diff options
author | Knut Petersen <Knut_Petersen@t-online.de> | 2005-09-09 16:04:56 -0400 |
---|---|---|
committer | Linus Torvalds <torvalds@g5.osdl.org> | 2005-09-09 16:58:02 -0400 |
commit | 9fa68eae9f8291a98bfe00b94b78f72eb253165a (patch) | |
tree | f3619e7302871a5d56264f6df4076c30857483ce /Documentation/fb | |
parent | 6062bfa1644f401c08e78d5c8a161f7d11c5c830 (diff) |
[PATCH] framebuffer: new driver for cyberblade/i1 graphics core
This is a framebuffer driver for the Cyberblade/i1 graphics core.
Currently tridenfb claims to support the cyberblade/i1 graphics core. This
is of very limited truth. Even vesafb is faster and provides more working
modes and a much better quality of the video signal. There is a great
number of bugs in tridentfb ... but most often it is impossible to decide
if these bugs are real bugs or if fixing them for the cyberblade/i1 core
would break support for one of the other supported chips.
Tridentfb seems to be unmaintained,and documentation for most of the
supported chips is not available. So "fixing" cyberblade/i1 support inside
of tridentfb was not an option, it would have caused numerous
if(CYBERBLADEi1) else ... cases and would have rendered the code to be
almost unmaintainable.
A first version of this driver was published on 2005-07-31. A fix for a
bug reported by Jochen Hein was integrated as well as some changes
requested by Antonino A. Daplas.
A message has been added to tridentfb to inform current users of tridentfb
to switch to cyblafb if the cyberblade/i1 graphics core is detected.
This patch is one logical change, but because of the included documentation
it is bigger than 70kb. Therefore it is not sent to lkml and
linux-fbdev-devel,
Signed-off-by: Knut Petersen <Knut_Petersen@t-online.de>
Cc: Muli Ben-Yehuda <mulix@mulix.org>
Acked-by: Antonino Daplas <adaplas@pol.net>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/fb')
-rw-r--r-- | Documentation/fb/cyblafb/bugs | 14 | ||||
-rw-r--r-- | Documentation/fb/cyblafb/credits | 7 | ||||
-rw-r--r-- | Documentation/fb/cyblafb/documentation | 17 | ||||
-rw-r--r-- | Documentation/fb/cyblafb/fb.modes | 155 | ||||
-rw-r--r-- | Documentation/fb/cyblafb/performance | 80 | ||||
-rw-r--r-- | Documentation/fb/cyblafb/todo | 32 | ||||
-rw-r--r-- | Documentation/fb/cyblafb/usage | 206 | ||||
-rw-r--r-- | Documentation/fb/cyblafb/whycyblafb | 85 |
8 files changed, 596 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/fb/cyblafb/bugs b/Documentation/fb/cyblafb/bugs new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..f90cc66ea919 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/fb/cyblafb/bugs | |||
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@ | |||
1 | Bugs | ||
2 | ==== | ||
3 | |||
4 | I currently don't know of any bug. Please do send reports to: | ||
5 | - linux-fbdev-devel@lists.sourceforge.net | ||
6 | - Knut_Petersen@t-online.de. | ||
7 | |||
8 | |||
9 | Untested features | ||
10 | ================= | ||
11 | |||
12 | All LCD stuff is untested. If it worked in tridentfb, it should work in | ||
13 | cyblafb. Please test and report the results to Knut_Petersen@t-online.de. | ||
14 | |||
diff --git a/Documentation/fb/cyblafb/credits b/Documentation/fb/cyblafb/credits new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..0eb3b443dc2b --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/fb/cyblafb/credits | |||
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@ | |||
1 | Thanks to | ||
2 | ========= | ||
3 | * Alan Hourihane, for writing the X trident driver | ||
4 | * Jani Monoses, for writing the tridentfb driver | ||
5 | * Antonino A. Daplas, for review of the first published | ||
6 | version of cyblafb and some code | ||
