🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <5cvp2g$5kh@nnrp1.news.primenet.com>, khamann@primenet.com wrote:
>In <32f2f313.711773@news.edmonton.telusplanet.net>, marcb@cips.ca (Marc) writes:
>>On Thu, 30 Jan 1997 22:39:05 -0500, Scott MacKenzie
>><scottm@mpx.com.au> wrote:
>>
>>>Could anyone shed any light on how I might get access to the 15/16 bit
>>>colour depths which my card supports but which are not available to me
>>>at present.  (Using Warp v3.0)
>>
>>
>>I've been trying to do the same thing since last Aug. I've had
>>absolutely no luck finding drivers. So far I've settled for 15 bit
>>color in WINOS2 full screen sessions only by replacing the
>>fdisplay.drv driver with the Tseng drivers. Other than that, I've got
>>a Cirrus 5429 and a Trident 9440 as replacements for the Tseng -
>>neither of which work with my motherboard.
>>
>>Please keep my email address around in case you have better luck than
>>I did.
>>
>I'm guessing here, so please don't get too mad if this doesn't
>work *grin*, but have you tried using the ET4000/w32,w32i,w32p
>driver to see if that would work?

Most people with ET4000 boards have already used that driver, and a good
number have found it doesn't work properly (not more than 8 bit color under
OS/2, but 24 bit color works fine under Windows).

The best explanation I've found points the finger at a bug in the video driver
IBM never addressed:

From: edgewood@pobox.com (Ed Blackman)
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.setup.video
Subject: Re: Why can't I get more than 256 colours with 2meg ET4000 PCI card?
Date: Wed, 08 Jan 1997 13:40:14 -0500
Message-ID: <Oo+0yU75ilvT089yn@pobox.com>

marcb@telusplanet.net (Marc Butler) wrote:
>edgewood@pobox.com (Ed Blackman) wrote:
>>I have the same problem here.  The problem does come from SVGA.EXE,
>>but it also seems to be related to the RAMDAC.  I've had reports
>>from others using the ET4000 w32p revision D chipset, but with a
>>different RAMDAC on the card (mine is the CH8398_RGB from Chrontel),
>>who were able to get SVGA.EXE to properly report the capabilities of
>>the card.
>
>Is there any other way to get SVGA to understand that the card is
>capable of more than 256 colors? I understand that its possible to
>edit an output from SVGA to set up refresh rates, can the same be done
>for the number of colors?

I've got to thank you, because your question caused me to take another crack
at getting >256 colors, and I finally did it.  I found an article on Dejanews
that mentioned that a patch could be applied to SVGA.EXE that would allow
cards with Chrontel RAMDACs to use more than 256 colors in OS/2.  Load
SVGA.EXE in a hex editor (make a backup copy first) and search for the string
"B8 09 00 C9" (there should only be one) and change it to "B8 07 00 C9".

The first time I tried this patch, it didn't work: the SVGADATA.PMI files that
the patched SVGA generated weren't correct.  I reinstalled the video drivers
and redid the patch, and it works now.  Right now my desktop is at 16 million
colors!

Ed