Running frame buffer programs using a VGA console?

8 messages, 3 authors, 2004-01-06 · open the first message on its own page

Running frame buffer programs using a VGA console?

From: John Zielinski <hidden>
Date: 2003-11-27 06:21:44

Silly question.  Is it actually possible to run a fb program like fbtest if your console is the VGA console?  I tried it but the fb driver doesn't seem to switch modes.

John





-------------------------------------------------------
This SF.net email is sponsored by: SF.net Giveback Program.
Does SourceForge.net help you be more productive?  Does it
help you create better code?  SHARE THE LOVE, and help us help
YOU!  Click Here: http://sourceforge.net/donate/

Re: Running frame buffer programs using a VGA console?

From: Geert Uytterhoeven <geert@linux-m68k.org>
Date: 2003-11-27 10:09:36

On Thu, 27 Nov 2003, John Zielinski wrote:
Silly question.  Is it actually possible to run a fb program like fbtest 
if your console is the VGA console?  I tried it but the fb driver 
doesn't seem to switch modes.
No, you cannot. You need an active frame buffer device driver.

Gr{oetje,eeting}s,

						Geert

--
Geert Uytterhoeven -- There's lots of Linux beyond ia32 -- geert@linux-m68k.org

In personal conversations with technical people, I call myself a hacker. But
when I'm talking to journalists I just say "programmer" or something like that.
							    -- Linus Torvalds



-------------------------------------------------------
This SF.net email is sponsored by: SF.net Giveback Program.
Does SourceForge.net help you be more productive?  Does it
help you create better code?  SHARE THE LOVE, and help us help
YOU!  Click Here: http://sourceforge.net/donate/

Re: Running frame buffer programs using a VGA console?

From: John Zielinski <hidden>
Date: 2003-11-28 02:07:21

Geert Uytterhoeven wrote:
On Thu, 27 Nov 2003, John Zielinski wrote:
 
quoted
Silly question.  Is it actually possible to run a fb program like fbtest if your console is the VGA console?  I tried it but the fb driver doesn't seem to switch modes.
   
No, you cannot. You need an active frame buffer device driver.

 
I have the low level radeon fb driver in the kernel and it initializes like usual, but I turned off the frame buffer console option.   I was wondering if the frame buffer programs can run like this.  If not then I won't have to worry about that kind of configuration when working on fb programs.

John





-------------------------------------------------------
This SF.net email is sponsored by: SF.net Giveback Program.
Does SourceForge.net help you be more productive?  Does it
help you create better code?  SHARE THE LOVE, and help us help
YOU!  Click Here: http://sourceforge.net/donate/

Re: Running frame buffer programs using a VGA console?

From: Geert Uytterhoeven <geert@linux-m68k.org>
Date: 2003-11-28 08:34:52

On Thu, 27 Nov 2003, John Zielinski wrote:
Geert Uytterhoeven wrote:
quoted
On Thu, 27 Nov 2003, John Zielinski wrote:
quoted
Silly question.  Is it actually possible to run a fb program like fbtest 
if your console is the VGA console?  I tried it but the fb driver 
doesn't seem to switch modes.
No, you cannot. You need an active frame buffer device driver.
I have the low level radeon fb driver in the kernel and it initializes 
like usual, but I turned off the frame buffer console option.   I was 
So you have an active frame buffer device (you can check this using `cat
/proc/fb')....
wondering if the frame buffer programs can run like this.  If not then I 
won't have to worry about that kind of configuration when working on fb 
programs.
... and fbtest should work. You cannot switch between graphcis and text mode,
though, since there's no console attached to your frame buffer device.

Gr{oetje,eeting}s,

						Geert

--
Geert Uytterhoeven -- There's lots of Linux beyond ia32 -- geert@linux-m68k.org

In personal conversations with technical people, I call myself a hacker. But
when I'm talking to journalists I just say "programmer" or something like that.
							    -- Linus Torvalds




-------------------------------------------------------
This SF.net email is sponsored by: SF.net Giveback Program.
Does SourceForge.net help you be more productive?  Does it
help you create better code?  SHARE THE LOVE, and help us help
YOU!  Click Here: http://sourceforge.net/donate/

Re: Running frame buffer programs using a VGA console?

