[LinuxBIOS] VGA support

Could someone explain the different VGA options with LinuxBIOS?

I've read the testbios FAQ items.  This seems to be a utility program
that can be run after the system comes up to initialize a VGA card. Then
I suppose one could open an X window.

Then there are several LinuxBIOS Options that mention VGA:
   VGABIOS_START 
   PCI_VGA_RAM_IMAGE_START 
   CONFIG_CONSOLE_VGA
   CONFIG_LEGACY_VGABIOS

Some VGA options are more useful than others.  For example,
CONFIG_LEGACY_VGABIOS does not seem to be used.
I see CONFIG_CONSOLE_VGA enables logging to the VGA. 
Could someone write a FAQ describing how to make CONFIG_CONSOLE_VGA
work?
Thanks.

Steve

[yhlu]

there is two kind of VGA that we need to support
1. onboard vga
2. addon card.

two CONFIG in MB Option.lb
#VGA Console
default CONFIG_CONSOLE_VGA=1
default CONFIG_PCI_ROM_RUN=1

CONFIG_PCI_ROM_RUN will make sure all the option rom will be called.

Also in MB Config.lb  You need to specify for your onboard VGA
                                        device pci 9.0 on  # PCI
                                                chip drivers/pci/onboard
                                                        device pci 9.0 on end
                                                        register
"rom_address" = "0xfff80000" #512k image
                                                        #register
"rom_address" = "0xfff00000" #1M image
                                                end
                                        end

Please make sure the device num should be right. Otherwise it can not
get exact ROM address.

Also when you plug add on display card to MB with onboard VGA, only
addon card will be used. That is the same as Normal BIOS.

For onboard VGA, You still need to modify your target Config.lb.
in noral section

romimage "normal"
#       48K for SCSI FW or ATI ROM
        option ROM_SIZE = 475136

It will leave space for vga option rom in flash.

So at last for your linuxbios.rom, you should do 
cat atix.rom linuxbios.rom > final_linuxbios.rom

you need to make sure the final_linuxbios.rom size is 512k or 1M.

please use dd to get you atix.rom when running Normal BIOS.

YH

On 8/10/05, [e-mail]  wrote:
> Could someone explain the different VGA options with LinuxBIOS?
>
> I've read the testbios FAQ items.  This seems to be a utility program
> that can be run after the system comes up to initialize a VGA card. Then
> I suppose one could open an X window.
>
> Then there are several LinuxBIOS Options that mention VGA:
>    VGABIOS_START
>    PCI_VGA_RAM_IMAGE_START
>    CONFIG_CONSOLE_VGA
>    CONFIG_LEGACY_VGABIOS
>
> Some VGA options are more useful than others.  For example,
> CONFIG_LEGACY_VGABIOS does not seem to be used.
> I see CONFIG_CONSOLE_VGA enables logging to the VGA.
> Could someone write a FAQ describing how to make CONFIG_CONSOLE_VGA
> work?
> Thanks.
>
> Steve
>
> LinuxBIOS mailing list
> [e-mail]
> http://www.openbios.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios

[Li-Ta Lo]

On Wed, 2005-08-10 at 17:35 -0400, [e-mail] wrote:
> Could someone explain the different VGA options with LinuxBIOS?
>
> I've read the testbios FAQ items.  This seems to be a utility program
> that can be run after the system comes up to initialize a VGA card. Then
> I suppose one could open an X window.
>
> Then there are several LinuxBIOS Options that mention VGA:
>    VGABIOS_START

This one is obsolete, it was used for VIA/EPIA only.
I am going to remove it soon.
> PCI_VGA_RAM_IMAGE_START

This is were the VGABIOS is copy to in DRAM. By PCI spec, it should be
0xC0000 for x86.
> CONFIG_CONSOLE_VGA

This control if you are going to use VGA console. If it is enable, you
can read message from VGA screen instead of serial console.
> CONFIG_LEGACY_VGABIOS

This one is obsolete too like VGABIOS_START.
> Some VGA options are more useful than others.  For example,
> CONFIG_LEGACY_VGABIOS does not seem to be used.
> I see CONFIG_CONSOLE_VGA enables logging to the VGA. 
> Could someone write a FAQ describing how to make CONFIG_CONSOLE_VGA
> work?
> Thanks.
>
> Steve
>
> LinuxBIOS mailing list
> [e-mail]
> http://www.openbios.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios

[yhlu]

I add some lines

http://www.linuxbios.org/index.php/VGA_support

Please check it and enrich it.

YH

On 8/10/05, Li-Ta Lo  wrote:
> On Wed, 2005-08-10 at 17:35 -0400, [e-mail] wrote:
> > Could someone explain the different VGA options with LinuxBIOS?
> >
> > I've read the testbios FAQ items.  This seems to be a utility program
> > that can be run after the system comes up to initialize a VGA card. Then
> > I suppose one could open an X window.
> >
> > Then there are several LinuxBIOS Options that mention VGA:
> >    VGABIOS_START
>
> This one is obsolete, it was used for VIA/EPIA only.
> I am going to remove it soon.
> > PCI_VGA_RAM_IMAGE_START
>
> This is were the VGABIOS is copy to in DRAM. By PCI spec, it should be
> 0xC0000 for x86.
> > CONFIG_CONSOLE_VGA
>
> This control if you are going to use VGA console. If it is enable, you
> can read message from VGA screen instead of serial console.
> > CONFIG_LEGACY_VGABIOS
>
> This one is obsolete too like VGABIOS_START.
> > Some VGA options are more useful than others.  For example,
> > CONFIG_LEGACY_VGABIOS does not seem to be used.
> > I see CONFIG_CONSOLE_VGA enables logging to the VGA.
> > Could someone write a FAQ describing how to make CONFIG_CONSOLE_VGA
> > work?
> > Thanks.
> >
> > Steve
> >
> > LinuxBIOS mailing list
> > [e-mail]
> > http://www.openbios.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
>
> LinuxBIOS mailing list
> [e-mail]
> http://www.openbios.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios