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Solaris 10 Guest - Pseudocolor overlay visual support

Posted: 18. Aug 2008, 22:23
by rasta
Here is my setup:

HOST:

WinXPsp3 32-bit with VT (dual quad-core E5345 processors)
4 GB RAM
NVIDIA Quadro FX 5300 video card, 256 MB VRAM
VBox 1.6.4

GUEST:

Solaris 10 u5 x86

QUESTION:

In Solaris, is it possible to get support for 8-bit pseudocolor visuals in a 24-bit default setup? If so, how? I need to run Xnest in 8-bit mode for an application, so I need support for both 24-bit and 8-bit visuals. I went through the user's guide, but it was not at all straightforward to determine this.

Thank you in advance for any info you may have...

Posted: 20. Aug 2008, 19:15
by rasta
This question addresses changes to the Xorg.conf file produced by the Solaris guest additions.

For nvidia drivers, pseudocolor overlay visuals are enabled by the CIOverlay command, but I assume that is not true for the video driver supplied by the Vbox guest additions.

Is there some way to use VBoxManage with a Solaris guest to enable the 8-bit visuals?

Here is the Xorg.conf file:

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "X.org Configured"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"
RgbPath "/usr/X11/lib/X11/rgb"
ModulePath "/usr/X11/lib/modules"
FontPath "/usr/X11/lib/X11/fonts/TrueType/"
FontPath "/usr/X11/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/"
FontPath "/usr/X11/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/sun/"
FontPath "/usr/X11/lib/X11/fonts/F3bitmaps/"
FontPath "/usr/X11/lib/X11/fonts/misc/"
FontPath "/usr/X11/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/"
FontPath "/usr/X11/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "IA"
Load "Xst"
Load "dbe"
Load "extmod"
Load "record"
Load "xtrap"
Load "GLcore"
Load "glx"
Load "xtsol"
Load "bitstream"
Load "freetype"
Load "type1"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "vboxmouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/kdmouse"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "Monitor Model"
EndSection

Section "Device"
### Available Driver options are:-
### Values: <i>: integer, <f>: float, <bool>: "True"/"False",
### <string>: "String", <freq>: "<f> Hz/kHz/MHz"
### [arg]: arg optional
#Option "ShadowFB" # [<bool>]
#Option "DefaultRefresh" # [<bool>]
#Option "ModeSetClearScreen" # [<bool>]
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "vboxvideo"
VendorName "Unknown Vendor"
BoardName "Unknown Board"
BusID "PCI:0:2:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Card0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 1
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 4
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 8
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 15
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 16
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

Posted: 20. Aug 2008, 22:43
by rasta
Ooops, I meant that I have a Quadro FX 3500 vcard.

Posted: 9. Sep 2008, 21:02
by rasta
The same issue exists with Vbox 2.0.0.

Posted: 9. Sep 2008, 21:04
by rasta
Here is output from xdpyinfo using Vbox 2.0.0 (Solaris additions installed). Note that no 8-bit pseudocolor visuals are available.

> xdpyinfo
name of display: :0.0
version number: 11.0
vendor string: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
vendor release number: 10300000
maximum request size: 16777212 bytes
motion buffer size: 256
bitmap unit, bit order, padding: 32, LSBFirst, 32
image byte order: LSBFirst
number of supported pixmap formats: 7
supported pixmap formats:
depth 1, bits_per_pixel 1, scanline_pad 32
depth 4, bits_per_pixel 8, scanline_pad 32
depth 8, bits_per_pixel 8, scanline_pad 32
depth 15, bits_per_pixel 16, scanline_pad 32
depth 16, bits_per_pixel 16, scanline_pad 32
depth 24, bits_per_pixel 32, scanline_pad 32
depth 32, bits_per_pixel 32, scanline_pad 32
keycode range: minimum 8, maximum 255
focus: window 0x200000a, revert to Parent
number of extensions: 34
BIG-REQUESTS
DAMAGE
DEC-XTRAP
DOUBLE-BUFFER
DPMS
Extended-Visual-Information
GLX
MIT-SCREEN-SAVER
MIT-SHM
MIT-SUNDRY-NONSTANDARD
RANDR
RECORD
RENDER
SECURITY
SGI-GLX
SHAPE
SYNC
SolarisIA
TOG-CUP
X-Resource
XAccessControlExtension
XC-APPGROUP
XC-MISC
XEVIE
XFIXES
XFree86-Bigfont
XFree86-DGA
XFree86-Misc
XFree86-VidModeExtension
XINERAMA
XInputExtension
XKEYBOARD
XTEST
XVideo
default screen number: 0
number of screens: 1

