Upgrade Sunblade 100 video?

Just curious, running Java desktop under Solaris 10, I have PAINFULLY
slow screen refreshes (1280x1024x60).

I'm not sure if it's the built in graphics card or if I'm more limited
by the CPU. Any insight would be beneficial. Anyime I'm switching
windows, scrolling, etc... It is SLOW. I don't really need 3d, but
wouldn't object to it.

I haven't followed the Sun hardware for a while, so I'm a little
outdated and could use some advice.

I would like something that definetly runs in my SunBlade 100 priority,
but having the capability to run in my U60 or e420R would be nice too.
Again, if I'm limited because CPU, then I won't bother, but if I can
get these darn window/screen refreshed to be quicker, I'm all over
it...

I have just seen a little about the XVR-100, XVR-500, Expert3d's,
etc...

Thanks for the insight!

In article < .com>, wrote:
>Just curious, running Java desktop under Solaris 10, I have PAINFULLY
>slow screen refreshes (1280x1024x60).
>
>I'm not sure if it's the built in graphics card or if I'm more limited
>by the CPU. Any insight would be beneficial. Anyime I'm switching
>windows, scrolling, etc... It is SLOW. I don't really need 3d, but
>wouldn't object to it.
>

Make sure you don't have fake8 enabled in fbconfig.
This enables simultaneous 8 and 24 bit, but the 8-bit
part is REAL slow. So if you also set your
default depth to 8-bit, it'll use this slow 8-bit stuff
for the window systems (it's OK if defdepth is 24).

However, if fake8 is off, and you only have one depth,
then you want 8-bit, since it can access the memory
faster with the smaller pixel size. You just get less
colors, though.

P.S. you usually set the default depth using the defdep

option to Xsun in the Xservers file.


>I haven't followed the Sun hardware for a while, so I'm a little
>outdated and could use some advice.
>
>I would like something that definetly runs in my SunBlade 100 prioritø>but having the capability to run in my U60 or e420R would be nice too.
>Again, if I'm limited because CPU, then I won't bother, but if I can
>get these darn window/screen refreshed to be quicker, I'm all over
>it...
>
>I have just seen a little about the XVR-100, XVR-500, Expert3d's,
>etc...
>

XVR-100 is the next generation of what you have now.
Might be 2X faster, and won't accelerate OpenGL (3D).

The IFB and JFB series are the higher end PCI cards
(has to be PCI for SB-100, but will work in U60, too)

IFB (XVR-500 and such ....) are faster, and do 3D.

For JFB, XVR-600 is newer and faster.
XVR-1200 is a faster 600,
with dual screen output, if that's useful.

Any UPA cards, like FFB, FFB2, XVR-1000, will only work in the U60.



>Thanks for the insight!
>

wrote:
> Just curious, running Java desktop under Solaris 10, I have PAINFULLY
> slow screen refreshes (1280x1024x60).
>
> I'm not sure if it's the built in graphics card or if I'm more limited
> by the CPU. Any insight would be beneficial. Anyime I'm switching
> windows, scrolling, etc... It is SLOW. I don't really need 3d, but
> wouldn't object to it.
>
> I haven't followed the Sun hardware for a while, so I'm a little
> outdated and could use some advice.
>
> I would like something that definetly runs in my SunBlade 100 priority,
> but having the capability to run in my U60 or e420R would be nice too.
> Again, if I'm limited because CPU, then I won't bother, but if I can
> get these darn window/screen refreshed to be quicker, I'm all over
> it...
>
> I have just seen a little about the XVR-100, XVR-500, Expert3d's,
> etc...
>
> Thanks for the insight!

I had a SB100 until six months ago. didn't use it much at the end so

I returend it to Sun as part of payment for a new SB1500

Any way , The PCI bus is SLOW 133 MHZ 32 bit on the SB100
I had an Expert 3D Lite card in it but it did not help much for
performance.
THe box can just about drive 320x200 pixels RealVideo

The SB100 was intended as an entry devloper/compile platform for
Solaris 8 with CDE. As 3D workstation its useless.
Your Ultra 60 with 2 450 Mhz CPU's would be better and provide
Faster PCI /UPA options for graphics cards.

