New GRADD Drivers for OS/2 Warp Now on Hobbes

April 23, 1999

OS/2 user Leonardo Pino (lpino@anakena.dcc.uchile.cl) has been uploaded on Hobbes the file newgradd.zip (1,52MB) with the most recente GRADD. These are new GRADD drivers found few days ago at TESTCASE, therefore are NOT official, install them at your own RISK. Operating System/Version: Warp4 Additional requirements: Fixpack 35+ for Warp 3 or Fixpack 5+ for Warp 4. Note that this is not an official release by IBM, it has to be taken as beta level code, and second the setup program will not work with 4OS2.

SUPPORTED FEATURES

__________________

The GRADD device drivers provide seamless support for accelerated/unaccelerated display graphics and advanced color depth and resolutions. They conform to the OS/2 32-bit flat memory model and are designed to function as 32-bit Presentation Manager* graphics display drivers under the OS/2 32-bit graphics engine.

SUPPORTED ADAPTERS

The following accelerated GRADD drivers are provided:

* ATI Rage II/Mach 64 GRADD (M64GRADD)
* Chips & Technology 6555X GRADD (CHPGRADD)
* Matrox Millenium/Mystique GRADD (MGAGRADD)
* S3 864/TRIO GRADD (S3GRADD)
* S3 Virge/Virge VX GRADD (S3DGRADD)

Also included are generic VGA and SVGA support.

* Video Graphics Array GRADD (VGAGRADD)
* Generic SVGA GRADD (GENGRADD)

All of the drivers listed, except for VGAGRADD, require VESA compliant video
BIOS (Version 1.2 or greater).

If an accelerated GRADD or PM driver is not available for your adapter, GENGRADD may provide UNACCELERATED support for display graphics at enhanced resolutions and colors depths. GENGRADD will work with most adapters that implement VESA compliant BIOS and the performance, which will vary depending on system configuration, will not be as good as an accelerated
driver.

IBM has tested a number of systems and adapters incorporating the graphics devices for the accelerated drivers listed. Testing was only done on systems with PCI bus graphics.

Current known restrictions are the following:

ATI Mach 64 ISA Bus adapters currently not supported.

NOTE:

Sniff testing on ISA bus graphics adapters has worked. However when trying
to restore your previous "PM" driver, there was a problem in detecting the adapter. Powering off the system to initialize the adapter after restoring VGA should solve the problem.

Future fixes and updates for the GRADD and other video drivers can be found
via the internet at:

http://service5.boulder.ibm.com/pspfixpk.nsf

At the above URL choose All Fix packages and then search for "GRADD".



SUPPORTED RESOLUTIONS

Supported resolutions and color depths are adapter dependent and will vary
based on video memory and adapter implementation.


COMPATIBILITY
_____________

These graphics drivers are currently compatible with OS/2 4.0 with Fixpak 5 or later. Since Fixpak 5 or later enables the use of GRADD drivers, you should restore your system to VGA before uninstalling to a fixpak level that is prior to Fixpak 5.


PRELIMINARY STEPS
_________________

1. If you previously installed SVGA support, return to VGA resolution using
the procedures in "Setting Your Display to VGA Mode" later in this README
before you install this driver.


INSTALLATION
_________________

INSTALLATION FROM DISKETTE
__________________________

To install the GRADD Drivers from diskette, do the following:

1. Insert the GRADD driver diskette into drive A (or any other diskette
drive).
2. Open an OS/2 full-screen or OS/2 window session.
3. At the OS/2 command prompt, type the following command to copy all
necessary files to the OS/2 drive:


SETUP xxx [<SrcPath>] [<BootDrive>] [/u]

where:
xxx is one of:

"ATI" - ATI Rage/Mach 64
"CHP" - Chips & Technology 6555X
"GEN" - GENGRADD Generic SVGA
"MGA" - Matrox Millenium/Mystique
"S3" - S3 864/Trio
"VGA" - VGAGRADD Generic VGA
"VIRGE" - S3 Virge

[<SrcPath>] is optional (required if next parameter specified) and
is the diskette drive

[<BootDrive>] is optional and is the drive where OS/2 is installed.

