vpix help

[Jose Dias]

In article <2682 at ke4zv.UUCP> gary at ke4zv.UUCP (Gary Coffman) writes:
>In article <25428 at hydra.gatech.EDU> gt3408a at prism.gatech.EDU (DYKES,DAVID PRESTON) writes:
>>this I discovered a very weird bug...  My machine will quit from vpix as long
>>as it is attached to a color monitor!  My mono just won't cut it.  Sounds
>>like black magic to me.   If this makes any more sense to any of ya'll I would
>>GREATLY appreciate any pointers.
>
>My problem is the reverse. VPIX works great with a mono display card and
>monitor. Then I changed over to a Paradise VGA+ and a Seiko VGA monitor.
>I can enter VPIX and run DOS programs, but when I quit, the screen goes
>away and can't be recovered except by a hardware reset. The VGA system
>works fine under Unix. The VGA system works fine under VPIX. But leaving
>VPIX crashes the display system. Note that I actually do return to Unix
>and can switch virtual terminals to console and run shutdown, but of 
>course I'm working blind until a hardware reset. I suspect that the
>display card is being switched to a TTL mode, probably EGA, when it 
>returns from VPIX. The Seiko in an analog only monitor and goes into
>sweep protect when exiting VPIX. Does anybody know a fix for this
>problem?
>
>Gary

Well, I don't have a quick solution, but I can add to the confusion...

In my box I used an Ati VGA-Wonder 512k with mouse connected with a
TTL monitor and got monochrome EGA.  In dos I was able to boot it
as anything up to but not including VGA with no problem.  Interactive's
UNIX (2.2.0) is not as forgiving and it would only boot up, ie install,
if I locked the card in hercules mode, but at least it worked.

VP/ix (1.2.0) on the other hand would not come up until I commented
out the VGAROM and EGAROM entries.  The most serious problem with
the ati combo (besides that I never got the mouse to work) was
that if I changed windows from VP/ix to anything else I would not
be able to change back.  When I tried to return VP/ix would try
for a while and eventually just beep at me and just sit there.
So I ripped the ati card out and slapped in an old mono/herc card
and now VP/ix works fine.  My assumption was that VP/ix would start
in mono mode and work fine, but when returning from another window
it (or the kernel) would get confused and think it was in colour
and try to restore that window, but unsuccessfully.

My suggestion would be to check how "compatible" the vga card and
monitors are.  Ati's monochrome ega on a ttl monitor is a nice
feature, but it is not standard in the register level, so I'm out
until I can get a colour monitor.  Your mileage may vary, but
it sounds very familiar...
-- 
Jose Dias		jad at nyama.UUCP		 Who me? I didn't say anything!