david@daisy.UUCP (David Schachter) (05/14/88)
Xenix 2.2.2 works fine on an Everex 386/20 with an Everex EVGA graphics card. Xenix 2.2.3 fails; the boot floppy works, displaying correct data up until the ":" prompt but when control is transferred to Xenix, the screen fills with accented e's and the text printed out by Xenix as it boots consists of the wrong characters but in the correct places. In addition, the bottom line of the screen is the top half of more accented e's. SCO's conjecture is that the support in 2.2.3 of the Compaq VGA broke something that made the (unsupported) Everex EVGA work. I'm going to try setting the EVGA to pretend it is a VGA, CGA, or MDA. If none of those work, I'll relink the 2.2.3 kernel with the appropriate 2.2.2 object file (yecch-- can you spell "support nightmare"?) Also, SCO is going to send me a small program which may work around the problem. Anyone have similar problems, perhaps with some other brand of hardware? Any ideas? Am I missing some- thing? SCO has been helpful but their driver apparently has some device-specific peculiarities that DOS and the ROM BIOS do not. A useful program for SCO to offer cheap or free would be one which would say "Yes this hardware is compatible" or "No, the following prob- lems exist:..." This could prevent time wasting and stress. One might also wish hardware manufacturers to be more careful about claiming "100% IBM compatible". What they mean is "100% compatible unless you do something which isn't." Most helpful, indeed. -- David Schachter atari!daisy!david 2nd choice: well!davids
palowoda@megatest.UUCP (Bob Palowoda) (05/15/88)
in article <1151@daisy.UUCP>, david@daisy.UUCP (David Schachter) says: > > Anyone have similar problems, perhaps with some other > brand of hardware? Any ideas? Am I missing some- > thing? [In reference to Xenix and VGA] I tried the Vega VGA with 2.2.1 and it dosn't work. I resets the computer when it appearently about to display the configuration. > > SCO has been helpful but their driver apparently has > some device-specific peculiarities that DOS and the > ROM BIOS do not. A useful program for SCO to offer > cheap or free would be one which would say "Yes this > hardware is compatible" or "No, the following prob- > lems exist:..." This could prevent time wasting and > stress. I coundn't agree more. I've been caught many times between a hardware and a software companys "who's doing what wrong", and the bottem line came out of my pocket. Better yet they can write them and distribute them through public domain channels. ---Bob