From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Pavel Machek Subject: Re: Generic VESA framebuffer driver and Video card BOOT? Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2004 23:09:06 +0200 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org Message-ID: <20041019210906.GB1142@elf.ucw.cz> References: <416FB275.6425.1C3D985@localhost> <9e4733910410151319159482ce@mail.gmail.com> <416FEB4B.9875.2A1DBFE@localhost> <9e47339104101516027860bb1e@mail.gmail.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Return-path: Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <9e47339104101516027860bb1e@mail.gmail.com> List-Id: Cc: Kendall Bennett , Alan Cox , Linux Kernel Mailing List , fbdev Hi! > > What about non-x86 platforms such as PowerPC and MIPS embedded devices > > that want video (TiVo type platforms, media players etc). How would these > > fit into the picture? Would this require the boot loader (ie: U-Boot or > > whatever) to have the ability to POST the card? > > There is the assumption that whatever BIOS the device has can get up a > very early console that can output critical error messages before the > kernel and early user space is loaded. For example the "I can't find > the kernel" or "initramfs is missing" error message. This also > assumes that the BIOS can post whatever display it is using. > > I'm not trying to fix the problem of getting early boot messages out > of a Mac with an x86 card plugged into it. The card will work after > early user space initializes. The right way to fix that would be to > switch to something like LinuxBIOS and build the x86 emulator into > it. That still does not solve resume from suspend-to-RAM. We need to post VGA there. We probably could do it late in userspace... but it makes debugging resume pretty hard. Pavel -- People were complaining that M$ turns users into beta-testers... ...jr ghea gurz vagb qrirybcref, naq gurl frrz gb yvxr vg gung jnl!