Re: Generic framebuffer driver

[Otto Wyss <otto.wyss@orpatec.ch>]

Geert Uytterhoeven wrote:
> 
> On Fri, 20 Aug 2004, Otto Wyss wrote:
> > I guess this is a common feature of the digital interface and might be
> > available for any graphic card/monitor with DVI. Does anyone know for
> > sure? If yes this feature would allow to create a generic framebuffer
> 
> It can work for normal monitors as well, using DDC.
> 
Maybe, but then I'm wondering why it only works with DVI in the
radeonfb. Has anyone tried a DVI cable with other cards and can post information?

> > driver which could be built into the kernel and used right from the
> > start. How nice would it be to have a shiny startup screen right from
> > the start of Linux! All the startup messages could be shown in a decent
> > font (maybe even configurable) and might be surrounded by a nice window.
> > What a difference would it make against the current DOS-like look.
> 
> Like what e.g. SUSE does?
> 
Unfortunately I don't have Suse, is there link to an image? Anyway I
though more like the Mac, besides the Mac shows that such a solution is possible.

> > Do you also think such a generic driver should exist? Is anyone able to
> > create it, maybe simply extract it from the radeonfb?
> 
> This generic driver does not exist. And it's not simple to write, since it's
> hardware dependent.
> 
> The closest thing to such a generic driver is the existing vesafb. Perhaps on
> some cards the BIOS uses DDC as well to find a nice video mode?
> 
The vesafb proves that there is a common base for framebuffer driver.
IMO any card having a DVI plug also has to have a common protocol which
can be used for a generic driver without being too hardware dependent
and also without using BIOS calls. It might be possible to create such a
driver for all cards but it shouldn't be too difficult to create it for
i.e. 80%.

O. Wyss

-- 
See a huge pile of work at "http://wyodesktop.sourceforge.net/"


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