Changing Screen Resolutions on an Ultra 10?

... are you using the onboard chipset, or are you using an additional framebuffer ?

Each will have its own specific command for manipulating the resolution.

Do (as root user):

<b># prtconf -F</b>

... and also do a directory listing of the <b>/dev/fbs</b> directory, and report the contents.

There should be a zero-byte device instance file for each installed framebuffer.

Bill at 2007-7-5 17:59:10 >

No, Chris, that would be an add-on card if it's a DB13W3 connection <u>at</u> the computer.

The Ultra-5 and Ultra-10 systems use what is essentially the same systemboard.

The cases are different, with the U-10 having more internal room, that's all.

The U-10 has enough space that the UPA graphics slot can be populated.

The systemboards have a an integrated DB15 VGA connector, next to the 10/100 Ethernet port.

<a href="http&#58;&#47;&#47;www.sunshack.org/data/sh/2.1/infoserver.ce ntral/data/syshbk/Systems/U10/component.rear.html" target="_blank">See picture of an Ultra-10</a>

That circuit is spontaneously relegated to a secondary function if a UPA card is in place.

Please run the two commands I mentioned above, and get back to us.Paste the results back into the thread.

Bill at 2007-7-5 17:59:10 >

Yes those outputs do help.

The PRTCONF report tells me that the primary framebuffer is from device instance <u>ffb0</u> and is not from the integrated systemboard chipset.

That is good, because the card has more capabilities than the onboard ATI chipset

The directory listing confirms that both video circuits have been recognized and are a part of the path-to-inst file.

Your primary output is from one of the Creator cards that would install to a UPA slot.It's not a PCI adapter card.

So ...

you can use the <b>ffbconfig</b> command line utility to manipulate your screen output.

There are man pages for it in Solaris.

You make changes as root user, then you need to restart X for any changes to take effect.

If it were me, I'd just make changes, exit out of any GUI, then just log in again.

To make changes, you need to begin by knowing what you're current settings are.

Do ...

<b># ffbconfig -prconf</b>

That will show you your <b>pr</b>esent <b>conf</b>iguration.

I expect you'll see something that includes, perhaps, 1152x900 at 66Hz vertical refresh, and 8-bit color.

What are the actual current results ?

We'll eventually get into what your expectations might be

and some details as to what your monitor may accept.

Bill at 2007-7-5 17:59:10 >

It appears that the card is incapable of 800x600, as well.

<a href="http&#58;&#47;&#47;www.sunshack.org/data/sh/2.1/infoserver.ce ntral/data/syshbk/Devices/Graphics/GRAPH_Creator_2_FFB2.html" target="_blank">Creator framebuffer</a>

Consider using a 1024x768 output, instead. All the screen elements will be just a tad larger.

Glance at the <u>ffbconfig</u> man pages one more time.

I believe there you'll find a command switch for the color depth.

I prefer to do each change with a single line of instruction, rather than chain them on the same line.

It simplifies the understanding of error messages.

Whenever I've had to use one of these command-line utilities, I 've found I need to correct the color depth before I modify a resolution.

For some reason, a resolution change can throw the configuration back to 8bit mode and it's a 'pain' to live with only 256 colors when the framebuffer can do so much more.

<b># ffbconfig -depth 24</b> <enter>

(then a restart of X, or a logout/login)

<b># ffbconfig -res 1024x768x77</b> <enter>

... and another logout/login, or just reboot.

Bill at 2007-7-5 17:59:10 >