From: Daniel Palmer <daniel@0x0f.com>
To: deller@gmx.de
Cc: linux-fbdev@vger.kernel.org, dri-devel@lists.freedesktop.org,
linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, Daniel Palmer <daniel@0x0f.com>
Subject: [PATCH 0/5] fbdev: tdfxfb: Make "unbooted" cards work
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 2026 03:26:35 +0900 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260730182640.2808572-1-daniel@0x0f.com> (raw)
Currently using voodoo cards that weren't booted by the video
BIOS aren't usable.
This means if you happen to have a proper - non-x86 - computer,
another card is the primary or you have a new BIOS that cannot
run the video BIOS tdfxfb would probe but you be staring at
"no signal detected".
This series implements manually booting cards using the
values from the video BIOS' own table.
Debugging was partially assisted by Claude Fable 5. I could not
work out why this would not work for months so I told it to
create a voodoo 3 emulation for QEMU to compare the BIOS against
my code. That made it obvious my init sequence matched the BIOS
but the VGA core wasn't running.
This has been tested on a real voodoo 3 in an x86-64 board.
I have some patches to add an interface for doing 3D rendering
that are not included in this series and 3D rendering is also
working so as far as I can tell everything is good.
Daniel Palmer (5):
fbdev: tdfxfb: Add helper to read config table from BIOS
fbdev: tdfxfb: Attempt to detect if the card wasn't booted
fbdev: tdfxfb: Manually boot unbooted cards
fbdev: tdfxfb: Wake the VGA core before programming the CRTC
fbdev: tdfxfb: Program the initial video mode
drivers/video/fbdev/tdfxfb.c | 151 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1 file changed, 151 insertions(+)
--
2.53.0
next reply other threads:[~2026-07-30 18:26 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 6+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-07-30 18:26 Daniel Palmer [this message]
2026-07-30 18:26 ` [PATCH 1/5] fbdev: tdfxfb: Add helper to read config table from BIOS Daniel Palmer
2026-07-30 18:26 ` [PATCH 2/5] fbdev: tdfxfb: Attempt to detect if the card wasn't booted Daniel Palmer
2026-07-30 18:26 ` [PATCH 3/5] fbdev: tdfxfb: Manually boot unbooted cards Daniel Palmer
2026-07-30 18:26 ` [PATCH 4/5] fbdev: tdfxfb: Wake the VGA core before programming the CRTC Daniel Palmer
2026-07-30 18:26 ` [PATCH 5/5] fbdev: tdfxfb: Program the initial video mode Daniel Palmer
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