Re: How about XGA/XGA-2 or 8514/A-consoles?

Geert Uytterhoeven (Geert.Uytterhoeven@cs.kuleuven.ac.be)
Wed, 7 Oct 1998 17:40:46 +0200 (CEST)

On 7 Oct 1998 laird@sigkill.org wrote:
> In article <Pine.LNX.4.03.9810071450430.21684-100000@mercator.cs.kuleuven.ac.be> you write:
> >On Wed, 7 Oct 1998, David Weinehall wrote:
> >> I know that it is possible to have both a VGA and a MDA-screen hooked up
> >> using mdacon. But with XGA, XGA-2 & 8514/A you can also have 2 graphic
> >> adapters that does not collide. (Even three, if you add an MDA-adapter
> >> as well).
> >>
> >> Is there any way that I could use 8514/A or XGA/XGA-2 for more consoles?
> >> Kernel-hacking demands several sources simultaneously, and my IBM PS/2
> >> 55sx (386/16 without FPU) just isn't fast enough to run X...
> >
> >Feel free to write xgacon (based on vgacon and mdacon?).
>
> It won't be easy, at least for the 8514/a. It's a rather different
> beast than the VGA cards you're used to. The *only* way to access the
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I'm not used to VGA at all :-)

> 8514/a is through its graphics processor. There is no direct
> framebuffer access, which would make porting the fbcon code pretty
> tricky.

But you don't need direct access to a frame buffer to get a text console
working.

The abstract console driver (layer _above_ vgacon/mdacon/fbcon) has no problems
with supporting boards with such graphics processors. There's been a non-GPLed
console driver (gspcon) for boards with a TMS340x0 Graphical Signal Processor
since a long time. If you can provide the basic operations in struct consw
(<linux/console.h>), it's OK.

Greetings,

Geert

--
Geert Uytterhoeven                     Geert.Uytterhoeven@cs.kuleuven.ac.be
Wavelets, Linux/{m68k~Amiga,PPC~CHRP}  http://www.cs.kuleuven.ac.be/~geert/
Department of Computer Science -- Katholieke Universiteit Leuven -- Belgium




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