liam@cs.qmw.ac.uk (William Roberts) (09/13/90)
The Apple 4*8 video card is apparently incompatible with A/UX 1.1.1, though
it works quite happily with A/UX 2.0.
The 4*8 card comes in a box bearing a red triangle sticker and the number
6.0.5, which seems to reflect the fact that attempting to boot any System
below 6.0.5 in a machine with a 4*8 card causes an alert which says that
"This version of 32-Bit QuickDraw requires System 6.0.5 or higher",
followed by a System crash.
Even with a 6.0.5 system in the Mac partition, A/UX 1.1.1 will not
boot with the 4*8 video card: we have tried it in a Mac II and a Mac IIcx
using a card populated for full 8-bit colour. In both cases A/UX gets to
"run in circles, scream and shout"
and then hangs. Putting an old Apple colour card in either machine works fine.
Chatting to the UK A/UX support people, we concluded that the problem is probably
that A/UX 1.1.1 implements Color QuickDraw (not the same thing as 32-Bit
QuickDraw) and also loads the video card driver from the ROMs on the card.
A/UX 2.0 implements 32-Bit QuickDraw so that works ok, and A/UX 1.0 didn't
read the driver from the card so that might work....
None of the documentation with the video card or the monitor mentioned 6.0.5
anywhere - this is a definite deficiency of the documentation and Apple should
take steps to ensure that the video card documentation includes an explicit
warning that System 6.0.5 is required for this card (and that A/UX 1.1.1 won't
work with it). A cryptic red warning sticker just isn't good enough.
--
William Roberts ARPA: liam@cs.qmw.ac.uk
Queen Mary & Westfield College UUCP: liam@qmw-cs.UUCP
Mile End Road AppleLink: UK0087
LONDON, E1 4NS, UK Tel: 071-975 5250 (Fax: 081-980 6533)paul@taniwha.UUCP (Paul Campbell) (09/14/90)
In article <2786@sequent.cs.qmw.ac.uk> liam@cs.qmw.ac.uk (William Roberts) writes: >The Apple 4*8 video card is apparently incompatible with A/UX 1.1.1, though >it works quite happily with A/UX 2.0. > >Even with a 6.0.5 system in the Mac partition, A/UX 1.1.1 will not >boot with the 4*8 video card: we have tried it in a Mac II and a Mac IIcx >using a card populated for full 8-bit colour. In both cases A/UX gets to > > "run in circles, scream and shout" > >and then hangs. Putting an old Apple colour card in either machine works fine. > >Chatting to the UK A/UX support people, we concluded that the problem is probably >that A/UX 1.1.1 implements Color QuickDraw (not the same thing as 32-Bit >QuickDraw) and also loads the video card driver from the ROMs on the card. >A/UX 2.0 implements 32-Bit QuickDraw so that works ok, and A/UX 1.0 didn't >read the driver from the card so that might work.... All video cards that work with A/UX 1.0 or 1.1 must have a special A/UX code resource in them (the one exception to this is that Apple 'toby' card which is hard coded into the kernel). Since Apple has never had to write one of these resources I wouldn't be suprised if the video card side of the company was unaware of them and didn't put them in - most other video companies became aware of this resource when A/UX customers started beating up on them - I guess this process is just starting at Apple :-) A/UX 2.0 uses the MacOS resource and doesn't bother with the special A/UX resource which makes it (mostly - there are other gotchas) easier for video cards to work under A/UX. Paul -- Paul Campbell UUCP: ..!mtxinu!taniwha!paul AppleLink: CAMPBELL.P What most people don't realize is that those plastic cover slips that your 3 inch floppies come in are actually condoms for protecting your computer from harmfull computer viruses - practice safe computing ..... :-)