[NTLUG:Discuss] UltraSparc 10 VideoCard Problems

[Hampton Frost]

Hello,
  I recently acquired some UltraSparc 10's from my old university.
After many attempts at installing debian, gentoo, and ubuntu...I had
had little success, only succeeding in an old version of Gentoo and
Debian 3.0r4.  Recently reading around I found that most of my
problems were arising due to having two video cards in the UltraSparc.
 These machines came with a motherboard integrated PGX HD15 (w/ VGA
connection) and a slot for additional video hardware used by a
Creator3D card.
  The basic installation problem would occur when the screen would display
"Remapping the kernel... done
Booting Linux..."
  And then as far as I could tell the machine would lock up.  However,
that was not so.  The video at this point would be routed to the on
board PGX card instead of the Creator3D card.  I attempted monitoring
both cards output, but it seems with both cards in place, the signal
just gets dropped.  I then attempted running the command
"video=atyfb:off" with the boot command, in hopes of disabling the on
board PGX and making the video default to the Creator3D, but had no
success. Then to my delight, when I unplugged the Creator3D, the on
board PGX took over and I was able to install Debian 4.0r0.
  To the problem at hand.  After booting into debian with the
Creator3D card in place, the Creator only displays up to "Booting
Linux..." and then the signal does not go to either the on board PGX
or the Creator3D.  I unfortunately know just enough to get myself into
trouble and so, was hoping someone might know of a similar, but better
command for "video=atyfb:off" or a completely different approach.  To
clarify, I can still fully boot and access the computer as long as the
Creator3D is not plugged in.

Thanks in advance,
  Hampton Frost (Irving, TX)

Computer Specs.:
Sun UltraSpac 10
  333MHz
  256MB ram
http://sunsolve.sun.com/handbook_pub/Systems/U10/spec.html