the console device
before you proceed to Chapter 3 Software Installation.

The GFX 550e card is now installed and ready for software
installation. Refer to Chapter 3 for installing the Driver Software.

2.2 Resolution Settings

For monitors that support the DDC2B/EDID (Display Data
Channel) protocol, the GFX 550e card will automatically select a
compatible resolution. To override this selection, or to change
the default resolution for monitors that do not provide DDC
information, refer to Section 3.4 and Appendix A.

The default resolution for the GFX 550e card is listed in the table
below.

Board Resolution Refresh Bits/Pixels Sync

GFX 550e Auto Detect - 8

If the monitor does not support the DDC2B/EDID protocol (auto­detect), and the console resolution is not set using methods
described in Appendix A, the resolution will default to
1024x768@75Hz.

separate/composite

2-2

Chapter 3

SOFTWARE INSTALLATION

3.1 Overview

This chapter describes the software installation method for the
“GFX 550e Driver Software”.

NOTE: Please note that this software must be installed on your
system prior to running X Windows on these cards.

The software is provided on CD-ROM or by FTP and is
composed of the following packages:

• TSImkox 64-bit System Software/Device

Driver

• TSImkow OpenWindows System Support

Software

• TSImkomn Manual pages

3.2 Requirements

The software currently supports the following Sun PCIe based
systems:

Sun Fire T2000

NOTE: If your Sun PCI system is not listed here, please contact
Tech Source, Inc.

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GFX 550e Installation and Reference Manual

The following are prerequisites for installing the “GFX 550e
Driver Software”:

• The system is running Solaris 10 or higher..

• At least 2MB of disk space is available in "/usr" and “/.”

• One or more GFX 550e cards are presently installed in the

desktop/server.

NOTE: All device drivers are loadable. No kernel changes are
required.

3.3 Installing GFX 550e Driver Software

This section describes software installation from a CD-ROM.

3.3.1 CD-ROM Installation

The following are step-by-step instructions for installing the “GFX
550e Driver Software” from a CD-ROM.

1. Install a GFX 550e card in the computer as described in

Chapter 2.

2. Boot the computer with the "-r" (reconfiguration) option.

To do this on a typical SPARC desktop/server, perform
the following steps:

• Power ON the computer.

• Wait until you see boot messages displaying on the

screen, then press and hold the Stop (L1) key, and
then press the "A" key.

• At the "ok" prompt, type "boot –r" followed by the
<Enter> key.

3. After the system has booted, log in as root.

4. Insert the CD-ROM labeled "GFX 550e Driver Software-
Solaris Edition" into the CD-ROM drive.

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Chapter 3 – Software Installation

5. If /cdrom/cdrom0 exists, type:

prompt# cd /cdrom/cdrom0

Skip to step 6. Otherwise, mount the CD-ROM by typing

the following:

prompt# mount -F hsfs -O -o ro \
/dev/dsk/c0t6d0s0 /cdrom

prompt# cd /cdrom

6. The CD-ROM contains an install_all script. To
install the software, type:

prompt# ./install_all

This script will ask you a number of yes-or-no questions
(generated by Sun's pkgadd install script). Answer
these questions appropriately.

7. Reboot the system to complete the installation.

NOTE: Upon reboot, new device names will be created in the
/dev/fbs directory, one for each head.

The GFX 550e device names have a prefix mko#, where #
represents the instance number assigned by the operating
system. For this product, a single device name is created. For
instance, it may be called mko0.

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GFX 550e Installation and Reference Manual

3.4 Changing Resolution and Bit-Depth on

GFX 550e Card

The default resolution and bit-depth is either dictated by EDID
information from the connected monitor or by the console
resolution that is set (as described in Appendix A). In the
absence of either of the above, the default console resolution is
1024x768@75Hz and the default bit-depth is 8-bit.

However, if you should decide to have a different resolution and
bit-depth configuration under X Windows, follow the instructions
in this section to set your resolution and bit-depth appropriately.

The mkoconfig utility can be used any time after installation to
change these parameters and to turn on dual screen mode.

Please see the man page on mkoconfig for a detailed
description.

NOTE: Dual Screen Mode is a feature of this card and is
described in Section 3.5 of this manual. In this mode, the GFX
550e can only be configured to a bit depth of 24-bits.

The next two sections describe two methods of using
mkoconfig to configure the card.

3.4.1 Interactive Configuration

mkoconfig has an interactive menu-style interface (See Figure

3.1). To use this program to configure your GFX 550e card,

type:

prompt# mkoconfig -i

NOTE: If X Windows is running on the GFX 550e card(s) to be
configured, please exit out of it before running mkoconfig.
Failure to do so could result in a corrupted screen for the
remainder of the X Window session.

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Chapter 3 – Software Installation

The GFX 550e device(s) will be listed in the left column of the
configuration screen displayed by mkoconfig. (See Figure

3.1).

A description of the commands is as follows:

Up/Down Arrow selects the desired graphics

device to modify

Left/Right Arrow selects the parameter to modify

(e.g. resolution, bit-depth, or
sync)

Space Bar modifies the parameter for the

selected graphics device (will
bring up a menu when
applicable)

‘t’ puts a test pattern on the entire

display (hit any key to return to
the main screen) NOTE: the test
pattern feature is disabled if the
Xserver is running.

‘s’ saves current settings and exits

‘h’ help

‘q’ exits the program without saving

any changes

NOTE: To enable the dual screen feature, select the “sync”
menu and enter “w”. Please see Section 3.5 for a description
of this feature.

3-5