7 | * Jochen Hein, for testing and a helpfull bug report | ||
diff --git a/Documentation/fb/cyblafb/documentation b/Documentation/fb/cyblafb/documentation new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..bb1aac048425 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/fb/cyblafb/documentation | |||
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@ | |||
1 | Available Documentation | ||
2 | ======================= | ||
3 | |||
4 | Apollo PLE 133 Chipset VT8601A North Bridge Datasheet, Rev. 1.82, October 22, | ||
5 | 2001, available from VIA: | ||
6 | |||
7 | http://www.viavpsd.com/product/6/15/DS8601A182.pdf | ||
8 | |||
9 | The datasheet is incomplete, some registers that need to be programmed are not | ||
10 | explained at all and important bits are listed as "reserved". But you really | ||
11 | need the datasheet to understand the code. "p. xxx" comments refer to page | ||
12 | numbers of this document. | ||
13 | |||
14 | XFree/XOrg drivers are available and of good quality, looking at the code | ||
15 | there is a good idea if the datasheet does not provide enough information | ||
16 | or if the datasheet seems to be wrong. | ||
17 | |||
diff --git a/Documentation/fb/cyblafb/fb.modes b/Documentation/fb/cyblafb/fb.modes new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..cf4351fc32ff --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/fb/cyblafb/fb.modes | |||
@@ -0,0 +1,155 @@ | |||
1 | # | ||
2 | # Sample fb.modes file | ||
3 | # | ||
4 | # Provides an incomplete list of working modes for | ||
5 | # the cyberblade/i1 graphics core. | ||
6 | # | ||
7 | # The value 4294967256 is used instead of -40. Of course, -40 is not | ||
8 | # a really reasonable value, but chip design does not always follow | ||
9 | # logic. Believe me, it's ok, and it's the way the BIOS does it. | ||
10 | # | ||
11 | # fbset requires 4294967256 in fb.modes and -40 as an argument to | ||
12 | # the -t parameter. That's also not too reasonable, and it might change | ||
13 | # in the future or might even be differt for your current version. | ||
14 | # | ||
15 | |||
16 | mode "640x480-50" | ||
17 | geometry 640 480 640 3756 8 | ||
18 | timings 47619 4294967256 24 17 0 216 3 | ||
19 | endmode | ||
20 | |||
21 | mode "640x480-60" | ||
22 | geometry 640 480 640 3756 8 | ||
23 | timings 39682 4294967256 24 17 0 216 3 | ||
24 | endmode | ||
25 | |||
26 | mode "640x480-70" | ||
27 | geometry 640 480 640 3756 8 | ||
28 | timings 34013 4294967256 24 17 0 216 3 | ||
29 | endmode | ||
30 | |||
31 | mode "640x480-72" | ||
32 | geometry 640 480 640 3756 8 | ||
33 | timings 33068 4294967256 24 17 0 216 3 | ||
34 | endmode | ||
35 | |||
36 | mode "640x480-75" | ||
37 | geometry 640 480 640 3756 8 | ||
38 | timings 31746 4294967256 24 17 0 216 3 | ||
39 | endmode | ||
40 | |||
41 | mode "640x480-80" | ||
42 | geometry 640 480 640 3756 8 | ||
43 | timings 29761 4294967256 24 17 0 216 3 | ||
44 | endmode | ||
45 | |||
46 | mode "640x480-85" | ||
47 | geometry 640 480 640 3756 8 | ||
48 | timings 28011 4294967256 24 17 0 216 3 | ||
49 | endmode | ||
50 | |||
51 | mode "800x600-50" | ||
52 | geometry 800 600 800 3221 8 | ||
53 | timings 30303 96 24 14 0 136 11 | ||
54 | endmode | ||
55 | |||
56 | mode "800x600-60" | ||
57 | geometry 800 600 800 3221 8 | ||
58 | timings 25252 96 24 14 0 136 11 | ||
59 | endmode | ||
60 | |||
61 | mode "800x600-70" | ||
62 | geometry 800 600 800 3221 8 | ||
63 | timings 21645 96 24 14 0 136 11 | ||
64 | endmode | ||
65 | |||
66 | mode "800x600-72" | ||
67 | geometry 800 600 800 3221 8 | ||
68 | timings 21043 96 24 14 0 136 11 | ||
69 | endmode | ||
70 | |||
71 | mode "800x600-75" | ||
72 | geometry 800 600 800 3221 8 | ||