screen #0:
dimensions: 1600x1200 pixels (423x317 millimeters)
resolution: 96x96 dots per inch
depths (7): 24, 1, 4, 8, 15, 16, 32
root window id: 0x47
depth of root window: 24 planes
number of colormaps: minimum 1, maximum 1
default colormap: 0x20
default number of colormap cells: 256
preallocated pixels: black 0, white 16777215
options: backing-store NO, save-unders NO
largest cursor: 64x64
current input event mask: 0xfa2033
KeyPressMask KeyReleaseMask EnterWindowMask
LeaveWindowMask ButtonMotionMask StructureNotifyMask
SubstructureNotifyMask SubstructureRedirectMask FocusChangeMask
PropertyChangeMask ColormapChangeMask
number of visuals: 4
default visual id: 0x22
visual:
visual id: 0x22
class: TrueColor
depth: 24 planes
available colormap entries: 256 per subfield
red, green, blue masks: 0xff0000, 0xff00, 0xff
significant bits in color specification: 8 bits
visual:
visual id: 0x23
class: TrueColor
depth: 24 planes
available colormap entries: 256 per subfield
red, green, blue masks: 0xff0000, 0xff00, 0xff
significant bits in color specification: 8 bits
visual:
visual id: 0x24
class: TrueColor
depth: 24 planes
available colormap entries: 256 per subfield
red, green, blue masks: 0xff0000, 0xff00, 0xff
significant bits in color specification: 8 bits
visual:
visual id: 0x25
class: TrueColor
depth: 24 planes
available colormap entries: 256 per subfield
red, green, blue masks: 0xff0000, 0xff00, 0xff
significant bits in color specification: 8 bits

Posted: 23. Sep 2008, 16:39
by rasta
This problem is most likely related to the unfortunate fact that Vbox and VMware guests cannot "see" video cards on the host machine, and the Guest Additions simulate a basic VESA graphics card with a pathetically limited suite of display functionality. The question is why.

Will the limited capability of the simulated VESA graphics ever be addressed? The utility of Vbox and VMware is vastly diminished by this gross limitation that everyone seems to take for granted. Without full graphics support for host video hardware, Vbox and VMware seem to best suited only for word processing and other non-graphics sys admin/IT/developer noodling and testing. What about users who need the guests to do graphics work using software that is not compatible with the host systems?

If one has Solaris x86 running in a non-virtual environment, it is possible to install NVIDIA graphics drivers that enable nearly the full suite of NVIDIA capabilities. It is a real shame that this is apparently not possible under Vbox.

Posted: 1. Nov 2008, 11:14
by SnakeMedia
He? That problem with graphic card??

Ow! my Graphoc Card ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT with HDMI.

But i try frist test vb with Ubuntu or solaris. What does it happen with glxgears is very slow, And pixel flixkers always. why i want to stop flicking display from graphic driver ATI Radeon hd 2600 XT

Why does vb not work while hardware-drivers install automacally?
Windows XP is working really 100 % clean, old version Windows versions works really ... well done.

Now Unix based operating system can not work???? I do not understand.

Regards SnakeMedia

Posted: 23. Feb 2009, 04:42
by rlhamil
rasta wrote:This problem is most likely related to the unfortunate fact that Vbox and VMware guests cannot "see" video cards on the host machine, and the Guest Additions simulate a basic VESA graphics card with a pathetically limited suite of display functionality. The question is why.

Will the limited capability of the simulated VESA graphics ever be addressed? The utility of Vbox and VMware is vastly diminished by this gross limitation that everyone seems to take for granted. Without full graphics support for host video hardware, Vbox and VMware seem to best suited only for word processing and other non-graphics sys admin/IT/developer noodling and testing. What about users who need the guests to do graphics work using software that is not compatible with the host systems?

