Setting up BVision PPC & CyberGraphX

[Castellen]

Any experts out there for configuring a Blizzard Vision graphics card?

I'm trying to help out someone who has bought a 2nd hand BVision and BlizzardPPC card for their towered A1200.
I have the BlizzardPPC + SCSI working fine with the lastest version of WarpOS from H&P and the PowerUp emulation libs, but I can't get the BVision card working properly.

Having only used P96 before, I'm a bit in the dark.
As per various instructions, the Blizzard now has the latest firmware from http://phase5.a1k.org
I've installed CyberGraphX ver 4.0 and applied the 4.1 update from Aminet, required for the BVision.

The monitor is a C= 1942, so I've set up the BVPPC monitor settings for 1940 listed on Aminet.

What currently works with the BVision:
- AGA video passthrough works before Devs:Monitors are executed
- ShowGFXconfig detects the BVisionPPC board

The problems are:
- There is no boot image when Devs:Monitors are executed (I presume there is supposed to be with the tooltype set?)
- The video modes configured using CGXmode don't show up in the WB Screenmode prefs (they're not flagged as hidden)
- Using CGXmode and selecting "test" on any existing screenmode always gives the error "Can't open test screen!"


Do I have a faulty BVision or is it likely to be a CGFX setup issue?
I've spent ages trying different tooltypes, etc, but always the same result.

Is there a comprehensive guide of "here's what versions you need of everything to make the BVision work" type of thing?


Any help/suggestions appreciated.

[Castellen]

Thanks for the suggestions.
I've tried installing WarpOS and CGFX4.1 again, but actually gone backwards.
CGraphX mode now says "The specified card is not installed or there is no driver available", yet ShowGFXconfig detects the BVision correctly and things are configured as default with the CyberGraphX prefs.

Also tried latest CPU libs, etc, same results.

I can't believe how difficult and time consuming it is to get this even close to working :madashell: give me Picasso96 any day!

I think I need to copy the various libs, etc, from a working BVisionPPC setup which is also operating under OS3.9+BB2, at the moment I'm just clutching at straws and getting nowhere fast.

Would anyone be willing to send me an archive of their tooltypes & environment variables for WarpOS and CGFX, 680#? libs, PPC#? libs, warp#? libs, cgx#? libs, Devs:Monitors

Also list any other patches, which are run at startup, e.g. BPPCfix, CyberPatcher.

If I copy a working config, I can at least get an idea if it's a software setup problem or hardware fault.

Thanks in advance.

[Castellen]

Thanks Karlos, I didn't see that thread when I searched for it.

The description there sounds like exactly the problems I'm having under OS3.9+BB2.
To cut a long story short, upgrading CGFX to ver 4.2 rc6 should make it all magically work, in theory.

The problem now is that the provided install script doesn't work, the patching always fails.
I've spent most of the day working through the overcomplicated installer script.

Looks like spatch is no longer used since ver 4.1 (where the install did work), they've decided use a new utility called "patch" which according to the installer script, is supposed to work like this:
patch -p<.pch file> -o

It's reading the source files from the CD with no problems from what I can tell, as well as the .pch files, but "patch" always returns with an error code translating to "invalid object lock"

The author of patch has made a minimal effort job of it, the executable has no embedded help, and the information it returns is next to nothing.

I've got no way of knowing if the installer script is not written correctly, patch has a problem, or it has a problem with the original file read from the CD, or there is a problem with the /pch file.

This has seriously got to be some of the worst Amiga software I've ever seen.  Aside from being overcomplicated and unintuitave, it really just doesn't work :madashell:

Is there any secret tricks to making the installer script or patch work?  Perhaps I missed out the hidden step of sacrificing a goat or something.

Failing that, is someone willing to send me the various CGFX and BVision libraries and executables which they've somehow managed to patch to 4.2 rc6 or higher?

Thanks again.

[Castellen]

Sure, I've installed P96 on countless different systems as well as been using it myself for the past 7 years.
It works really well, easy to use, installation and configuration is a breeze compared to this major battle I'm having between OS3.9, CGFX and BVision.

Admittedly it takes some getting used to the P96Mode GUI, but it only takes a matter of minutes to do.  You still seem to get there in the end.

I hope the problems of CGFX are only limited to installation.  It seems that even once you've installed it, you need the right versions of various other things, which is understandable.  The trouble is, there doesn't seem to be a guide or anything saying "for this hardware configuration, here's what versions you need of stuff to make it work".
I guess to be fair, the problem isn't mainly with CGFX itself, more of a lack of documentation from the developers.  I don't expect a manuscript autographed by the Queen, but a simple definition of requirements and prerequisites would make it a whole lot easier by taking out a majority of the guesswork.

Also, it's not like I have some bizzare hardware arrangement.  Just a standard A1200T with a Blizzard PPC and the BVision card attached running OS3.9+BB2
You'd think such a setup would be fairly common?

[Castellen]

@StormLord
Thanks, that's a very good suggestion and possible answer to some of these problems.
The Blizzard firmware I'm using could well be the one for Grex support.
Under some other advice, I updated the Blizzard firmware from this page, with the file dated 12.10.2001
PCI options are now added to the Blizzard early boot menu.