73 | timings 20202 96 24 14 0 136 11 | ||
74 | endmode | ||
75 | |||
76 | mode "800x600-80" | ||
77 | geometry 800 600 800 3221 8 | ||
78 | timings 18939 96 24 14 0 136 11 | ||
79 | endmode | ||
80 | |||
81 | mode "800x600-85" | ||
82 | geometry 800 600 800 3221 8 | ||
83 | timings 17825 96 24 14 0 136 11 | ||
84 | endmode | ||
85 | |||
86 | mode "1024x768-50" | ||
87 | geometry 1024 768 1024 2815 8 | ||
88 | timings 19054 144 24 29 0 120 3 | ||
89 | endmode | ||
90 | |||
91 | mode "1024x768-60" | ||
92 | geometry 1024 768 1024 2815 8 | ||
93 | timings 15880 144 24 29 0 120 3 | ||
94 | endmode | ||
95 | |||
96 | mode "1024x768-70" | ||
97 | geometry 1024 768 1024 2815 8 | ||
98 | timings 13610 144 24 29 0 120 3 | ||
99 | endmode | ||
100 | |||
101 | mode "1024x768-72" | ||
102 | geometry 1024 768 1024 2815 8 | ||
103 | timings 13232 144 24 29 0 120 3 | ||
104 | endmode | ||
105 | |||
106 | mode "1024x768-75" | ||
107 | geometry 1024 768 1024 2815 8 | ||
108 | timings 12703 144 24 29 0 120 3 | ||
109 | endmode | ||
110 | |||
111 | mode "1024x768-80" | ||
112 | geometry 1024 768 1024 2815 8 | ||
113 | timings 11910 144 24 29 0 120 3 | ||
114 | endmode | ||
115 | |||
116 | mode "1024x768-85" | ||
117 | geometry 1024 768 1024 2815 8 | ||
118 | timings 11209 144 24 29 0 120 3 | ||
119 | endmode | ||
120 | |||
121 | mode "1280x1024-50" | ||
122 | geometry 1280 1024 1280 2662 8 | ||
123 | timings 11114 232 16 39 0 160 3 | ||
124 | endmode | ||
125 | |||
126 | mode "1280x1024-60" | ||
127 | geometry 1280 1024 1280 2662 8 | ||
128 | timings 9262 232 16 39 0 160 3 | ||
129 | endmode | ||
130 | |||
131 | mode "1280x1024-70" | ||
132 | geometry 1280 1024 1280 2662 8 | ||
133 | timings 7939 232 16 39 0 160 3 | ||
134 | endmode | ||
135 | |||
136 | mode "1280x1024-72" | ||
137 | geometry 1280 1024 1280 2662 8 | ||
138 | timings 7719 232 16 39 0 160 3 | ||
139 | endmode | ||
140 | |||
141 | mode "1280x1024-75" | ||
142 | geometry 1280 1024 1280 2662 8 | ||
143 | timings 7410 232 16 39 0 160 3 | ||
144 | endmode | ||
145 | |||
146 | mode "1280x1024-80" | ||
147 | geometry 1280 1024 1280 2662 8 | ||
148 | timings 6946 232 16 39 0 160 3 | ||
149 | endmode | ||
150 | |||
151 | mode "1280x1024-85" | ||
152 | geometry 1280 1024 1280 2662 8 | ||
153 | timings 6538 232 16 39 0 160 3 | ||
154 | endmode | ||
155 | |||
diff --git a/Documentation/fb/cyblafb/performance b/Documentation/fb/cyblafb/performance new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..eb4e47a9cea6 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/fb/cyblafb/performance | |||
@@ -0,0 +1,80 @@ | |||
1 | Speed | ||
2 | ===== | ||
3 | |||
4 | CyBlaFB is much faster than tridentfb and vesafb. Compare the performance data | ||
5 | for mode 1280x1024-[8,16,32]@61 Hz. | ||
6 | |||
7 | Test 1: Cat a file with 2000 lines of 0 characters. | ||
8 | Test 2: Cat a file with 2000 lines of 80 characters. | ||
9 | Test 3: Cat a file with 2000 lines of 160 characters. | ||
10 | |||
11 | All values show system time use in seconds, kernel 2.6.12 was used for | ||
12 | the measurements. 2.6.13 is a bit slower, 2.6.14 hopefully will include a | ||
13 | patch that speeds up kernel bitblitting a lot ( > 20%). | ||
14 | |||
15 | +-----------+-----------------------------------------------------+ | ||
16 | | | not accelerated | | ||
17 | | TRIDENTFB +-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+ | ||
18 | | of 2.6.12 | 8 bpp | 16 bpp | 32 bpp | | ||
19 | | | noypan | ypan | noypan | ypan | noypan | ypan | | ||
20 | +-----------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+ | ||
21 | | Test 1 | 4.31 | 4.33 | 6.05 | 12.81 | ---- | ---- | | ||