[/u] is optional and is used to indicate unattended install
such as for CID installations. A CID response file is
not required.

Then press Enter.


4. When prompted to do so, remove the diskette from drive A, perform a
shutdown, and then restart your computer.
5. When the system reboots, do the following:

a. Open the OS/2 System folder.
b. Open the System Setup folder.
c. Open the System object.
d. When the Settings notebook appears, select the Screen tab. Then go
to Screen page 2.
e. On Screen page 2, select your display from the display list. If your
display does not appear in the list, select Default.
f. Return to Screen page 1 and select a resolution.
g. Close the Settings notebook.
h. Perform a shutdown and restart your computer.

NOTES:
1) During the installation of this driver, DISPLAY.LOG and DSPINSTL.LOG
files are created in the OS2\INSTALL directory. These files identify the
OS/2 system files that were updated and indicate whether the installation
was successful. The contents of these files might be useful if you need to
report an installation problem to IBM.

2) Installation of the GRADDs uses the Dspinstl utility shipped with OS/2 4.0.
This utility can fail if if finds a "*.dsc" file which is not a dspinstl description file. During testing, it was found that installation of SystemView for OS/2 client may leave behind a file called "commonag.dsc" on the root of the bootdrive. This file is not a Dspinstl description file and will cause Dspinstl to fail. If you have this problem, simply rename or delete the problem file. If an incorrect description file is encountered, it will be noted in the above log(s).


INSTALLATION IN A CID ENVIRONMENT
_________________________________

NOTES:

1. Create a directory on the server (i.e. GRADDS). Copy the files from the
GRADD drivers diskette to the GRADDS directory.
2. OS/2 must have been successfully installed on the client using the CID
(Configuration Installation Distribution) method.

To install a GRADD driver using CID, use the following information to modify
your LCU command file. Example below installs the ATI Rage II/Mach 64 GRADD
(M64GRADD).

NOTE: The following information is meant as a guide.
Your LCU command file might be different.


/*****************************************************/
/* LCU PRODUCT DATA SECTION */
/*****************************************************/

.
.
.

x.graddvideo = 15
x.15.name='ATI Gradd Video'
x.15.statevar = 'CAS_' || x.15.name
x.15.instprog = 'x:\img\gradds\SETUP.CMD',
' ATI',
' x:\img\gradds ' || bootdrive,
' /u'
x.15.rspdir = ''
x.15.default = ''


/*---------------------------------------------------*/
/* NUMBER OF PROGRAMS SET UP IN THE */
/* PRODUCT DATA SECTION */
/*---------------------------------------------------*/

NUM_INSTALL_PROGS = 15

/*****************************************************/
/* INSTALLATION SECTION */
/*****************************************************/
.
.
.

when OVERALL_STATE = 2 then do
if RunInstall(x.graddvideo) == BAD_RC then exit
Call CheckBoot
end
.
.
.



/******************************************************/
/* ROUTINE SECTION */
/* The following information should already exist in */
/* the LCU command file. */
/******************************************************/
.
.
.
RebootAndGotoState:
parse arg new_state, other

rc2 = SetState(new_state, 'RebootAndGotoState', 1) /* Set the state */
/* to go to in */
/* OVERALL_STATE */

Call SaveStates /* Save the environment vars */

Call Reboot /* Reboot the machine */

return
.
.
.

/*****************************************************/



END OF LCU INFORMATION TO BE ADDED
/*****************************************************/


SETTING YOUR DISPLAY TO VGA MODE
________________________________

Use the following procedures to return to VGA mode.

1. Turn on your computer. If your computer is already on, press
Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart it.
2. When a small white box appears in the upper left-hand corner of your
screen, press Alt+F1.
3. When the Recovery Choices screen appears, press function key F3.

Your display adapter is restored and can work in VGA mode. If you want to
install a new display adapter or video device driver, refer to the User's
Guide to OS/2 Warp.

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