16626d6e0Sshatty<html> 26626d6e0Sshatty<head> 36626d6e0Sshatty <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> 46626d6e0Sshatty <meta name="GENERATOR" content="The DarkSite"> 5*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen <title>Readme for (open)BeOS Unified Nvidia graphics driver</title> 66626d6e0Sshatty</head> 76626d6e0Sshatty<body> 8*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen<h2 align="center">Unified Nvidia graphics driver for (open)BeOS</h2></align><br><br> 96626d6e0Sshatty<hr> 106626d6e0Sshatty<h3><strong>NOTE PLEASE:</strong><br> 116626d6e0SshattyYou use this software at your own risk! Although I don't expect it to damage your PC, videocard or Monitor, I cannot guarantee this!<br> 126626d6e0Sshatty<br> 136626d6e0SshattyEspecially owners of laptops are encouraged to be extra carefull with their internal panels. A refresh setting higher than 60Hz might destroy the panel!</h3> 146626d6e0Sshatty<hr> 15*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen<h2>Supported cards (as far as is known):</h2> 16*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen<ul> 17*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen <li>TNT 1/2; 18*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen <li>TNT 2-M64; 19*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen <li>Vanta/Aladdin TNT2; 20*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen <li>GeForce 256; 21*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen <li>GeForce 2 MX/Ti/GTS/Go (Go only with external monitor); 22*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen <li>GeForce 2 Integrated GPU (Nforce) (setup RAM amount manually for now); 23*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen <li>GeForce 3 (Ti); 24*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen <li>GeForce 4 MX/Ti/Go (Go only with external monitor); 25*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen <li>GeForce 4 Integrated GPU (Nforce 2) (setup RAM amount manually for now); 26*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen <li>GeForce FX 5200/5600/5800/5900/Go (Go only with external monitor); 27*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen <li>Quadro (2/4/FX/Go) (Go only with external monitor). 28*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen</ul> 296626d6e0Sshatty<br> 30*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen<hr> 31*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen<h2>Features:</h2> 32*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen<ul> 33*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen <li>Hardware cursor support; 34*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen <li>Full 2D acceleration; 35*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen <li>Full BWindowScreen support (used for hardware pageflipping, scrolling/panning and acceleration in applications/games); 36*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen <li>DPMS support; 37*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen <li>B_YCbCr422 hardware overlay support on all cards (so on both TNT and GeForce series). 38*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen</ul> 39*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen<strong>Known limitations:</strong> 40*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen<ul> 41*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen <li>If the driver does not load make sure you enabled 'assign IRQ to VGA card' in your system BIOS; 42*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen <li>If the driver seems to create 'random' trouble make sure you have a fully functional VGA BIOS, or system BIOS for embedded cards (check for updates on the manufacturor's site); 43*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen <li>256Mb RAM detection is still missing for cards that have that much of it: Please set the amount manually for now via the nv.settings file (driver defaults to 16Mb if you don't); 44*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen <li>Flatpanel protection for laptops is not yet in place: be carefull! External only output has been reported functional though. 