22 | | Test 2 | 67.94 | 5.44 | 123.16 | 14.79 | ---- | ---- | | ||
23 | | Test 3 | 131.36 | 6.55 | 240.12 | 16.76 | ---- | ---- | | ||
24 | +-----------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+ | ||
25 | | Comments | | | completely bro- | | ||
26 | | | | | ken, monitor | | ||
27 | | | | | switches off | | ||
28 | +-----------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+ | ||
29 | |||
30 | |||
31 | +-----------+-----------------------------------------------------+ | ||
32 | | | accelerated | | ||
33 | | TRIDENTFB +-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+ | ||
34 | | of 2.6.12 | 8 bpp | 16 bpp | 32 bpp | | ||
35 | | | noypan | ypan | noypan | ypan | noypan | ypan | | ||
36 | +-----------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+ | ||
37 | | Test 1 | ---- | ---- | 20.62 | 1.22 | ---- | ---- | | ||
38 | | Test 2 | ---- | ---- | 22.61 | 3.19 | ---- | ---- | | ||
39 | | Test 3 | ---- | ---- | 24.59 | 5.16 | ---- | ---- | | ||
40 | +-----------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+ | ||
41 | | Comments | broken, writing | broken, ok only | completely bro- | | ||
42 | | | to wrong places | if bgcolor is | ken, monitor | | ||
43 | | | on screen + bug | black, bug in | switches off | | ||
44 | | | in fillrect() | fillrect() | | | ||
45 | +-----------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+ | ||
46 | |||
47 | |||
48 | +-----------+-----------------------------------------------------+ | ||
49 | | | not accelerated | | ||
50 | | VESAFB +-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+ | ||
51 | | of 2.6.12 | 8 bpp | 16 bpp | 32 bpp | | ||
52 | | | noypan | ypan | noypan | ypan | noypan | ypan | | ||
53 | +-----------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+ | ||
54 | | Test 1 | 4.26 | 3.76 | 5.99 | 7.23 | ---- | ---- | | ||
55 | | Test 2 | 65.65 | 4.89 | 120.88 | 9.08 | ---- | ---- | | ||
56 | | Test 3 | 126.91 | 5.94 | 235.77 | 11.03 | ---- | ---- | | ||
57 | +-----------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+ | ||
58 | | Comments | vga=0x307 | vga=0x31a | vga=0x31b not | | ||
59 | | | fh=80kHz | fh=80kHz | supported by | | ||
60 | | | fv=75kHz | fv=75kHz | video BIOS and | | ||
61 | | | | | hardware | | ||
62 | +-----------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+ | ||
63 | |||
64 | |||
65 | +-----------+-----------------------------------------------------+ | ||
66 | | | accelerated | | ||
67 | | CYBLAFB +-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+ | ||
68 | | | 8 bpp | 16 bpp | 32 bpp | | ||
69 | | | noypan | ypan | noypan | ypan | noypan | ypan | | ||
70 | +-----------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+ | ||
71 | | Test 1 | 8.02 | 0.23 | 19.04 | 0.61 | 57.12 | 2.74 | | ||
72 | | Test 2 | 8.38 | 0.55 | 19.39 | 0.92 | 57.54 | 3.13 | | ||
73 | | Test 3 | 8.73 | 0.86 | 19.74 | 1.24 | 57.95 | 3.51 | | ||
74 | +-----------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+ | ||
75 | | Comments | | | | | ||
76 | | | | | | | ||
77 | | | | | | | ||
78 | | | | | | | ||
79 | +-----------+-----------------+-----------------+-----------------+ | ||
80 | |||
diff --git a/Documentation/fb/cyblafb/todo b/Documentation/fb/cyblafb/todo new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..80fb2f89b6c1 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/fb/cyblafb/todo | |||
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@ | |||
1 | TODO / Missing features | ||
2 | ======================= | ||
3 | |||
4 | Verify LCD stuff "stretch" and "center" options are | ||
5 | completely untested ... this code needs to be | ||
6 | verified. As I don't have access to such | ||
7 | hardware, please contact me if you are | ||
