Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!mcnc!ncsuvx!news
From: fostel@cscadm.ncsu.edu (Gary Fostel)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: AT&T SysV 386 Driver for Targa
Message-ID: <1990Mar28.045430.6491@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu>
Date: 28 Mar 90 04:54:30 GMT
Reply-To: fostel@cscadm.UUCP (Gary Fostel)
Distribution: usa
Organization: /etc/organization
Lines: 37


    I am about to write a driver for a graphics board to be installed on
    a SysV system running on a largish PC/AT platform.  The board we are
    testing with is a Targa graphics card tht does simple frame grabs and
    displays and eventually this will be replaced by a "compatible" board
    from Matrox called an Illuminator.  The targa is very widely used under
    PC/DOS and perhaps, maybe, pretty please, also by someone else under
    sysV unix.  

    The driver is simplicity itself compared to most drivers for
    a graphics subsystem, but alas we do not have sources for the UNIX
    code nor do we have the exhorbitantly priced manuals from AT&T that
    explain in detail how to write and install character and block drivers
    for a SysV 386 UNIX.  (They want $350 for this and it may be worth
    it, but due to budget troubles here, paper clips and paper for xeroxing
    are considered precious.)

    Does anyone have those AT&T manuals and recommend them highly enough
    to scrape up the money to buy them?  Is the 386 SysV enough like 
    other "generic" unix systems that I can assume common kernel functions
    are there with the names I expect?  Not having the sources to this
    UNIX guts my prefered approach of stealing code from other drivers
    and adjusting as needed until it stops crashing....

    If the lic. rules allow, even the sources for a simple SysV driver
    might help so I could see what std kernel functions I can use. Not
    sure about the legality of it.

    Thanks for any suggestions.  (Thanks even more if someone has already
    done this for a Targa board and is feeling very generous towards a
    poor state university down on its luck.)
----gary----
                 Gary Fostel
                 fostel@cscadm.ncsu.edu
                 Department of Computer Science
                 North Carolina State University
                 (919) 737-3195