X Version 11 (Release 6.3)
SuperProbe(X1M)
SuperProbe --
probe for and identify installed video hardware
Synopsis
SuperProbe
[-verbose] [-no16] [-excl list]
[-mask10] [-order list]
[-noprobe list] [-bios base]
[-no_bios] [-no_dac] [-no_mem]
[-info]
Description
SuperProbe is a program that attempts to determine
the type of video hardware installed in an EISA/ISA/VLB-bus system
by checking for known registers in various combinations at various
locations (MicroChannel and PCI machines may not be fully supported;
many work with the use of the -no_bios option).
This is an error-prone process, especially on UNIX systems (which
usually have a lot more esoteric hardware installed than MS-DOS
systems do), so SuperProbe may likely need help from the user.
At this time, SuperProbe can identify MDA, Hercules,
CGA, MCGA, EGA, VGA, and an entire horde of SVGA chipsets (see the
-info option, below). It can also identify several
HiColor/True-color RAMDACs in use on SVGA boards, and the amount
of video memory installed (for many chipsets). It can identify
8514/A and some derivatives, but not XGA or PGC (although the
author intends to add those capabilities).
Nor can it identify other esoteric video hardware (like Targa,
TIGA, or Microfield boards).
Options
-verbose-
SuperProbe
will be verbose and provide lots of information as it does its work.
-no16-
SuperProbe
will not attempt to use any ports that require 16-bit I/O address decoding.
The original ISA bus only specified that I/O ports be decoded to 10 bits.
Therefore some old cards (including many 8-bit cards) will mis-decode
references to ports that use the upper 6 bits, and may get into funny states
because they think that they are being addressed when they are not.
It is recommended that this option be used initially if any 8-bit cards
are present in the system.
-excl list-
SuperProbe
will not attempt to access any I/O ports on the specified exclusion list.
Some video cards use rather non-standard I/O ports that may conflict with
other cards installed in your system. By specifying to
SuperProbe
a list of ports already in use, it will know that there cannot be any video
cards that use those ports, and hence will not probe them (which could
otherwise confuse your hardware). The exclusion list is specified as
a comma-separated list of I/O ports or port ranges. A range is specified
as "low-high", and is inclusive. The ports can be specified in decimal,
in octal (numbers begin with '0'), or hexadecimal (numbers begin with '0x').
-mask10-
This option is used in combination with -excl.
It tells SuperProbe that when comparing an I/O port
under test against the exclusion list, the
port address should be masked to 10 bits. This is important with older
8-bit cards that only do 10 bit decoding, and for some cheap 16-bit
cards as well. This option is simply a less-drastic form of the
-no16 option.
-order list-
This option specifies which chipsets SuperProbe
should test, and in which order. The list
parameter is a comma-separated list of chipset names. This list
overrides the built-in default testing order. To find the list
of acceptable names, use the -info
option described below. Note that items displayed as "Standard video
hardware" are not usable with the -order option.
-noprobe list-
This options specifies which chipsets SuperProbe
should not test. The order of testing will either be the
default order, or that specified with the -order
option described above. The list
parameter is a comma-separated list of chipset names. To find the list
of acceptable names, use the
-info
option described below. Note that items displayed as "Standard video
hardware" are not usable with the -noprobe option.
-bios base-
This option specifies the base address for the graphics-hardware BIOS.
By default, SuperProbe will attempt to locate the BIOS base
on its own (the normal address is 0xC0000). If it fails to correctly
locate the BIOS (an error message will be printed if this occurs), the
-bios option can be used to specify the base.
-no_bios-
Disallow reading of the video BIOS and assume that an EGA or later
(VGA, SVGA) board is present as the primary video hardware.
-no_dac-
Skip probing for the RAMDAC type when an (S)VGA is identified.
-no_mem-
Skip probing for the amount of installed video memory.
-info-
SuperProbe
will print out a listing of all the video hardware that it knows how to
identify.
Warnings
It is possible that SuperProbe can lock up your machine. Be sure to
narrow the search by using the -no16, -excl, and -mask10
options provided to keep SuperProbe from conflicting with other installed
hardware.
Examples
To run SuperProbe in its most basic and automated form,
simply enter SuperProbe at the command line.
Note: you may want to redirect stdout to a file when
you run SuperProbe
However, if you have any 8-bit cards installed, you should initially
run SuperProbe as:
SuperProbe -verbose -no16
(The -verbose option is included so you can see what
SuperProbe is skipping).
Finer granularity can be obtained with an exclusion list, for example:
SuperProbe -verbose -excl 0x200,0x220-0x230,0x250
This will not test for any device that use port 0x200, ports
0x220 through 0x230, inclusive, or port 0x250. If you have any
8-bit cards installed, you should add -mask10
to the list of options.
To restrict the search to Western Digital, Tseng, and Cirrus chipset,
run:
SuperProbe -order WD,Tseng,Cirrus
References
VideoHelp(X1M),
X(X1M)
``Configuring video adapters'' in the UnixWare 7 System Handbook
Standards conformance
The SuperProbe command was written by David E.
Wexelblat with help from David Dawes and the XFree86 development
team. It is provided by the X Consortium and conforms to the
X Window System Protocols, Version 11.
© 2004 The SCO Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
UnixWare 7 Release 7.1.4 - 25 April 2004