8 | willing run some tests. | ||
9 | |||
10 | Interlaced video modes The reason that interleaved | ||
11 | modes are disabled is that I do not know | ||
12 | the meaning of the vertical interlace | ||
13 | parameter. Also the datasheet mentions a | ||
14 | bit d8 of a horizontal interlace parameter, | ||
15 | but nowhere the lower 8 bits. Please help | ||
16 | if you can. | ||
17 | |||
18 | low-res double scan modes Who needs it? | ||
19 | |||
20 | accelerated color blitting Who needs it? The console driver does use color | ||
21 | blitting for nothing but drawing the penguine, | ||
22 | everything else is done using color expanding | ||
23 | blitting of 1bpp character bitmaps. | ||
24 | |||
25 | xpanning Who needs it? | ||
26 | |||
27 | ioctls Who needs it? | ||
28 | |||
29 | TV-out Will be done later | ||
30 | |||
31 | ??? Feel free to contact me if you have any | ||
32 | feature requests | ||
diff --git a/Documentation/fb/cyblafb/usage b/Documentation/fb/cyblafb/usage new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..e627c8f54211 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/fb/cyblafb/usage | |||
@@ -0,0 +1,206 @@ | |||
1 | CyBlaFB is a framebuffer driver for the Cyberblade/i1 graphics core integrated | ||
2 | into the VIA Apollo PLE133 (aka vt8601) south bridge. It is developed and | ||
3 | tested using a VIA EPIA 5000 board. | ||
4 | |||
5 | Cyblafb - compiled into the kernel or as a module? | ||
6 | ================================================== | ||
7 | |||
8 | You might compile cyblafb either as a module or compile it permanently into the | ||
9 | kernel. | ||
10 | |||
11 | Unless you have a real reason to do so you should not compile both vesafb and | ||
12 | cyblafb permanently into the kernel. It's possible and it helps during the | ||
13 | developement cycle, but it's useless and will at least block some otherwise | ||
14 | usefull memory for ordinary users. | ||
15 | |||
16 | Selecting Modes | ||
17 | =============== | ||
18 | |||
19 | Startup Mode | ||
20 | ============ | ||
21 | |||
22 | First of all, you might use the "vga=???" boot parameter as it is | ||
23 | documented in vesafb.txt and svga.txt. Cyblafb will detect the video | ||
24 | mode selected and will use the geometry and timings found by | ||
25 | inspecting the hardware registers. | ||
26 | |||
27 | video=cyblafb vga=0x317 | ||
28 | |||
29 | Alternatively you might use a combination of the mode, ref and bpp | ||
30 | parameters. If you compiled the driver into the kernel, add something | ||
31 | like this to the kernel command line: | ||
32 | |||
33 | video=cyblafb:1280x1024,bpp=16,ref=50 ... | ||
34 | |||
35 | If you compiled the driver as a module, the same mode would be | ||
36 | selected by the following command: | ||
37 | |||
38 | modprobe cyblafb mode=1280x1024 bpp=16 ref=50 ... | ||
39 | |||
40 | None of the modes possible to select as startup modes are affected by | ||
41 | the problems described at the end of the next subsection. | ||
42 | |||
43 | Mode changes using fbset | ||
44 | ======================== | ||
45 | |||
46 | You might use fbset to change the video mode, see "man fbset". Cyblafb | ||
47 | generally does assume that you know what you are doing. But it does | ||
48 | some checks, especially those that are needed to prevent you from | ||
49 | damaging your hardware. | ||
50 | |||
51 | - only 8, 16, 24 and 32 bpp video modes are accepted | ||
52 | - interlaced video modes are not accepted | ||
53 | - double scan video modes are not accepted | ||
54 | - if a flat panel is found, cyblafb does not allow you | ||
55 | to program a resolution higher than the physical | ||
56 | resolution of the flat panel monitor | ||