If one has Solaris x86 running in a non-virtual environment, it is possible to install NVIDIA graphics drivers that enable nearly the full suite of NVIDIA capabilities. It is a real shame that this is apparently not possible under Vbox.
Clearly one can't allow the guest direct access to the host graphics card;
that could mess up the screen for non-virtualized apps, not to mention
run a very high risk of crashing the host.

Maybe one day a graphics card will be built that has virtualization in mind;
sort of an analogy to newer x86 chips that support virtualization in hardware.
But I haven't heard of anything like that yet.

And it's probably not reasonable (nor is enough info necessarily available)
to create virtual imitations of a whole bunch of graphics cards, or even
a really authentic imitation of a single popular card with enough features
to please everyone.

Features desired by the guest but not present on the host would have
to be implemented in software, which would be slow. Features
compatibly present in both might get passed through in a filtered sort
of way, which may be what happens for the 3D acceleration, although
I don't really know.

Rather than asking for what is likely to be impossible or unfeasible,
I wonder if might be more useful to think in terms of the _minimum_
additional features that would be the most useful, and whether it would
be ok if they were rather slow if the host didn't have a corresponding
capability.

(Incidentally, I'm wondering what XxYx32 gets you over XxYx24 if
you can't have pseudocolor in the extra 8.)

Posted: 23. Feb 2009, 22:45
by rasta
rlhamil,

Thank you for your message. I see why the virtualization of video hardware is problematic.

I wonder if adding 8-bit pseudcolor support is a suitable MINIMUM feature to ask about adding to the virtual display driver capability? I would think that it could help some users, and wouldn't be that difficult to implement?

The display app I need to run in 8-bit color is old, complex, and absolutely essential for my work. It won't even start in the current 24-bit Solaris Xorg configuration, so I am out of luck. Having 8-bit capability that is slow would at least get me off the ground.

Can you confirm that it is impossible for me to somehow configure xorg.conf to give me the 8-bit pseudocolor visuals with the current virtual display diver (Vbox 2.1.4)? If there is a way, I have no idea what it is.

Thanks again for your insights...

Re: Solaris 10 Guest - Pseudocolor overlay visual support

Posted: 28. Mar 2009, 17:39
by woboyle
I'm having the exact same problem with the lack of support for 8-bit pseudo color when porting old solaris applications. I'm going to need to look at the coding to see if I can fix that, given that pretty much no system offers so little color depth any longer. In any case, what a pain! I'm going to see if this is posted as a VBox bug, and if not, then I will post it.

Re: Solaris 10 Guest - Pseudocolor overlay visual support

Posted: 30. Mar 2009, 22:32
by rasta
Woboyle,

GREAT!!!!!! I thought I was the only person in the world who still needed 8-bit pseudo color support on Solaris! Thank you for offering to post this problem as a bug if necessary. I have searched the bug database, and came up with nothing.

I asked this same question to VMware sales people, but they were clueless and blew off the question.

Let me know if there is some way I can help you.

Re: Solaris 10 Guest - Pseudocolor overlay visual support

Posted: 10. Apr 2009, 20:07
by rasta
woboyle,

Have you posted a bug yet? One of us should do it ASAP.

Re: Solaris 10 Guest - Pseudocolor overlay visual support

Posted: 11. Apr 2009, 06:18
by woboyle
Re. Bug report.

No. I've been busy with other stuff. I'll try to get to it this weekend. Thanks for the reminder! :-)

Re: Solaris 10 Guest - Pseudocolor overlay visual support

Posted: 1. Jun 2009, 22:04
by rasta
Is there a way to use "video mode hints" (?) to get a Solaris 10 guest to support 8-bit pseudocolor visuals? The 2.2.4 User's Manual suggests that these hints can be used to define custom resolutions. How about color depth?

Are 8-bit pseudocolor visuals still unsupported by Vbox 2.2.4 Guest Additions for Solaris?

Re: Solaris 10 Guest - Pseudocolor overlay visual support

Posted: 17. Jul 2009, 20:32
by rasta
I added an enhancement for this:

http://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/4557