[SeaBIOS] [RFC PATCH] VGA BIOS init fails if first mode used is graphical

[Fred .]

I was wondering if it could power-up in high resolution mode.
Didn't know nothing would work as expected.
I thought maybe bootloaders could use the same mode without reset the
display and set a new mode, and then the operating system does the same.
So the computer boots up and passes it to the bootloader which passes it to
the operating system all without ever changing screen mode or flicking
anything.

Doesn't Apple's computers do that? I don't know.

Would it be possible to boot in  a resolution any more modern than the old
IBM PC BIOS of 1980?
Which probably used same resolution as something from 1960 or 1970.

Maybe 132*60 instead of 40*25 or 80*25 rows/columns of text?


On Wed, Feb 13, 2013 at 11:10 AM, David Woodhouse <dwmw2 at infradead.org>wrote:

> On Wed, 2013-02-13 at 10:44 +0100, Fred . wrote:
> > Can SeaBIOS init to a high resolution video mode such as 1920x1200?
>
> I'm not entirely sure what you're asking. Can SeaVGABIOS initialise a
> high-resolution mode? Yes. It supports 1920x1200 and 2560x1600 modes.
> All you have to do is call INT 10h with the appropriate mode-setting
> request.
>
> Or are you asking if it can do so *power-up*, setting a graphical mode
> so that nothing displays as expected, because operating systems and
> bootloaders expect the screen to be in *text* mode? To which the answer
> would be that yes it *can* be patched to do so, but that would be bad.
>
> Or are you asking if it can do so for the OVMF/CSM case? In which case
> again it *could* but OVMF is about to set the mode for itself anyway so
> it would be pointless.
>
> --
> dwmw2
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.seabios.org/pipermail/seabios/attachments/20130213/7501e445/attachment.html>