57 | - cyblafb does not allow xres to differ from xres_virtual | ||
58 | - cyblafb does not allow vclk to exceed 230 MHz. As 32 bpp | ||
59 | and (currently) 24 bit modes use a doubled vclk internally, | ||
60 | the dotclock limit as seen by fbset is 115 MHz for those | ||
61 | modes and 230 MHz for 8 and 16 bpp modes. | ||
62 | |||
63 | Any request that violates the rules given above will be ignored and | ||
64 | fbset will return an error. | ||
65 | |||
66 | If you program a virtual y resolution higher than the hardware limit, | ||
67 | cyblafb will silently decrease that value to the highest possible | ||
68 | value. | ||
69 | |||
70 | Attempts to disable acceleration are ignored. | ||
71 | |||
72 | Some video modes that should work do not work as expected. If you use | ||
73 | the standard fb.modes, fbset 640x480-60 will program that mode, but | ||
74 | you will see a vertical area, about two characters wide, with only | ||
75 | much darker characters than the other characters on the screen. | ||
76 | Cyblafb does allow that mode to be set, as it does not violate the | ||
77 | official specifications. It would need a lot of code to reliably sort | ||
78 | out all invalid modes, playing around with the margin values will | ||
79 | give a valid mode quickly. And if cyblafb would detect such an invalid | ||
80 | mode, should it silently alter the requested values or should it | ||
81 | report an error? Both options have some pros and cons. As stated | ||
82 | above, none of the startup modes are affected, and if you set | ||
83 | verbosity to 1 or higher, cyblafb will print the fbset command that | ||
84 | would be needed to program that mode using fbset. | ||
85 | |||
86 | |||
87 | Other Parameters | ||
88 | ================ | ||
89 | |||
90 | |||
91 | crt don't autodetect, assume monitor connected to | ||
92 | standard VGA connector | ||
93 | |||
94 | fp don't autodetect, assume flat panel display | ||
95 | connected to flat panel monitor interface | ||
96 | |||
97 | nativex inform driver about native x resolution of | ||
98 | flat panel monitor connected to special | ||
99 | interface (should be autodetected) | ||
100 | |||
101 | stretch stretch image to adapt low resolution modes to | ||
102 | higer resolutions of flat panel monitors | ||
103 | connected to special interface | ||
104 | |||
105 | center center image to adapt low resolution modes to | ||
106 | higer resolutions of flat panel monitors | ||
107 | connected to special interface | ||
108 | |||
109 | memsize use if autodetected memsize is wrong ... | ||
110 | should never be necessary | ||
111 | |||
112 | nopcirr disable PCI read retry | ||
113 | nopciwr disable PCI write retry | ||
114 | nopcirb disable PCI read bursts | ||
115 | nopciwb disable PCI write bursts | ||
116 | |||
117 | bpp bpp for specified modes | ||
118 | valid values: 8 || 16 || 24 || 32 | ||
119 | |||
120 | ref refresh rate for specified mode | ||
121 | valid values: 50 <= ref <= 85 | ||
122 | |||
123 | mode 640x480 or 800x600 or 1024x768 or 1280x1024 | ||
124 | if not specified, the startup mode will be detected | ||
125 | and used, so you might also use the vga=??? parameter | ||
126 | described in vesafb.txt. If you do not specify a mode, | ||
127 | bpp and ref parameters are ignored. | ||
128 | |||
129 | verbosity 0 is the default, increase to at least 2 for every | ||
130 | bug report! | ||
131 | |||
132 | vesafb allows cyblafb to be loaded after vesafb has been | ||
133 | loaded. See sections "Module unloading ...". | ||
134 | |||
135 | |||
136 | Development hints | ||
137 | ================= | ||
138 | |||
139 | It's much faster do compile a module and to load the new version after | ||