You can almost buy a complete new Opteron Ultra 20 Workstation
for the same price as a Sparc based Graphics card like the XVR600.
A High end Graphics card in the SB100 is a waste of money.
( unless you can get it secondhand )
Invest the money in the SB1500 instead.

//Lars

tunla wrote:
> wrote:
> > Just curious, running Java desktop under Solaris 10, I have PAINFULLY
> > slow screen refreshes (1280x1024x60).
> >
> > I'm not sure if it's the built in graphics card or if I'm more limited
> > by the CPU. Any insight would be beneficial. Anyime I'm switching
> > windows, scrolling, etc... It is SLOW. I don't really need 3d, but
> > wouldn't object to it.
> >
> > I haven't followed the Sun hardware for a while, so I'm a little
> > outdated and could use some advice.
> >
> > I would like something that definetly runs in my SunBlade 100 priority,
> > but having the capability to run in my U60 or e420R would be nice too.
> > Again, if I'm limited because CPU, then I won't bother, but if I can
> > get these darn window/screen refreshed to be quicker, I'm all over
> > it...
> >
> > I have just seen a little about the XVR-100, XVR-500, Expert3d's,
> > etc...
> >
> > Thanks for the insight!
>
> I had a SB100 until six months ago. didn't use it much at the end so
>
> I returend it to Sun as part of payment for a new SB1500
>
> Any way , The PCI bus is SLOW 133 MHZ 32 bit on the SB100
> I had an Expert 3D Lite card in it but it did not help much for
> performance.
> THe box can just about drive 320x200 pixels RealVideo
>
> The SB100 was intended as an entry devloper/compile platform for
> Solaris 8 with CDE. As 3D workstation its useless.
> Your Ultra 60 with 2 450 Mhz CPU's would be better and provide
> Faster PCI /UPA options for graphics cards.
>
> You can almost buy a complete new Opteron Ultra 20 Workstation
> for the same price as a Sparc based Graphics card like the XVR600.
> A High end Graphics card in the SB100 is a waste of money.
> ( unless you can get it secondhand )
> Invest the money in the SB1500 instead.
>
> //Lars


Also , You really need minimum 512 MB ram
most likely 1 GB.

At the moment I am running .
SB1500
Solaris 10
1 JDS user
1 copy of Mozilla 1.7.12
1 Xterm

>From TOP:

Memory: 2048M real, 1524M free, 289M swap in use, 5467M swap free

I am using close to 800 MB of Virtual Memory.

I remember a major performance boost when I upgraded
my old SB100 from 256 MB to 1280 MB ram.

//Lars

HI,

tunla wrote:
> tunla wrote:
>
>> wrote:
>>
><snip>

> Memory: 2048M real, 1524M free, 289M swap in use, 5467M swap free
>
> I am using close to 800 MB of Virtual Memory.
>
> I remember a major performance boost when I upgraded
> my old SB100 from 256 MB to 1280 MB ram.
>
> //Lars
>
Never use 'top' for measuring any need of CPU or memory unless you are
talking your boss that is

Seriously, use vmstat 1 and check the 'sr' field if it constantly moves
around 50 and up then you have a memory problem!


