Solaris Handbook for Sun Frame Buffers

PGX32 Card With a Secondary Frame Buffer

The PGX32 card can be made the console device when other secondary frame buffers are present in the system.

Onboard Graphics (Ultra 5 and Ultra 10 Only)

The Sun Ultra 5 and Sun Ultra 10 standard onboard graphics and PGX32 card(s) can only coexist in the system if the onboard graphics device is the console. Otherwise, the onboard graphics device must be disabled as described above in ""PGX32 Card as the Only Frame Buffer"."

Systems With UPA Bus Frame Buffers

To configure the PGX32 card as the console when UPA frame buffers are in the system, the output-device variable in NVRAM must be changed to the actual path of the desired PGX32 cards. This path can best be determined by searching for the string TSI in the / tree at the ok prompt.

For example, to find the pci devices, type:


ok cd /pci@1f,4000
ok ls

When you are in the correct location, you should see at least one entry containing the string TSI (that is, TSI,gfxp@# where # is a digit representing your PGX32 slot location).

Use this entry as the console device for your desired PGX32 card. For example, if the path is /pcid@1f,4000 (as shown above) to the device TSI,gfxp@#, type:


ok setenv output-device /pci@1f,4000/TSI,gfxp@#
ok reset


Note -

Replace # with whatever your PGX32 device requires.


Once the system is reset, all console messages will be directed to that PGX32 card.

To restore the default graphics device as the console for any reason, simply set the output-device variable back to its default value of the screen. To do this, type:


ok setenv output-device screen
ok reset

Other PCI Frame Buffers

To make the PGX32 the console device when other PCI frame buffers are present in the system, it may be necessary to change the pcia-probe-list to probe the PGX32 slot before that of the secondary frame buffer (in addition to the changes described above in ""PGX32 Card as the Only Frame Buffer".")

  1. Determine the slot numbers that correspond to these frame buffers, then ensure that the PGX32 slot number precedes that of the secondary frame buffer in the pcia-probe-list.

For example, if the PGX32 is located in slot 3, and the secondary frame buffer is located in slot 1, then update the pcia-probe-list so that slot 3 is probed before slot 1. A possible configuration is:


ok setenv pcia-probe-list 3,2,1,4
ok reset

Once the system is reset, all console messages will be directed to the PGX32 card.