XF86_3DLabs and/or XF86_FBDev (3.3.6) on AXi w/PGX32

[David Butts <david.butts@storability.com>]

Hello, all-

I am not subscribed to debian-user, so please cc me on any responses
you send to that list (I know I should be, but I've been less than
entirely diligent about keeping up with debian-sparc, debian-alpha
and the like).

The broadest question I have is where documentation for XFree on
Sparc can be found.  AFAICT, it's a fairly recent development
(although I would assume that FBDev has been working for some
time).  If there's an FM to be read, please point me at it, and
I'll keep myself occupied for a while.

I have installed Potato on a Concorde UMax/10 (Basically an Ultra/10
but with SCSI instead of IDE), which is running a PGX32 (Permedia2).
There is no video card on the motherboard, so the PGX32 is the only
framebuffer in the system.

# cat /proc/openprom/banner-name

'SPARCengine(tm)Ultra(tm) AXi (UltraSPARC-IIi 440MHz)'

I've installed xserver-3dlabs and xserver-fbdev, but can't seem to
get either of them to behave.

XF86_3DLabs claims not to find any GLINT/PERMEDIA cards on startup,
and the closest I was able to find poking through list archives was
a thread about problems with XF4 probing multiple PCI busses to
find video cards on Alphas.  FWIW, the video card, in its current
location, is on PCI bus 1.  I tried moving it to another slot, and
it ended up on bus 128.  Rather than flailing around with that for
too long, I figured I'd solicit an expert opinion or two first.

I then tried to get XF86_FBDev (which has come to my rescue on a
great many occasions... slow, but dependable) to work, but was
unable to come up with an appropriate set of modelines.  Sadly,
xf86config has worked so well for me in the past that I have not
really learned how to make my own XF86Config file from scratch.
I tried using the output from fbset -x to create a usable modeline
for the framebuffer (which is running 1280x1024x60 ATM.  In a
perfect world I'd get that up to 1280x1024x76, but am less picky
for now), but XF86_FBDev continues to claim not to have found any
valid modelines.  Also, for whatever reason, multiple -verbose
on the command line don't seem to be getting me any more detail.

Is the most reasonable thing to do to try an upgrade to XF4?  It
seems like there's a great deal more traffic re: XF4 on sparc
that there is about 3.3.6.

Having written that all out, I get the sneaking suspicion that I
should be sending this to a newbie list of some type, but I'm
still too proud...

I've included some details below.  If any others would be useful
(kernel config, XF86Config snippets, etc) please let me know.

Thanks,
David Butts
Unix Systems Administrator
Storability, Inc.

# cat /proc/fb
0 Permedia2

# fbset -x

Mode "1280x1024"
    # D: 107.991 MHz, H: 63.976 kHz, V: 60.015 Hz
    DotClock 107.992
    HTimings 1280 1328 1440 1688
    VTimings 1024 1025 1028 1066
    Flags    "+HSync" "+VSync"
EndMode

# cat /proc/pci
PCI devices found:
  Bus  0, device   0, function  0:
    Host bridge: Sun Microsystems Ultra IIi PCI (rev 0).
      Medium devsel.  Fast back-to-back capable.  Master Capable.  Latency=40.  
  Bus  0, device   1, function  0:
    PCI bridge: Sun Microsystems Advanced PCI Bridge (rev 19).
      Medium devsel.  Fast back-to-back capable.  Master Capable.  Latency=40.  Min Gnt=2.
  Bus  0, device   1, function  1:
    PCI bridge: Sun Microsystems Advanced PCI Bridge (rev 19).
      Medium devsel.  Fast back-to-back capable.  Master Capable.  Latency=40.  Min Gnt=2.
  Bus 128, device   1, function  0:
    SCSI storage controller: NCR 53c875 (rev 20).
      Medium devsel.  IRQ 6312128.  Master Capable.  Latency=80.  Min Gnt=17.Max Lat=64.
      I/O at 0xfffff9fe02000400 [0xfffff9fe02000401].
      Non-prefetchable 20 bit memory at 0xfffff9ff00002000 [0xfffff9ff00002002].
      Non-prefetchable 20 bit memory at 0xfffff9ff00004000 [0xfffff9ff00004002].
  Bus 128, device   1, function  1:
    SCSI storage controller: NCR 53c875 (rev 20).
      Medium devsel.  IRQ 6312128.  Master Capable.  Latency=80.  Min Gnt=17.Max Lat=64.
      I/O at 0xfffff9fe02000800 [0xfffff9fe02000801].
      Non-prefetchable 20 bit memory at 0xfffff9ff00006000 [0xfffff9ff00006002].
      Non-prefetchable 20 bit memory at 0xfffff9ff00008000 [0xfffff9ff00008002].
  Bus  1, device   1, function  0:
    Bridge: Sun Microsystems PCI-EBus Bridge (rev 1).
      Medium devsel.  Fast back-to-back capable.  Master Capable.  Latency=64.  Min Gnt=10.Max Lat=25.
      Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xfffff9fff0000000 [0xfffff9fff0000000].
      Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xfffff9fff1000000 [0xfffff9fff1000000].
  Bus  1, device   1, function  1:
    Ethernet controller: Sun Microsystems Happy Meal Ethernet (rev 1).
      Medium devsel.  Fast back-to-back capable.  IRQ 6312160.  Master Capable.  Latency=64.  Min Gnt=10.Max Lat=5.
      Non-prefetchable 20 bit memory at 0xfffff9ff40008000 [0xfffff9ff40008002].
  Bus  1, device   2, function  0:
    Display controller: Texas Instruments TVP4020 Permedia 2 (rev 17).
      Medium devsel.  Fast back-to-back capable.  IRQ 6312000.  Master Capable.  Latency=64.  Min Gnt=192.Max Lat=192.
      Non-prefetchable 20 bit memory at 0xfffff9ff40020000 [0xfffff9ff40020002].
      Non-prefetchable 20 bit memory at 0xfffff9ff40800000 [0xfffff9ff40800002].
      Non-prefetchable 20 bit memory at 0xfffff9ff41000000 [0xfffff9ff41000002].