Re: is ati-vga emulation usable with OS 9.2.2 installer?

[BALATON Zoltan]

On Wed, 2 Apr 2025, Andrew Randrianasulu wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 2, 2025 at 4:33 AM BALATON Zoltan <balaton@eik.bme.hu> wrote:
> > > > If you still want to try, maybe the simplest way could be:
> > > > 1. cut the ndrv out from the ATI FCode ROM, it starts at the string Joy!
> > > > and ends at 6 bytes before driver,AAPL,MacOS,PowerPC (but maybe works if
> > > > you just cut the 0s from the end, the resulting ndrv file should begin
> > > > with "Joy!peffpwpc".
> > > > 2. Try -device ati-vga,romfile=<ndrv-from-step-1> -prom-env
> > > > 'vga-ndrv?=false'
> > > > 3. Boot without extensions or remove the ATI extension before this
> > >
> > > I tried to cut it in Octeta, so file starts with
> > > "Joy!peffpwpc" and ends with 0001:5310 | 14 3E 1F 02  01
> > >                     | .>...
> >
> > What if you drop the last byte so it ends with 1F 02?
> >
> > > but still no happy mac/booting sequence graphics?
> > >
> > > /qemu-system-ppc64 -m 768 -smp 2 -cpu g4 -M mac99,via=pmu -cdrom
> > > ~/ISO/macos-922-uni.iso    -display sdl -accel tcg,thread=multi  -bios
> > > ~/obj-ppc/openbios-qemu.elf -vga none -device
> > > ati-vga,romfile=/home/guest/ati-fcode-roms/ndrv_110.rom  -boot d
> > > -trace enable="*ati*" -d unimp,guest_errors -prom-env
> > > 'vga-ndrv?=false'
> >
> > Otherwise no idea, it was a long time ago but you can try to verify from
> > OpenBIOS prompt that the VGA node has the NDRV as a property added and if
> > it's the correct ndrv you've passed with romfile and not the
> > qemu_vga.ndrv.
>
> seems to be yes?

Well it works but this Rage128ps version handles EDID infos badly so you 
won't see it as it will make a tiny window. Get the newer ndrv from the 
Rage128pd ROM (ends in A8 41 B3 02) that one works better. But as I said 
you can only use it in framebuffer mode without the ATI extension that 
would add acceleration so you'll get the same as with standard VGA so this 
is just for curiosity and trying ATI ROMs at the moment.

(I don't remember what was the issue with EDID but I think one version 
gets this from FCode and adds it as a property and the other can query it 
itself from the driver or something like that but one of the two driver 
versions did work and trying it now the Rage128pd version still works with 
the above method for me.)

Regards,
BALATON Zoltan