[Qemu-devel] re: svga_helper

[Qemu-devel] re: svga_helper

[Bob Barry]

On Tue, 5 Jul 2005 16:09 Jim C. Brown wrote:
> ...qemu still uses SDL. It does not support svgalib at all.
> 
> However, SDL does support svgalib as an output device. Try getting a different
> SDL and seeing what that does for you. Probably you want to recompile SDL and
> tell it to support the X output render.

That sounds spot on.  But it doesn't work.  The cause of the problem was updating
all packages (Gentoo "emerge world") which wiped my qemu-friendly sdl.  I've
tried installing sdl-1.2.7 and sdl-1.2.8, with both the Gentoo installer and by
"./configure, make, make install", with x specifically enabled.  When I try to run qemu
after compiling sdl with svgalib disabled, it complains "can't start sdl, exiting".  When I
try to run qemu after compiling sdl with svgalib enabled, it complains "can't find svgalib-helper".
It never recognizes the availability of X.  But after every compile of sdl, both with and
without svgalib enabled, I checked that applications in the SDL-1.2.8/test directory would
run - and they always use X and run beautifully.  It seems like something in the qemu
"SDL-starter" is demanding svgalib.

Suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Bob Barry

Re: [Qemu-devel] re: svga_helper

[Jim C. Brown]

On Sun, Jul 10, 2005 at 04:43:54PM +0000, Bob Barry wrote:
> That sounds spot on.  But it doesn't work.  The cause of the problem was updating
> all packages (Gentoo "emerge world") which wiped my qemu-friendly sdl.  I've
> tried installing sdl-1.2.7 and sdl-1.2.8, with both the Gentoo installer and by
> "./configure, make, make install", with x specifically enabled.  When I try to run qemu
> after compiling sdl with svgalib disabled, it complains "can't start sdl, exiting".  When I
> try to run qemu after compiling sdl with svgalib enabled, it complains "can't find svgalib-helper".
> It never recognizes the availability of X.  But after every compile of sdl, both with and
> without svgalib enabled, I checked that applications in the SDL-1.2.8/test directory would
> run - and they always use X and run beautifully.  It seems like something in the qemu
> "SDL-starter" is demanding svgalib.
> 
> Suggestions would be appreciated.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Bob Barry
> 

Sounds similar to an issue I've heard where those trying to get SDL to work
with the framebuffer cant because SDL demands X11.

I recommend compiling SDL w/o svgalib support, and then modifying sdl.c
to report the error. Specificly, change sdl_display_init so this line

fprintf(stderr, "Could not initialize SDL - exiting\n");

becomes this line

fprintf(stderr, "Could not initialize SDL - %s\n", SDL_GetError());

-- 
Infinite complexity begets infinite beauty.
Infinite precision begets infinite perfection.

[Qemu-devel] re: svga_helper

[Bob Barry]

I googled and found out what it was, and re-installed svgalib
to get the module built against my current kernel.  Then I tried
qemu and was stunned to see it take my full screen.  And then
I tried to get out of it, and _nothing_ on the keyboard would
respond.  I finally had to reset the machine.  Is this the
replacement for SDL?

I tried again, from a terminal session: full-screen display was
impressive, and the win98 login screen accepted a few characters
then froze.  I was happy to be able to get out of the terminal 
session normally.

Is the cvs code working for most people?

Thanks,

Bob Barry

Re: [Qemu-devel] re: svga_helper

[Jim C. Brown]

On Tue, Jul 05, 2005 at 05:42:15PM +0000, Bob Barry wrote:
> I googled and found out what it was, and re-installed svgalib
> to get the module built against my current kernel.  Then I tried
> qemu and was stunned to see it take my full screen.  And then
> I tried to get out of it, and _nothing_ on the keyboard would
> respond.  I finally had to reset the machine.  Is this the
> replacement for SDL?
> 

No. qemu still uses SDL. It does not support svgalib at all.

However, SDL does support svgalib as an output device. Try getting a different
SDL and seeing what that does for you. Probably you want to recompile SDL and
tell it to support the X output render.

> I tried again, from a terminal session: full-screen display was
> impressive, and the win98 login screen accepted a few characters
> then froze.  I was happy to be able to get out of the terminal 
> session normally.
> 
> Is the cvs code working for most people?
> 

Yep.

> Thanks,
> 
> Bob Barry
> 

-- 
Infinite complexity begets infinite beauty.
Infinite precision begets infinite perfection.