Dual screen framebuffer development advice

6 messages, 2 authors, 2004-12-16 · open the first message on its own page

Dual screen framebuffer development advice

From: Andrew Walrond <hidden>
Date: 2004-06-19 14:08:54

I need to setup a machine to develop a framebuffer based application. I'd like 
to use two graphics devices; The first an ati agp chipset on the motherboard 
which will run X11 with X11's ati driver, the second a PCI card running a fb 
driver and displaying my framebuffer application.

Is this possible/sensible?

Andrew Walrond


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Re: Dual screen framebuffer development advice

From: Antonino A. Daplas <hidden>
Date: 2004-06-19 20:25:21

On Saturday 19 June 2004 21:55, Andrew Walrond wrote:
I need to setup a machine to develop a framebuffer based application. I'd
like to use two graphics devices; The first an ati agp chipset on the
motherboard which will run X11 with X11's ati driver, the second a PCI card
running a fb driver and displaying my framebuffer application.

Is this possible/sensible?
Sure, it's possible and actually not hard to do.  Just make sure that the 
driver of your primary card is fbdev, and the secondary X11.  X happens to do 
a fine job of initializing non-primary cards whereas fbdev is mostly 
restricted to cards initialized by the firmware.

Note: You wont' be able to see both displays simultaneously, switching from 
one blanks the other.   If you do want multi-seat, see the Ruby project of 
linuxconsole.

As for sensible, that's up to you :-)

Tony




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Re: Dual screen framebuffer development advice

From: Andrew Walrond <hidden>
Date: 2004-11-22 21:36:11

I asked this a few months ago:

On Saturday 19 Jun 2004 21:25, Antonino A. Daplas wrote:
On Saturday 19 June 2004 21:55, Andrew Walrond wrote:
quoted
I need to setup a machine to develop a framebuffer based application. I'd
like to use two graphics devices; The first an ati agp chipset on the
motherboard which will run X11 with X11's ati driver, the second a PCI
card running a fb driver and displaying my framebuffer application.

Is this possible/sensible?
Sure, it's possible and actually not hard to do.  Just make sure that the
driver of your primary card is fbdev, and the secondary X11.  X happens to
do a fine job of initializing non-primary cards whereas fbdev is mostly
restricted to cards initialized by the firmware.
I've got this working nicely now. I have a recent agp nvidia card and an old 
pci matrox millenium in this dual opteron machine running 64bit linux. I boot 
into a console on the matrox using the built-in matroxfb driver, then startx 
which runs on the nvidia card using the nv driver. I can then work on my fb 
application in X, viewing the output on the second monitor via the matrox 
card. Nice!
Note: You wont' be able to see both displays simultaneously, switching from
one blanks the other.   If you do want multi-seat, see the Ruby project of
linuxconsole.
This is wrong; I can indeed see both displays simultaneously :)

The matrox fb is pretty slow (being on a pci bus); it can only manage 5fps at 
1600x1200-16bpp. The rivafb is much faster (36fps) so I might try switching 
roles (X on matrox, fb on nvidia) at some point. I think X might accelerate 
the matrox card quite well enough for running xemacs etc.

Andrew Walrond


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Re: Dual screen framebuffer development advice

From: Antonino A. Daplas <hidden>
Date: 2004-11-22 22:14:19

On Tuesday 23 November 2004 05:35, Andrew Walrond wrote:
I asked this a few months ago:

On Saturday 19 Jun 2004 21:25, Antonino A. Daplas wrote:
quoted
On Saturday 19 June 2004 21:55, Andrew Walrond wrote:
quoted
I need to setup a machine to develop a framebuffer based application.
I'd like to use two graphics devices; The first an ati agp chipset on
the motherboard which will run X11 with X11's ati driver, the second a
PCI card running a fb driver and displaying my framebuffer application.

Is this possible/sensible?
Sure, it's possible and actually not hard to do.  Just make sure that the
driver of your primary card is fbdev, and the secondary X11.  X happens
to do a fine job of initializing non-primary cards whereas fbdev is
mostly restricted to cards initialized by the firmware.
I've got this working nicely now. I have a recent agp nvidia card and an
old pci matrox millenium in this dual opteron machine running 64bit linux.
I boot into a console on the matrox using the built-in matroxfb driver,
then startx which runs on the nvidia card using the nv driver. I can then
work on my fb application in X, viewing the output on the second monitor
via the matrox card. Nice!
quoted
Note: You wont' be able to see both displays simultaneously, switching
from one blanks the other.   If you do want multi-seat, see the Ruby
project of linuxconsole.
This is wrong; I can indeed see both displays simultaneously :)
That sounds very nice :-).  So I was wrong.  I probably should have said
that you cannot display multiple consoles simultaneously.

Tony




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Re: Dual screen framebuffer development advice

From: Andrew Walrond <hidden>
Date: 2004-12-16 10:39:28

On Monday 22 Nov 2004 22:14, Antonino A. Daplas wrote:
On Tuesday 23 November 2004 05:35, Andrew Walrond wrote:
quoted
I've got this working nicely now. I have a recent agp nvidia card and an
old pci matrox millenium in this dual opteron machine running 64bit
linux. I boot into a console on the matrox using the built-in matroxfb
driver, then startx which runs on the nvidia card using the nv driver. I
can then work on my fb application in X, viewing the output on the second
monitor via the matrox card. Nice!
I've just done a bk pull from linus and build a new kernel (was using post rc2 
before) and now this nice scheme (see above) fails to work:

When I 'startx', the X log complains about no core keyboard, my usb keyboard 
stops responding and both screens go blank. I can only get access by ssh from 
another machine.

Nothing changed other than kernel; using same .config.

If I boot on rivafb console instead of matroxfb, startx and keyboard work 
fine.

Before I start hunting down the problem; Do any recent changes spring to mind?

Thanks

Andrew


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Discover which products truly live up to the hype. Start reading now. 
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Re: Dual screen framebuffer development advice

From: Andrew Walrond <hidden>
Date: 2004-12-16 10:57:17

On Monday 22 Nov 2004 22:14, Antonino A. Daplas wrote:
On Tuesday 23 November 2004 05:35, Andrew Walrond wrote:
quoted
I've got this working nicely now. I have a recent agp nvidia card and an
old pci matrox millenium in this dual opteron machine running 64bit
linux. I boot into a console on the matrox using the built-in matroxfb
driver, then startx which runs on the nvidia card using the nv driver. I
can then work on my fb application in X, viewing the output on the second
monitor via the matrox card. Nice!
I've just done a bk pull from linus and build a new kernel (was using post rc2 
before) and now this nice scheme (see above) fails to work:

When I 'startx', the X log complains about no core keyboard, my usb keyboard 
stops responding and both screens go blank. I can only get access by ssh from 
another machine.

Nothing changed other than kernel; using same .config.

If I boot on rivafb console instead of matroxfb, startx and keyboard work 
fine.

Before I start hunting down the problem; Do any recent changes spring to mind?

Thanks

Andrew


-------------------------------------------------------
SF email is sponsored by - The IT Product Guide
Read honest & candid reviews on hundreds of IT Products from real users.
Discover which products truly live up to the hype. Start reading now. 
http://productguide.itmanagersjournal.com/
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