Using Roell's X386 with PVGA1A and NEC Multisync-II ?

[Chin Fang]

I recently ftp-ed the ESIX port of Herr Roell's X386 from
freebie.engin.umich.edu (many thanks to Mike).  I am still waiting for
a BTC EVGA with Tseng ET4000.  Since I have not gotton it yet and I
have a Paradise Professional (512k vedio ram), even though Herr 
Roell warned that for PVGA1A his server wouldn't work properly, I
decided to give it a try.

My monitor is an NEC Multisync-II, some data from User's Manual given
below:

Synchronization: H: 15.5kHz to 35kHz (automatically)
                 V: 50Hz to 80 Hz (automatically)
                    non-interlace

Resolution:      H: 800 dots
                 V: 560 lines

Video Band Width: 30 Mhz
Active Display Area: H: 250 mm (active display area is
                     V: 185 mm  changing by signal timing.)

In Xconfig, I activated the PVGA1A line using 640x480 default.  The
timing built after standard VGA BIOS for 640x480 was used as well.
Of course, I also modified the Display line to NEC M-II's spec.

Then, I logged in a virtual terminal, typed xinit, everything came out
correctly, the X cursor, background, etc.  

But, the two xterms normally I start were a mess now.  Besides,
whenever I moved the mouse, the mouse cursor would erase things or
create some color patches along it's path.

Penning worked.  But just made the mess even worse!  The login
xterm (or root xterm) and another xterm were tangled with each other.
Refresh would help a little, but as soon as a command was issued, they
became covered by color patches again.

All right, that's all bad.  But, from what I could see, Herr Roell's
server is indeed an Autobaun screamer even with a slow PVGA1A chip
set.  I use SUN sparc 1 and 1+ daily and I dare say here that the 
screen update speed is at least as fast as sparc 1's even with 
the dated PVGA1A! (I compared text scrolling using a very large
ascii text file, index23.2 from uunet.uu.net).  

Now I wonder whether anyone has come up a good configuration for
a low end display subsystem like mine composing NEC Multisync-II and
a vedio card using PVGA1A?  If you have any success, would you please
post?  PVGA1A probably is THE most popular chip set and there are 
many out there due to the fact that many no name cards are using 
Paradise chip set and they are dirty cheap ($45 per card, how is
that?).  NEC Multisync II were hot before.  So such posting would
definitely benefit many.  I will try to tinker with mine, but I am
not knowlegable about vedio display, so chance of having success is
slim.

Finally, Herr Roell, could you say a few words about your server's
support for PVGA1A?  Is it really so broken that it is essentially
useless with this chip set?  If yes, do you plan to fix it?  

Chin Fang
Mechanical Engineering Department
Stanford University
fangchin at portia.stanford.edu