140 | unloading the old module than to compile a new kernel and to reboot. So if you | ||
141 | try to work on cyblafb, it might be a good idea to use cyblafb as a module. | ||
142 | In real life, fast often means dangerous, and that's also the case here. If | ||
143 | you introduce a serious bug when cyblafb is compiled into the kernel, the | ||
144 | kernel will lock or oops with a high probability before the file system is | ||
145 | mounted, and the danger for your data is low. If you load a broken own version | ||
146 | of cyblafb on a running system, the danger for the integrity of the file | ||
147 | system is much higher as you might need a hard reset afterwards. Decide | ||
148 | yourself. | ||
149 | |||
150 | Module unloading, the vfb method | ||
151 | ================================ | ||
152 | |||
153 | If you want to unload/reload cyblafb using the virtual framebuffer, you need | ||
154 | to enable vfb support in the kernel first. After that, load the modules as | ||
155 | shown below: | ||
156 | |||
157 | modprobe vfb vfb_enable=1 | ||
158 | modprobe fbcon | ||
159 | modprobe cyblafb | ||
160 | fbset -fb /dev/fb1 1280x1024-60 -vyres 2662 | ||
161 | con2fb /dev/fb1 /dev/tty1 | ||
162 | ... | ||
163 | |||
164 | If you now made some changes to cyblafb and want to reload it, you might do it | ||
165 | as show below: | ||
166 | |||
167 | con2fb /dev/fb0 /dev/tty1 | ||
168 | ... | ||
169 | rmmod cyblafb | ||
170 | modprobe cyblafb | ||
171 | con2fb /dev/fb1 /dev/tty1 | ||
172 | ... | ||
173 | |||
174 | Of course, you might choose another mode, and most certainly you also want to | ||
175 | map some other /dev/tty* to the real framebuffer device. You might also choose | ||
176 | to compile fbcon as a kernel module or place it permanently in the kernel. | ||
177 | |||
178 | I do not know of any way to unload fbcon, and fbcon will prevent the | ||
179 | framebuffer device loaded first from unloading. [If there is a way, then | ||
180 | please add a description here!] | ||
181 | |||
182 | Module unloading, the vesafb method | ||
183 | =================================== | ||
184 | |||
185 | Configure the kernel: | ||
186 | |||
187 | <*> Support for frame buffer devices | ||
188 | [*] VESA VGA graphics support | ||
189 | <M> Cyberblade/i1 support | ||
190 | |||
191 | Add e.g. "video=vesafb:ypan vga=0x307" to the kernel parameters. The ypan | ||
192 | parameter is important, choose any vga parameter you like as long as it is | ||
193 | a graphics mode. | ||
194 | |||
195 | After booting, load cyblafb without any mode and bpp parameter and assign | ||
196 | cyblafb to individual ttys using con2fb, e.g.: | ||
197 | |||
198 | modprobe cyblafb vesafb=1 | ||
199 | con2fb /dev/fb1 /dev/tty1 | ||
200 | |||
201 | Unloading cyblafb works without problems after you assign vesafb to all | ||
202 | ttys again, e.g.: | ||
203 | |||
204 | con2fb /dev/fb0 /dev/tty1 | ||
205 | rmmod cyblafb | ||
206 | |||
diff --git a/Documentation/fb/cyblafb/whycyblafb b/Documentation/fb/cyblafb/whycyblafb new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..a123bc11e698 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/fb/cyblafb/whycyblafb | |||
@@ -0,0 +1,85 @@ | |||
1 | I tried the following framebuffer drivers: | ||
2 | |||
3 | - TRIDENTFB is full of bugs. Acceleration is broken for Blade3D | ||
4 | graphics cores like the cyberblade/i1. It claims to support a great | ||
5 | number of devices, but documentation for most of these devices is | ||
6 | unfortunately not available. There is _no_ reason to use tridentfb | ||
7 | for cyberblade/i1 + CRT users. VESAFB is faster, and the one | ||
8 | advantage, mode switching, is broken in tridentfb. | ||