Can you please tell me which version of firmware you've used in your working setup and where to get it?

Cheers.

[Castellen]

Thanks patrik, if that's what's working for you, I'll do the same.
Will tackle it again tonight after I've psyched myself up a bit :-)

As mentioned by nasty, I'll also try Installer from the CGFX4 CD, I never considered it might be a compatibility thing with the OS3.9 Installer.

Hope to report back with some good news soon!

[Castellen]

OK, here's a bit of a progress update.
I've changed the Blizzard's firmware to the last update from P5, downloaded from patrik's link.
That went well, no problems there.

The BVision card no longer shows up using Scout - Expansions, previously it came up as 6 seperate (unkown??) devices or something.  Probably nothing to worry about.
CyberGFX "showcgfxconfig" shows the BVision board as being installed.


I'm still stuck with trying to install the V4.3 rc5 update.  It does the same thing as before, for every library and executable it tries to patch, an error says "spatch has returned an error, please read the error in the spatch window" (there is no spatch window)
I also tried the suggestion of making it use the version of installer from the GFX4 CD, same deal.

For some reason, the "patch" program simply won't work for reasons unknown.  Earlier CGFX updates, like v4.1 where spatch was used instead of patch, work with no problems at all.
Of course I have tried it manually from CLI as well as using spatch with it's slightly different syntax.  spatch doesn't seem to work with the .pch files provided in the update.

Is it something stupid like patch is a PPC executable and I haven't got the PPC OS running properly?
Other WarpOS test executables seem to run OK, so not sure of that theory.

I also tried completely disabling the Blizzard card and running the V4.3 rc5 update using the 68020, same problem.

Not sure what else I can try short of copying an existing working setup.
As I'm trying to do all this as a favour for someone, I'm on the verge of telling him to look for another solution.  Spending far too much time on it for too fewer results.

As always, any further suggestions welcome!
Thanks for all the help so far.

[Castellen]

After a bit of a cool down period and finding a bit more spare time, I've had another crack at getting this all working.

Great news, after taking into account everyone's experiences and tips (especially Patrik's) it's all fully working! :-D
Yeah, I'm so stoaked now.  This has to be the most painful software drama I've been through since I last used window$.

I'll list the problems I had and some notes so when the next poor bugger has to endure installing a BVision card with CyberGFX under OS3.9, they know what to do.


The problem of "patch" not working turned out to be something to do with the CDROM drive.  It generally seemed to work OK reading discs and the likes, but after Patrik saying there might be something funny, turns out that was it.  Tried installing CGFX V42r5 using the CyberGraphX disc in a SCSI CDROM instead of the IDE one and it all just magically worked.
I can't explain it either, but I don't care now, it's working.

Last problem to fix was that CGraphX mode (the prog used to edit screenmodes) kept complaining there was no board installed.  It's icon contains a tooltype saying what board you have, e.g. BOARD=CVisionPPC
The CGFX v4.0 install must set it to the CyberVision board as there is no Blizzard specific support.  Since the update to V4.1 then V4.2r5 the tooltype never got updated, even though I had told the installer there was a Blizzard fitted.
I made a guess and changed the tooltype to BOARD=BVisionPPC and it now works.

Another problem to be aware of is that the .info file for the monitor executable (Devs:Monitors/BVisionPPC.info) never seemed to get created.  This causes problems as it contains various tooltypes required for things to work.
I think I copied the .info made for CVisionPPC to get started.  Using the program CyberGraphX - Tooltypes can easily fix things the way they should be when you save.


So some version informations of this working A1200 in case anyone needs them in the future:

OS3.9 with Boing Bag 2
68040.library 46.5
68040new.library 46.5
68040old.library 37.3
68060.library 46.5
blizzppc.library 44.31 (in ROM)
ppc.library 46.37 (Frank Willie's PowerUp emulation lib for WarpOS)
warp.library 4.0

CD file system: CacheCDFS 42.19

Blizzard firmware file used: Flash300399.lha (from Aminet)
(the last official release from Phase5, does not have GRex PCI support)

CyberGraphX installed by:
V4.0 first from CD (use all default ENV and tooltypes)
Install update cgxv42_r1.lha (from Aminet)
Install update cgxv42_rc5.lha (from here)

*** Edit ***
The above link no longer appears to be valid, seems the CGFX support pages are no more??
I've copied the rc5 and rc6 CGFX4 updates to my webserver here.
************

WarpOS
Installed WarpUP_Release4.0.lha
Installed WarpUP_Release4.0_Update.lha
Installed WarpUP_V51Update.lha

Other points to note, the BVision card does NOT show up under Scout - expansions or ShowConfig, but does show up using showcgxconfig as installed by CyberGraphX.

PPC related patches during startup-sequence:
BPPCfix install [040]
ppclibemu_install CLOSE
(read Frank Willie's docs for more information and install details)

Sorry for the lengthy post.  I hope it's useful to someone in the future.


P.S. Looks like it isn't necessary to sacrifice a goat to install CyberGraphX and a BVision card after all :-)
Though it was coming pretty close...