45*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen <li>No DVI support: you have to use a standard VGA cable to connect external flatpanels; 46*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen <li>Embedded GeForce RAM detection is non-functional: please set amount manually for now via the nv.settings file (driver probably defaults to 1Mb if you don't). If you have overlay trouble, set a slightly smaller amount of RAM than you actually specified in the system BIOS (1Mb less or so); 47*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen <li>A few cards have hardcursor trouble. If you encounter this use the softcursor: select this via the nv.settings file; 48*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen <li>GeForce FX 5700 and FX 5950 are not yet supported (mail me if you own such a card!). 49*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen</ul> 50*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen<br> 51*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen<hr> 52*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen<h2>Installation:</h2> 536626d6e0SshattyIf you encounter bugs, please checkout the driver's <a href="http://web.inter.nl.net/users/be-hold/BeOS/NVdriver/index.html">website</a> to see if it's already on the todo list. You can also checkout the <a href="UPDATE.html">UPDATE</a> file included with this driver to see if it should have been fixed. If you think it's prudent, or if you are unsure, then please fill out the <a href="http://web.inter.nl.net/users/be-hold/BeOS/NVdriver/bugreport.html">bugreport form</a> on the site or send me an <a href="mailto:rag.cornelissen@inter.nl.net">Email</a>. Make sure you are as precise as possible because that will make things easier to trackdown and fix...<br> 546626d6e0Sshatty<br> 556626d6e0Sshatty<br> 566626d6e0SshattyOK, now that's all said let's get to it ;-)<br> 576626d6e0Sshatty<br> 586626d6e0SshattyIn contrary to what I have said before you don't need to de-install official Be drivers for this driver to work correctly. This driver will install in the user part of the BeOS, so not in the system part where the official drivers are.<br> 596626d6e0SshattyBeOS first checks (during boot) if there are 'user-addons' that should be loaded for a device. If not, it loads it's own drivers (if any). You can select which driver should be loaded by hitting the spacebar as soon as the BeOS 'icons' screen appears. If you select <strong>disable user addons</strong> the system will load it's own drivers. If you don't do anything, the system will load the (open)BeOS Nvidia TNT/GeForce graphics driver.<br> 606626d6e0Sshatty<br> 616626d6e0Sshatty<strong>Note:</strong> This might turn out to be handy if you run into trouble upon testing the driver, or if you are 'tweaking' the nv.settings file...<br> 626626d6e0Sshatty<br><br> 636626d6e0Sshatty<strong>actual INSTALLATION:</strong><br> 646626d6e0Sshatty<br> 65*90879508SRudolf CornelissenDoubleclick on the install.sh file and follow the instructions. You have to reboot in order to load the driver. Make sure you read the <strong>Settings</strong> information below before you do that...<br> 666626d6e0Sshatty<br> 676626d6e0Sshatty<br> 686626d6e0Sshatty<strong>alternate INSTALLATION method:</strong><br> 696626d6e0Sshatty<br> 70*90879508SRudolf CornelissenUnzip the zip file that contains the driver to the root folder. Now reboot and you should be using the new driver.<br> 716626d6e0Sshatty<br> 726626d6e0Sshatty<br> 73*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen<strong>DE-INSTALLATION:</strong><br> 746626d6e0Sshatty<br> 75*90879508SRudolf CornelissenCurrently there's no uninstall script included. Just do it manually:<br> 76*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen<br> 77*90879508SRudolf CornelissenDelete the <strong>nv.accelerant</strong> file in <strong>home/config/add-ons/accelerants/</strong><br> 78*90879508SRudolf CornelissenDelete the <strong>nv.driver</strong> file in <strong>home/config/add-ons/kernel/drivers/bin/</strong><br> 79*90879508SRudolf CornelissenDelete the <strong>nv.settings</strong> file in <strong>home/config/settings/kernel/drivers/</strong><br> 80*90879508SRudolf CornelissenDelete the <strong>nv.driver shortcut</strong> in <strong>home/config/add-ons/kernel/drivers/dev/graphics/</strong> which pointed to the file <strong>nv.driver</strong>.<br> 81*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen<br> 82*90879508SRudolf CornelissenYou have to reboot in order to apply the original configuration.