aty128fb patch on iMac DV

aty128fb patch on iMac DV

[Matt Brubeck]

I'm running linux-pmac-stable on my iMac 350. The aty128 framebuffer on
this machine has had similar problems to the new G4s, though it doesn't
have a Rage Pro card. Specifically, video appears in several frames and at
odd colors for any color depth above 8-bit. In 8-bit mode video appears
fine except that the entire screen is shifted down exactly one pixel,
about halfway across the screen.

The offb driver works fine on this machine, but will not switch to any
color depth other than 8.

I applied Kevin Hendricks' latest rage128.patch, and aty128fb now works
perfectly in 8-bit color. It still fails as before in 15/16, 24, and
32-bit modes. I get the following message when I do "fbset -depth 16":

fbcon_setup: No support for fontwidth 8
fbcon_setup: type 0 (aux 0, depth 16) not supported

So the patch was an improvement, but there are still problems. I don't
know anything about video drivers, but am willing to help test out any
changes, or muck around with the driver myself if someone will give me a
few pointers or a place to start.

Matt Brubeck


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Re: aty128fb patch on iMac DV

[Geert Uytterhoeven]

On Tue, 21 Mar 2000, Matt Brubeck wrote:
> I applied Kevin Hendricks' latest rage128.patch, and aty128fb now works
> perfectly in 8-bit color. It still fails as before in 15/16, 24, and
> 32-bit modes. I get the following message when I do "fbset -depth 16":
>
> fbcon_setup: No support for fontwidth 8
> fbcon_setup: type 0 (aux 0, depth 16) not supported

You have to enable

    CONFIG_FBCON_CFB16=y
    CONFIG_FBCON_CFB24=y
    CONFIG_FBCON_CFB32=y

for 16/24/32 bpp text console support.

Gr{oetje,eeting}s,

						Geert

--
Geert Uytterhoeven -- There's lots of Linux beyond ia32 -- geert@linux-m68k.org

In personal conversations with technical people, I call myself a hacker. But
when I'm talking to journalists I just say "programmer" or something like that.
							    -- Linus Torvalds


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Re: aty128fb patch on iMac DV

[Matt Brubeck]

On Tue, 21 Mar 2000, Geert Uytterhoeven wrote:

> > I applied Kevin Hendricks' latest rage128.patch, and aty128fb now works
> > perfectly in 8-bit color. It still fails as before in 15/16, 24, and
> > 32-bit modes. I get the following message when I do "fbset -depth 16":
> >
> > fbcon_setup: No support for fontwidth 8
> > fbcon_setup: type 0 (aux 0, depth 16) not supported
>
> You have to enable
>
>     CONFIG_FBCON_CFB16=y
>     CONFIG_FBCON_CFB24=y
>     CONFIG_FBCON_CFB32=y
>
> for 16/24/32 bpp text console support.

Ahh. That explains the error message from fbcon. But in any case the
framebuffer is having its own problems; the picture is half-sized and
appears in psychedelic colors several times across the screen.

Matt Brubeck


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Re: aty128fb patch on iMac DV

[Benjamin Herrenschmidt]

On Tue, Mar 21, 2000, Matt Brubeck <mbrubeck@hmc.edu> wrote:

>Ahh. That explains the error message from fbcon. But in any case the
>framebuffer is having its own problems; the picture is half-sized and
>appears in psychedelic colors several times across the screen.

Can you try the kernel at

rsync -arvz linuxcare.com.au::linux-pmac-benh <destination>

And tell me if it works better ? It includes Kevin
_really_latest_changes_ and seems to work on an iMacDV I have here (but I
could only test the boot console, there's no linux install on this
machine and will never be).

Thanks !


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Re: aty128fb patch on iMac DV

[Matt Brubeck]

On Tue, 21 Mar 2000, Benjamin Herrenschmidt wrote:

>> Ahh. That explains the error message from fbcon. But in any case the
>> framebuffer is having its own problems; the picture is half-sized and
>> appears in psychedelic colors several times across the screen.

> Can you try the kernel at
>
> rsync -arvz linuxcare.com.au::linux-pmac-benh <destination>
>
> And tell me if it works better ? It includes Kevin
> _really_latest_changes_ and seems to work on an iMacDV I have here (but I
> could only test the boot console, there's no linux install on this
> machine and will never be).

No, sorry. The video still freaks out in any color depth greater than 8.


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Re: aty128fb patch on iMac DV

[Benjamin Herrenschmidt]

On Tue, Mar 21, 2000, Matt Brubeck <mbrubeck@hmc.edu> wrote:

>> And tell me if it works better ? It includes Kevin
>> _really_latest_changes_ and seems to work on an iMacDV I have here (but I
>> could only test the boot console, there's no linux install on this
>> machine and will never be).
>
>No, sorry. The video still freaks out in any color depth greater than 8.

Well, I just got a report of a working one and mine worked...

Can you send me the results of dmesg and a copy of your MacOS device tree
nodes relating to the ATI (not the whole tree please).

Ben.


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Re: aty128fb patch on iMac DV

[Benjamin Herrenschmidt]

On Wed, Mar 22, 2000, Matt Brubeck <mbrubeck@hmc.edu> wrote:

>> Note that it didn't work for me the first time round.  I had to specify
>> only 'video=aty128fb' without any more arguments for it to work.  For some
>> reason if I specify the res & bit depth my monitor goes black when
>> starting X.  OTOH I'm not exactly using a DV either, mine is a Blueberry
>> iMac 350, should be similar.  Using yaboot of course.
>
>Okay, I got it to (mostly) work. The culprits seemed to be
>CONFIG_FB_COMPAT_XPMAC; removing that option from my kernel config allowed
>me to properly switch to all color depths. The fb console has several
>weird effects when switching vts (displaying garbage briefly during the
>switch; cursor changing color), but Xfree 4.0 runs perfectly.
>
>Only other problem is that the geometry is off. The picture is shifted a
>couple pixels offscreen to the left in 16-bit mode, and even farther in
>32-bit. But this is definitely a big step forward.
>
>[I'm on a blueberry 350 iMac as well.]

Simply adding the XPMAC compat. option should not harm... I'll looks if I
see a bug related to it.

For the geometry problem, I beleive the modelines used by Apple for the
iMac are a bit different than the ones in the standard base we use. You
should be able to adjust your XFree modelines.


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