[LinuxBIOS] LinuxTag Berlin 29/5-2/6

[Luc Verhaegen]

On Sat, May 26, 2007 at 10:58:33AM +0200, Stefan Reinauer wrote:
> 
> What has to be done to make it work in LinuxBIOS? When we did VGA BIOS
> execution it was done in userspace first and then migrated into
> LinuxBIOS. 
> 
> Otoh, I am sure that part of LinuxBIOS could use some cleanup, too.

Well, I had just started to build what i had. I indeed got to throw out 
quite a bit of code that ran the unichromes VGA BIOS (and which also, 
depends on the VGA BIOS sitting at 256kB).

I had just started to fix the problems that popped during building, i'm 
really just a day or two away of a fully working version. Sadly, when 
already a week over due with a project for a course i'm following, this 
is time i cannot spare.

> Uh, compiling X yourself is something that only an X developer wants to
> do. At least it was when I last tried in '94 ;-)

You don't need to compile X yourself with modular (or with the SDK 
people before never shipped), just install whatever -dev package your 
distribution offers and follow the build instructions. If you're using 
debian or ubuntu, you can also just dpkg-buildpackage my code.

> Honestly, this is great news. While we have permission from VIA to
> redistribute their VGA roms, it is certainly a gain for boot speed,
> transparency of the system and flexibility to initialize VGA directly.
> 
> BTW: Can we switch to certain resolutions and depths, as well as use
> different outputs (VGA, TV, ..) with your userspace utility?

No, this is purely to get 640x480 textmode to work on the CRT 
connection. This is the safe option that will work for 98% of the EPIA-M 
users out there. The other 2% are those who are fully dependant on the 
DVI or LVDS/RGB display modules.

I can of course insert a full modesetting system, but that will mean 
doing things like EDID parsing and cvt modeline generation in linuxbios. 
And this will all be getting rather big rather quickly.

640x480 at 60Hz is somewhat safe, as most devices on the CRT connection 
will be able to handle this, as this is the default BIOS textmode.

Luc Verhaegen.