below is top on a Blade 2500 silver 2GB ram and 5 Sunray users


load averages: 0.04, 0.07, 0.08
19:00:15
349 processes: 216 sleeping, 132 zombie, 1 on cpu
CPU states: 97.5% idle, 0.9% user, 0.0% kernel, 1.6% iowait, 0.0% swap
Memory: 2048M real, 35M free, 3021M swap in use, 6605M swap free

vmstat says:
mila@brera $ vmstat 1
kthr memory page disk faults cpu
r b w swap free re mf pi po fr de sr s0 s1 s3 s3 in sy cs
us sy id
0 0 0 7656472 369808 19 71 85 2 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 583 992 1704
2 1 97
0 0 0 6764104 35648 2 6 32 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 528 3777 1734
0 0 100
0 0 0 6764104 35640 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 692 4090 1920
0 0 100
0 0 0 6764104 35640 2 0 32 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 582 4028 1952
0 0 100
0 0 0 6764104 35640 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 654 4134 1832
0 0 100
0 0 0 6764104 35640 2 1 32 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 542 3902 1763
0 1 99
^C
since the 'sr' is 0 there is no need for any memory, so I have not done
any upgrade yet.

Memory should be used, unless there is to much of it!


But I am swapping on 15K drive so who needs RAM


/michael

Michael Laajanen wrote:

> Never use 'top' for measuring any need of CPU or memory unless you are
> talking your boss that is
>
> Seriously, use vmstat 1 and check the 'sr' field if it constantly moves
> around 50 and up then you have a memory problem!

Good advise !

The sunblade 100 used to sell with 128 MB RAM in
the minimum config

http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/817...gbagb11?a=view

says that 256 MB is recommended RAM and that you need
384 MB to run the Solaris 10 GUI installer.
Which seems a bit Backward to me , unless all you want to do
with the system is to run a head less Apache server.
Also note that all prebuilt Sparc servers today comes with
at least 256 MB Ram.

So if you need 384 MB to install you certainly need 512 MB
to run efficiently.

//Lars

wrote:
> In article < .com>, wrote:

> Make sure you don't have fake8 enabled in fbconfig.
> This enables simultaneous 8 and 24 bit, but the 8-bit
> part is REAL slow. So if you also set your
> default depth to 8-bit, it'll use this slow 8-bit stuff
> for the window systems (it's OK if defdepth is 24).
>
> However, if fake8 is off, and you only have one depth,
> then you want 8-bit, since it can access the memory
> faster with the smaller pixel size. You just get less
> colors, though.
>
> P.S. you usually set the default depth using the defdep

> option to Xsun in the Xservers file.

I set my resolution with m64config, will that update the appropriate
places? If not, which Xservers file should I edit and what should I
put in there? There are two Xservers file, one in the dt folders and
one in the old openwindows.

>
>
> >I haven't followed the Sun hardware for a while, so I'm a little
> >outdated and could use some advice.
> >
> >I would like something that definetly runs in my SunBlade 100 prioritø>but having the capability to run in my U60 or e420R would be nice too.
> >Again, if I'm limited because CPU, then I won't bother, but if I can
> >get these darn window/screen refreshed to be quicker, I'm all over
> >it...
> >
> >I have just seen a little about the XVR-100, XVR-500, Expert3d's,
> >etc...
> >
>
> XVR-100 is the next generation of what you have now.
> Might be 2X faster, and won't accelerate OpenGL (3D).
>
> The IFB and JFB series are the higher end PCI cards
> (has to be PCI for SB-100, but will work in U60, too)
>
> IFB (XVR-500 and such ....) are faster, and do 3D.
>
> For JFB, XVR-600 is newer and faster.
> XVR-1200 is a faster 600,
> with dual screen output, if that's useful.
>


Thanks for the info, my above questions about which file may not be
that of a big deal soon. I just grabbed two XVR-500's for $210
shipped. I think that's probably a pretty good price, only $105 each.

Thanks!

In article <. com>,
<43771ac0$0$225$> wrote:
>
> wrote:
>> In article < .com>, te@iv=
>orypetal.com wrote:
>
>> Make sure you don't have fake8 enabled in fbconfig.
>> This enables simultaneous 8 and 24 bit, but the 8-bit
>> part is REAL slow. So if you also set your
>> default depth to 8-bit, it'll use this slow 8-bit stuff
>> for the window systems (it's OK if defdepth is 24).
>>
>> However, if fake8 is off, and you only have one depth,
>> then you want 8-bit, since it can access the memory
>> faster with the smaller pixel size. You just get less
>> colors, though.
>>
>> P.S. you usually set the default depth using the defdep

>> option to Xsun in the Xservers file.
>
>I set my resolution with m64config, will that update the appropriate
>places? If not, which Xservers file should I edit and what should I
>put in there? There are two Xservers file, one in the dt folders and
>one in the old openwindows.
>


should be dt for CDE ...

