i810fb problems in 2.6.0

From: adam mcmaster
Date: Tue Dec 30 2003 - 10:15:34 EST


I'm using kernel 2.6.0 with the i810fb driver, which works almost perfectly - the only problem comes when booting the system for the first time. (i.e. the system has been halted then powered on, not simply rebooted.)

The problem is this: after the kernel is decompressed, when it switches to framebuffer mode the screen goes blank and stays that way. The only way I have found to get it to work is to first boot the other kernel I have (2.4.20 with the i810fb patch from sourceforge) then reboot into 2.6.0. The framebuffer works perfectly in 2.4.20.

I've been thinking about this a lot and I'm pretty sure it must be something to do with my BIOS, since (if my understanding is correct) the BIOS is the only thing that will stay running during a reboot.

I'm running a Sony Vaio laptop (PCG-FX101), the BIOS gives the following version info:
PhoenixBIOS 4.0 Release 6.0
BIOS Version: R021140
KBR Version: RK21140
Video BIOS: U0IS2_30 (Maybe U0I52_30, I can't read my own writing)

From lspci:
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corp. 82815 CGC [Chipset Graphics Controller] (rev 11) (prog-if 00 [VGA])
Subsystem: Sony Corporation Vaio PCG-FX403
Flags: bus master, 66Mhz, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 9
Memory at f8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=64M]
Memory at f4000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512K]
Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 2

I've uploaded dmesg output and kernel config to:
http://moosoft.net/lkml/

Also, the distribution I'm using is Gentoo - I downloaded the kernel source from kernel.org and haven't patched/modified it in any way (well, other than config).

Any help with this would be appreciated; it's awkward having to first boot one kernel in order to use the other.

--
- adam mcmaster
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