[9fans] 16:9 display and freeze

[t***@polynum.com]

Hello,

Since my previous monitor died, I bought a new LCD one with 16:9 ratio,
running under X11 at 1600x900.

Nothing but the monitor has changed. The graphic card has not
changed, it is still a ATI Technologies Radeon 9200SE. My configuration
for Plan9 has not changed either for the video stuff (whether
800x600 or 1024x768, I will have to check; but the monitor "auto
adapts" so some discrepancy between what the monitor and the card
agree to use and the size of the software buffer is not impossible).

When testing a new get_mk_install.rc and compilation for kerTeX,
a couple of seconds after switching to scroll mode (for kerTeX
compilation) under Plan9 (native), the machine froze hard. I had
to cold reboot, since simply rebooting, the BIOS had problems:
something has been trashed.

Had anyone already encountered such behavior? Hints about the
"whodunit"? And a cure?

TIA

[erik quanstrom]

Post by t***@polynum.com
Nothing but the monitor has changed. The graphic card has not
changed, it is still a ATI Technologies Radeon 9200SE. My configuration
for Plan9 has not changed either for the video stuff (whether
800x600 or 1024x768, I will have to check; but the monitor "auto
adapts" so some discrepancy between what the monitor and the card
agree to use and the size of the software buffer is not impossible).
When testing a new get_mk_install.rc and compilation for kerTeX,
a couple of seconds after switching to scroll mode (for kerTeX
compilation) under Plan9 (native), the machine froze hard. I had
something has been trashed.
Had anyone already encountered such behavior? Hints about the
"whodunit"? And a cure?

no. i used a 16:9 monitor for a short while. no ill effects. other than
an ugly picture.

- erik

[Matthew Veety]

Post by erik quanstrom

Post by t***@polynum.com
Nothing but the monitor has changed. The graphic card has not
changed, it is still a ATI Technologies Radeon 9200SE. My configuration
for Plan9 has not changed either for the video stuff (whether
800x600 or 1024x768, I will have to check; but the monitor "auto
adapts" so some discrepancy between what the monitor and the card
agree to use and the size of the software buffer is not impossible).
When testing a new get_mk_install.rc and compilation for kerTeX,
a couple of seconds after switching to scroll mode (for kerTeX
compilation) under Plan9 (native), the machine froze hard. I had
something has been trashed.
Had anyone already encountered such behavior? Hints about the
"whodunit"? And a cure?

no. i used a 16:9 monitor for a short while. no ill effects. other than
an ugly picture.
- erik

This sounds more like a hardware problem in your machine (not display)
than a bug in Plan 9. Plan 9 crashing hard shouldn't do anything to the
bios (unless it did something *really* nasty in /dev/realmode, but I
can't think of anything that would trash the bios).

--
Veety

[erik quanstrom]

Post by Matthew Veety
This sounds more like a hardware problem in your machine (not display)
than a bug in Plan 9. Plan 9 crashing hard shouldn't do anything to the
bios (unless it did something *really* nasty in /dev/realmode, but I
can't think of anything that would trash the bios).

Thanks to both for your reply. I will have to investigate (and see what
is producing this).

i would recommend using aux/realemu. it provides a measure of safety
when doing mode setting. it could be that the vesa bios does go off
into the woods when it detects a 16:9 monitor. the vesa bios has access
to this information through the edid sideband communication, which
is available on almost every video interconnect, including vga.

- erik

[t***@polynum.com]

Post by erik quanstrom
i would recommend using aux/realemu. it provides a measure of safety
when doing mode setting. it could be that the vesa bios does go off
into the woods when it detects a 16:9 monitor. the vesa bios has access
to this information through the edid sideband communication, which
is available on almost every video interconnect, including vga.

Thank you. I will try to investigate.

[t***@polynum.com]

For the record, I haven't been able to reproduce it now. (I have opened
the box to verify connections and so on; and to be exhaustive, the
only modification was to simply move a IDE loose end cable further
from the motherboard---I always wonder, with the increase of speed, what
the electromagnetic noise impact is, and how shielded are MB components
from such perturbations...).

[t***@polynum.com]

In answer to the description of my problems with display and a hard

Post by Matthew Veety

Post by erik quanstrom
no. i used a 16:9 monitor for a short while. no ill effects. other than
an ugly picture.
- erik

This sounds more like a hardware problem in your machine (not display)
than a bug in Plan 9. Plan 9 crashing hard shouldn't do anything to the
bios (unless it did something *really* nasty in /dev/realmode, but I
can't think of anything that would trash the bios).

Thanks to both for your reply. I will have to investigate (and see what
is producing this).

Best,