On Tue, Feb 14, 2012 at 06:37:18AM +0100, Gerhard Wiesinger wrote:
On Mon, 13 Feb 2012, Kevin O'Connor wrote:
On Mon, Feb 13, 2012 at 07:42:52AM +0100, Gerhard Wiesinger wrote:
VGA bootsplash isn't displayed because video mode is set which clears the display. Video mode has already been set by the VGA BIOS.
The experience from running on real hardware has indicated that a real off-the-shelf BIOS will init the display and clear the screen at startup. We've seen real off-the-shelf vgabios do weird things if the BIOS doesn't init and clear the screen.
But on real hardware one CAN SEE init string display of e.g. NVIDIA and AMD cards (some do also a beep after VGA display or on BIOS init). Also screen is cleared afterwards. Maybe there is a short delay in VGA BIOS/BIOS.
This would be for the vgabios to do. I certainly wouldn't encourage it though, as I don't much like boot delays.
Another possibility would be to add it as option in the build process. I've already defined an #ifdef therefore.
Maybe an optional delay (config option) before setting video mode would also be fine.
I would really prefer to have one code path for all platforms. I don't see much value in seeing the vgabios screen - certainly not enough to add delays to the boot.
-Kevin