Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2009 14:13:31 +0100 From: Rink Springer <rink@FreeBSD.org> To: Oliver Fromme <olli@lurza.secnetix.de> Cc: freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.org, freebsd-current@FreeBSD.org, Alex Dupre <ale@FreeBSD.org> Subject: Re: CFT: Graphics support for /boot/loader Message-ID: <20090211131331.GA78543@rink.nu> In-Reply-To: <200902111200.n1BC0wni006842@lurza.secnetix.de> References: <4992B049.30903@FreeBSD.org> <200902111200.n1BC0wni006842@lurza.secnetix.de>
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On Wed, Feb 11, 2009 at 01:00:58PM +0100, Oliver Fromme wrote: > It probably makes sense to let the boot loader set up > graphics mode (including VESA support), so it is already > active when the kernel comes up. Then the kernel will > only have to deal with the frame buffer, not with the BIOS. > That will work on both i386 and amd64 platforms. The only > drawback is that the mode cannot be changed by the kernel > once it is running, i.e. you have to stay in that mode > till reboot. FWIW, this is exactly what FreeBSD/xbox does; the boot loader is responsible for setting up the video mode, and all it does is remap the framebuffer to a more sensible location (the way to do this is just writing to a register which is the same for any Xbox, and most bootloaders set the framebuffer to 4MB, which is a bit much for 640x480x16M especially if your machine only has 64MB of memory :-) > That solution requires support by the loader and by > syscons. It is my plan to look into that, as soon as the > basic graphics support in the loader is finished. I think that is a good approach. Go for it! Regards, -- Rink P.W. Springer - http://rink.nu "Chance favours the prepared mind" - Penn
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