<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"><HTML DIR=ltr><HEAD><META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"></HEAD><BODY><DIV><FONT face='Arial' color=#000000 size=2>Hi All,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>We currently just enabled the PCI bus
on our MPC8270 custom board. We intend to put a video chip in the PCI bus (XGI
Volari Z7). For testing, we got the Z7 PCI demo board. We are using u-boot and
Linux kernel 2.4.25 in our system. I had a pre-conception that the Linux kernel
will be able to handle the VGA console by itself without any BIOS help (or in
this case U-boot). After configuring the kernel to support VGA console, the PCI
video card did not give any display (probably no sync at all). AFAIK, the PCI
bus is working correctly. I did test a Netgear PCI network card to verify it
(and it passed).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>The Z7 demo card works ok on a
regular Linux PC with a standard BIOS on it. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>1. Does our system require a VGA BIOS
(aside from U-boot) to display console (and later on to display a GUI, i.e. X
Windows, Tiny X)?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>2. Is it possible to configure the
Kernel to do the PCI video card initialization without involving U-boot so that
it will at least display a VGA console 80x25?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>3. Do I actually need to write a
driver for the Z7 in U-boot (similar to CT9000, SMI 710/712/810) to configure
the video chip correctly before Linux takes over?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>4. I still like to send U-boot
console messages to the MPC8270 (SCC) serial port and just start the VGA console
once Linux takes over. Is this possible?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>I greatly appreciate any insights
about this issue.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2>thanks in
advance,<BR>Maynard</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#000000 size=2> </DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>