From: John Zielinski <hidden>
Date: 2003-11-28 23:26:07

Geert Uytterhoeven wrote:
So you have an active frame buffer device (you can check this using `cat

/proc/fb')....

 
Yep.  Same contents as when using fbcon.
... and fbtest should work. You cannot switch between graphcis and text mode,
though, since there's no console attached to your frame buffer device.

 
Huh?  Now I'm confused.  Do you mean that I can't go between text and graphics using fbset or some other such utility or do you mean that fbtest can't go between text and graphics modes?  Because it's the latter that's happening by the looks of things.  It's not going into graphics mode to do the test.

John





-------------------------------------------------------
This SF.net email is sponsored by: SF.net Giveback Program.
Does SourceForge.net help you be more productive?  Does it
help you create better code?  SHARE THE LOVE, and help us help
YOU!  Click Here: http://sourceforge.net/donate/

Re: Running frame buffer programs using a VGA console?

From: Geert Uytterhoeven <geert@linux-m68k.org>
Date: 2003-11-29 20:48:32

On Fri, 28 Nov 2003, John Zielinski wrote:
Geert Uytterhoeven wrote:
quoted
... and fbtest should work. You cannot switch between graphcis and text mode,
though, since there's no console attached to your frame buffer device.
Huh?  Now I'm confused.  Do you mean that I can't go between text and 
graphics using fbset or some other such utility or do you mean that 
fbtest can't go between text and graphics modes?  Because it's the 
latter that's happening by the looks of things.  It's not going into 
graphics mode to do the test.
I meant that you can't use the KDSETMODE ioctl if there's no console attached
to the frame buffer device.

Gr{oetje,eeting}s,

						Geert

--
Geert Uytterhoeven -- There's lots of Linux beyond ia32 -- geert@linux-m68k.org

In personal conversations with technical people, I call myself a hacker. But
when I'm talking to journalists I just say "programmer" or something like that.
							    -- Linus Torvalds



-------------------------------------------------------
This SF.net email is sponsored by: SF.net Giveback Program.
Does SourceForge.net help you be more productive?  Does it
help you create better code?  SHARE THE LOVE, and help us help
YOU!  Click Here: http://sourceforge.net/donate/

Re: Running frame buffer programs using a VGA console?

From: John Zielinski <hidden>
Date: 2003-11-29 21:11:42

Geert Uytterhoeven wrote:
I meant that you can't use the KDSETMODE ioctl if there's no console attached
to the frame buffer device.
 
Ok.  My last patched fixed that.  I tried it using a remote ssh connection and it worked perfectly.

What's happening here is that the radeon driver doesn't switch the card's video mode when I run the test.  The fbtest program also shows a limited set of capabilities (no color modes) when I run it and aborts with a signal 11.  It also kills the VGA font since I'm not saving video memory anymore.   I noticed the other drivers do a VGA save/restore when they are opened or closed.

Time to look at the code some more...

John





-------------------------------------------------------
This SF.net email is sponsored by: SF.net Giveback Program.
Does SourceForge.net help you be more productive?  Does it
help you create better code?  SHARE THE LOVE, and help us help
YOU!  Click Here: http://sourceforge.net/donate/

Re: Running frame buffer programs using a VGA console?

From: James Simmons <hidden>
Date: 2004-01-06 22:47:48

On Thu, 27 Nov 2003, John Zielinski wrote:
quoted
Silly question.  Is it actually possible to run a fb program like fbtest 
if your console is the VGA console?  I tried it but the fb driver 
doesn't seem to switch modes.
No, you cannot. You need an active frame buffer device driver.
It depends on the setup and driver. With the riva and vga16fb driver you 
can. You just enable fbdev support without fbcon and use vgacon. It works 
:-) 




-------------------------------------------------------
This SF.net email is sponsored by: IBM Linux Tutorials.
Become an expert in LINUX or just sharpen your skills.  Sign up for IBM's
Free Linux Tutorials.  Learn everything from the bash shell to sys admin.
Click now! http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=1278&alloc_id=3371&op=click
Keyboard shortcuts
hback out one level
jnext message in thread
kprevious message in thread
ldrill in
Escclose help / fold thread tree
?toggle this help