From owner-port-sparc@NetBSD.ORG Wed Nov 6 21:51:46 1996 Received: from mail.NetBSD.ORG (netbsd1.cygnus.com [140.174.6.10]) by 16292 on Collatz.McRCIM.McGill.EDU (8.6.12 Mouse 1.0) with SMTP id VAA16292 for ; Wed, 6 Nov 1996 21:51:33 -0500 Received: (qmail-queue invoked by alias); 6 Nov 1996 16:22:37 -0000 Delivered-To: port-sparc-outgoing@NetBSD.ORG Received: (qmail-queue invoked by uid 605); 6 Nov 1996 16:22:37 -0000 Received: (qmail-queue invoked from smtpd); 6 Nov 1996 16:22:28 -0000 Received: from beryllium.club.cc.cmu.edu (HELO club.cc.cmu.edu) (128.2.232.146) by netbsd1.cygnus.com with SMTP; 6 Nov 1996 16:22:26 -0000 Received: from alycia.dementia.org (md@ALYCIA.DEMENTIA.ORG [128.2.35.149]) by club.cc.cmu.edu (8.6.12/8.6.12) with SMTP id LAA01060; Wed, 6 Nov 1996 11:20:23 -0500 Date: Wed, 6 Nov 1996 11:20:22 -0500 (EST) From: Mark Dapoz To: Jason Thorpe cc: Curt Sampson , NetBSD Sparc Users Subject: Re: FASTCONSOLE on cgsix In-Reply-To: <199611051818.KAA14390@lestat.nas.nasa.gov> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-port-sparc@NetBSD.ORG Precedence: list Delivered-To: port-sparc@NetBSD.ORG Status: RO This may be of interest to people wishing to speed up their text console at the cost of a bit of memory. I tried it once and it does work. -mark Article 46272 of comp.sys.sun.admin: Path: nntp-oslo.uninett.no!nac.no!trane.uninett.no!sunic!news.funet.fi!news.eunet.fi!EU.net!howland.reston.ans.net!gatech!udel!news.mathworks.com!uunet!DIALix!not-for-mail From: abcc@perth.DIALix.oz.au (Arena Technology) Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun.admin,comp.unix.solaris Subject: Re: Console is like molasses in January Date: 8 Feb 1995 07:57:13 +0800 Organization: DIALix Services, Perth, Australia. Lines: 45 Sender: abcc@perth.DIALix.oz.au Distribution: world Message-ID: <3h91cp$9kt$1@perth.DIALix.oz.au> References: <3h8au2$mn@news0.cybernetics.net> <3h8e3c$1mb@hudson.cs.unb.ca> NNTP-Posting-Host: perth.dialix.oz.au NNTP-Posting-User: abcc X-Newsreader: NN version 6.5.0 #59 (NOV) Xref: nntp-oslo.uninett.no comp.sys.sun.admin:46272 comp.unix.solaris:35337 mleese@hudson.cs.unb.ca (OMG) writes: >In article <3h8au2$mn@news0.cybernetics.net> root@netmar.com writes: >> >>But in console mode (i.e. no windowing system running) the text display occurs >>somewhere around 300-400 cps. This is not my idea of speedy. >Yep, this is normal. >I havn't thought about this for a while, but seem to recall that the >screen writing is done via code in an EEPROM which is a tad sluggish. Sure is... and here's the solution. In mrapple@quack.sac.ca.us (Nick Sayer) wrote: The problem is twofold. First, the console is written in FORTH, second, it's running in the ROM (which has a bunch of wait-states per read). There's no solution to the former, but for the latter, you can do this: #! /bin/sh eeprom 'nvramrc=probe-all install-console ramforth : cache-page dup pgmap@ cacheable swap pgmap! ; up@ cache-page here origin do i cache-page pagesize +loop banner' eeprom 'use-nvramrc?=true' exit 0 Reboot after doing the above. Your console will be much, much faster and you'll lose 200K of RAM. Just do it once. The effect is (semi-)permanent. You can turn it off by either using L1-N to wipe the nvram during boot or you can say 'eeprom use-nvramrc?=false' if the OS is up to just disable it for the next reboot (don't forget to 'true' it to re-enable it). -- Adrian Booth, Arena Technology, 7 Glenrowan Place, Willetton WA 6155 Oz Phone: (09) 354 4936 | Fax: (09) 354 4115 | Email: arena@dialix.oz.au The autumn leaves are falling like rain. Although my neighbors are all barbarians and you, you are a thousand miles away; there are always two cups at my table. - T'ang Dynasty