/etc/dt/config/Xservers if I remember it all right.

If it's missing, copy the default one from
/usr/dt/config/xservers and modify it in /etc/.....

You add the options after the -dev option to Xsun

Xsun ... ... ... -dev /dev/fbs/ifb0 defdepth 8

You can see the devices with "fbconfig -list"

Restart/relogin to make this take effect.
(if you created the /etc version for the first time,
you'll need to reboot here or the deamon
will ignore this "new" file).

Some cards "may" also allow this to be set with fbconfig,
but that is cards specific.
Some call -fake8 mode 32 bit or 8+24 mode.

Once you're logged back in, you can use xdpyinfo
to show what mode you are in. Look at the visuals
and see if they are 8-bit, 24-bit, or both.

For fastest performance, you want only 8-bit ones.

(However, if somehow you need both 8 and 24,
then make sure the default visual is not 8-à
since this is emulated in software, and converted
to 24-bit for display)









>>
>>
>> >I haven't followed the Sun hardware for a while, so I'm a little
>> >outdated and could use some advice.
>> >
>> >I would like something that definetly runs in my SunBlade 100 priorit=F8=
>>but having the capability to run in my U60 or e420R would be nice too.
>> >Again, if I'm limited because CPU, then I won't bother, but if I can
>> >get these darn window/screen refreshed to be quicker, I'm all over
>> >it...
>> >
>> >I have just seen a little about the XVR-100, XVR-500, Expert3d's,
>> >etc...
>> >
>>
>> XVR-100 is the next generation of what you have now.
>> Might be 2X faster, and won't accelerate OpenGL (3D).
>>
>> The IFB and JFB series are the higher end PCI cards
>> (has to be PCI for SB-100, but will work in U60, too)
>>
>> IFB (XVR-500 and such ....) are faster, and do 3D.
>>
>> For JFB, XVR-600 is newer and faster.
>> XVR-1200 is a faster 600,
>> with dual screen output, if that's useful.
>>
>
>
>Thanks for the info, my above questions about which file may not be
>that of a big deal soon. I just grabbed two XVR-500's for $210
>shipped. I think that's probably a pretty good price, only $105 each.
>
>Thanks!
>

Well shoot, I just got the XVR-500's and the system boots fine, of
course can't find the framebuffer for the DTlogin, so I boot up in
single user, download the CD drivers from Sun, and then procees to run
the ./install script....

Then I get the wonderful error:

# cd SunXVR-500_CDROM_705-0046-11
# ./install
Error: This set of products only installs on Solaris 8 and subsequent
compatible releases. This machine is running Solaris 2.10,
which
is not supported.
#

Anyone know of a way to install the drivers on Solaris v10?

On Fri, 18 Nov 2005, wrote:

> Well shoot, I just got the XVR-500's and the system boots fine, of
> course can't find the framebuffer for the DTlogin, so I boot up in
> single user, download the CD drivers from Sun, and then procees to run
> the ./install script....
>
> Then I get the wonderful error:
>
> # cd SunXVR-500_CDROM_705-0046-11
> # ./install
> Error: This set of products only installs on Solaris 8 and subsequent
> compatible releases. This machine is running Solaris 2.10,
> which
> is not supported.

Try editing the script, which was obviously written for Solaris 10 was
released.

--
Rich Teer, SCNA, SCSA, OpenSolaris CAB member

President,
Rite Online Inc.

Voice: +1 (250) 979-1638
URL: http://www.rite-group.com/rich