9 | |||
10 | - VESAFB is used by many distributions as a standard. Vesafb does | ||
11 | not support mode switching. VESAFB is a bit faster than the working | ||
12 | configurations of TRIDENTFB, but it is still too slow, even if you | ||
13 | use ypan. | ||
14 | |||
15 | - EPIAFB (you'll find it on sourceforge) supports the Cyberblade/i1 | ||
16 | graphics core, but it still has serious bugs and developement seems | ||
17 | to have stopped. This is the one driver with TV-out support. If you | ||
18 | do need this feature, try epiafb. | ||
19 | |||
20 | None of these drivers was a real option for me. | ||
21 | |||
22 | I believe that is unreasonable to change code that announces to support 20 | ||
23 | devices if I only have more or less sufficient documentation for exactly one | ||
24 | of these. The risk of breaking device foo while fixing device bar is too high. | ||
25 | |||
26 | So I decided to start CyBlaFB as a stripped down tridentfb. | ||
27 | |||
28 | All code specific to other Trident chips has been removed. After that there | ||
29 | were a lot of cosmetic changes to increase the readability of the code. All | ||
30 | register names were changed to those mnemonics used in the datasheet. Function | ||
31 | and macro names were changed if they hindered easy understanding of the code. | ||
32 | |||
33 | After that I debugged the code and implemented some new features. I'll try to | ||
34 | give a little summary of the main changes: | ||
35 | |||
36 | - calculation of vertical and horizontal timings was fixed | ||
37 | |||
38 | - video signal quality has been improved dramatically | ||
39 | |||
40 | - acceleration: | ||
41 | |||
42 | - fillrect and copyarea were fixed and reenabled | ||
43 | |||
44 | - color expanding imageblit was newly implemented, color | ||
45 | imageblit (only used to draw the penguine) still uses the | ||
46 | generic code. | ||
47 | |||
48 | - init of the acceleration engine was improved and moved to a | ||
49 | place where it really works ... | ||
50 | |||
51 | - sync function has a timeout now and tries to reset and | ||
52 | reinit the accel engine if necessary | ||
53 | |||
54 | - fewer slow copyarea calls when doing ypan scrolling by using | ||
55 | undocumented bit d21 of screen start address stored in | ||
56 | CR2B[5]. BIOS does use it also, so this should be safe. | ||
57 | |||
58 | - cyblafb rejects any attempt to set modes that would cause vclk | ||
59 | values above reasonable 230 MHz. 32bit modes use a clock | ||
60 | multiplicator of 2, so fbset does show the correct values for | ||
61 | pixclock but not for vclk in this case. The fbset limit is 115 MHz | ||
62 | for 32 bpp modes. | ||
63 | |||
64 | - cyblafb rejects modes known to be broken or unimplemented (all | ||
65 | interlaced modes, all doublescan modes for now) | ||
66 | |||
67 | - cyblafb now works independant of the video mode in effect at startup | ||
68 | time (tridentfb does not init all needed registers to reasonable | ||
69 | values) | ||
70 | |||
71 | - switching between video modes does work reliably now | ||
72 | |||
73 | - the first video mode now is the one selected on startup using the | ||
74 | vga=???? mechanism or any of | ||
75 | - 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024 | ||
76 | - 8, 16, 24 or 32 bpp | ||
77 | - refresh between 50 Hz and 85 Hz, 1 Hz steps (1280x1024-32 | ||
78 | is limited to 63Hz) | ||
79 | |||
80 | - pci retry and pci burst mode are settable (try to disable if you | ||
81 | experience latency problems) | ||
82 | |||
83 | - built as a module cyblafb might be unloaded and reloaded using | ||
84 | the vfb module and con2vt or might be used together with vesafb | ||
85 | |||