<br> 83*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen<br> 846626d6e0Sshatty<br> 856626d6e0Sshatty<hr> 866626d6e0Sshatty<a name="settings"></a><h2>Settings:</h2><br> 876626d6e0SshattyPlease read this information carefully *before* installing and using the (open)BeOS Nvidia TNT/GeForce graphics driver. It might spare you some trouble afterwards..<br> 886626d6e0Sshatty<p>The driver uses a file named <strong>nv.settings</strong> to determine how to use your card. After installation this file will be located at <strong>home/config/settings/kernel/drivers/</strong>. How you should setup this file depends on what you want to do with the driver. While it has a 'failsave' default configuration, you might be able to do better than that... Anyway, read the nifty details below.<br> 896626d6e0Sshatty<br> 906626d6e0Sshatty<strong>Note:</strong> The driver only reads this file during it's initialisation. This means that you have to reboot in order to let changes take effect.<br> 916626d6e0Sshatty<br> 926626d6e0Sshatty<br> 936626d6e0Sshatty<br> 946626d6e0Sshatty<strong>nv.settings driver configuration:</strong><br> 956626d6e0Sshatty<ul> 966626d6e0Sshatty <li><strong>memory:</strong> (disabled by default)<br> 976626d6e0Sshatty This option enables you to override the 'memory amount autodetection' of the driver. If autodetection is working incorrect, you can manually set the amount this way. You could also lower the amount of RAM to a lower value than actually there to test with for instance overlay use in applications. So this option is probably mostly of interest to developers. Specify the RAM amount in Mb (use only 'whole' numbers!).<br> 986626d6e0SshattyThis option is disabled by default (preceded by a '#').<br> 996626d6e0Sshatty<li><strong>hardcursor:</strong><br> 100*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen A hardcursor is nessesary for DirectWindow windowed mode support. 1016626d6e0Sshatty <ul> 1026626d6e0Sshatty <li><strong>false:</strong><br> 1036626d6e0Sshatty If you have trouble with the hardcursor, select <strong>hardcursor false</strong>. Make sure you let me know about the hardcursor trouble also: this should not happen! 1046626d6e0Sshatty <li><strong>true:</strong> (default setting)<br> 105*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen A software cursor 'flickers' a bit sometimes because it has to be redrawn constantly. So <strong>hardcursor true</strong> is the preferred setting. For DirectWindow windowed mode functionality you need to use this setting also (Chart demo app for instance). 1066626d6e0Sshatty </ul> 1076626d6e0Sshatty<li><strong>logmask:</strong> (set to minimal by default)<br> 108*90879508SRudolf CornelissenThe logmask option is very handy to track down trouble in the driver. You should only enable this if you are doing so, otherwise keep it turned off because it slows down your system. (All lines have a '#' preceding 'logmask' by default.) Logging creates a logfile called <strong>nv.accelerant.0.log</strong> in your <strong>~ (home)</strong> folder. A second logfile may get created depending on how the driver is used (on cloning; for BWindowScreen for example). The second file is called <strong>nv.accelerant.1.log</strong>, and it will also be in your home folder.<br> 1096626d6e0Sshatty<strong>Note:</strong> 1106626d6e0Sshatty<ul> 1116626d6e0Sshatty<li>You may only enable *one* logmask-line. The value you place after it (hexadecimal 32bit) determines what will be logged. The first 7 digits determine the part of the driver that will be logging, the last single digit determines the level of logging (like 'all messages', or only 'error messages'). 1126626d6e0Sshatty</ul> 1136626d6e0Sshatty<li><strong>dumprom:</strong><br> 1146626d6e0SshattyDumprom is another 'tool' for bug-tracking purposes. 1156626d6e0Sshatty <ul> 1166626d6e0Sshatty <li><strong>false:</strong> (default setting)<br> 1176626d6e0Sshatty Keep it set to <strong>dumprom false</strong>, unless you want the driver to dump the contents of your VGA BIOS ROM in a file. 1186626d6e0Sshatty <li><strong>true:</strong><br> 1196626d6e0Sshatty <strong>dumprom true</strong> lets the driver dump a copy of your VGA BIOS in a file called <strong>nv.rom</strong> in your <strong>~ (home)</strong> folder. 1206626d6e0Sshatty </ul> 1216626d6e0Sshatty</ul> 1226626d6e0Sshatty 1236626d6e0Sshatty<hr> 1246626d6e0Sshatty<br> 1256626d6e0Sshatty<a href="mailto:rag.cornelissen@inter.nl.net">Rudolf Cornelissen.</a> 126*90879508SRudolf Cornelissen<p>(Page last updated on January 8, 2004)</p> 1276626d6e0Sshatty</body> 1286626d6e0Sshatty</html> 129