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authorMauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab+samsung@kernel.org>2019-06-27 14:56:51 -0300
committerMauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab+samsung@kernel.org>2019-07-15 11:03:02 -0300
commit4f4cfa6c560c93ba180c30675cf845e1597de44c (patch)
tree0bbe2ec9e6ef62ed2a347504dda50c6bdbe43703 /Documentation/svga.txt
parentda82c92f1150f66afabf78d2c85ef9ac18dc6d38 (diff)
docs: admin-guide: add a series of orphaned documents
There are lots of documents that belong to the admin-guide but are on random places (most under Documentation root dir). Move them to the admin guide. Signed-off-by: Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab+samsung@kernel.org> Acked-by: Alexandre Belloni <alexandre.belloni@bootlin.com> Acked-by: Bartlomiej Zolnierkiewicz <b.zolnierkie@samsung.com>
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-.. include:: <isonum.txt>
-
-=================================
-Video Mode Selection Support 2.13
-=================================
-
-:Copyright: |copy| 1995--1999 Martin Mares, <mj@ucw.cz>
-
-Intro
-~~~~~
-
-This small document describes the "Video Mode Selection" feature which
-allows the use of various special video modes supported by the video BIOS. Due
-to usage of the BIOS, the selection is limited to boot time (before the
-kernel decompression starts) and works only on 80X86 machines.
-
-.. note::
-
- Short intro for the impatient: Just use vga=ask for the first time,
- enter ``scan`` on the video mode prompt, pick the mode you want to use,
- remember its mode ID (the four-digit hexadecimal number) and then
- set the vga parameter to this number (converted to decimal first).
-
-The video mode to be used is selected by a kernel parameter which can be
-specified in the kernel Makefile (the SVGA_MODE=... line) or by the "vga=..."
-option of LILO (or some other boot loader you use) or by the "vidmode" utility
-(present in standard Linux utility packages). You can use the following values
-of this parameter::
-
- NORMAL_VGA - Standard 80x25 mode available on all display adapters.
-
- EXTENDED_VGA - Standard 8-pixel font mode: 80x43 on EGA, 80x50 on VGA.
-
- ASK_VGA - Display a video mode menu upon startup (see below).
-
- 0..35 - Menu item number (when you have used the menu to view the list of
- modes available on your adapter, you can specify the menu item you want
- to use). 0..9 correspond to "0".."9", 10..35 to "a".."z". Warning: the
- mode list displayed may vary as the kernel version changes, because the
- modes are listed in a "first detected -- first displayed" manner. It's
- better to use absolute mode numbers instead.
-
- 0x.... - Hexadecimal video mode ID (also displayed on the menu, see below
- for exact meaning of the ID). Warning: rdev and LILO don't support
- hexadecimal numbers -- you have to convert it to decimal manually.
-
-Menu
-~~~~
-
-The ASK_VGA mode causes the kernel to offer a video mode menu upon
-bootup. It displays a "Press <RETURN> to see video modes available, <SPACE>
-to continue or wait 30 secs" message. If you press <RETURN>, you enter the
-menu, if you press <SPACE> or wait 30 seconds, the kernel will boot up in
-the standard 80x25 mode.
-
-The menu looks like::
-
- Video adapter: <name-of-detected-video-adapter>
- Mode: COLSxROWS:
- 0 0F00 80x25
- 1 0F01 80x50
- 2 0F02 80x43
- 3 0F03 80x26
- ....
- Enter mode number or ``scan``: <flashing-cursor-here>
-
-<name-of-detected-video-adapter> tells what video adapter did Linux detect
--- it's either a generic adapter name (MDA, CGA, HGC, EGA, VGA, VESA VGA [a VGA
-with VESA-compliant BIOS]) or a chipset name (e.g., Trident). Direct detection
-of chipsets is turned off by default as it's inherently unreliable due to
-absolutely insane PC design.
-
-"0 0F00 80x25" means that the first menu item (the menu items are numbered
-from "0" to "9" and from "a" to "z") is a 80x25 mode with ID=0x0f00 (see the
-next section for a description of mode IDs).
-
-<flashing-cursor-here> encourages you to enter the item number or mode ID
-you wish to set and press <RETURN>. If the computer complains something about
-"Unknown mode ID", it is trying to tell you that it isn't possible to set such
-a mode. It's also possible to press only <RETURN> which leaves the current mode.
-
-The mode list usually contains a few basic modes and some VESA modes. In
-case your chipset has been detected, some chipset-specific modes are shown as
-well (some of these might be missing or unusable on your machine as different
-BIOSes are often shipped with the same card and the mode numbers depend purely
-on the VGA BIOS).
-
-The modes displayed on the menu are partially sorted: The list starts with
-the standard modes (80x25 and 80x50) followed by "special" modes (80x28 and
-80x43), local modes (if the local modes feature is enabled), VESA modes and
-finally SVGA modes for the auto-detected adapter.
-
-If you are not happy with the mode list offered (e.g., if you think your card
-is able to do more), you can enter "scan" instead of item number / mode ID. The
-program will try to ask the BIOS for all possible video mode numbers and test
-what happens then. The screen will be probably flashing wildly for some time and
-strange noises will be heard from inside the monitor and so on and then, really
-all consistent video modes supported by your BIOS will appear (plus maybe some
-``ghost modes``). If you are afraid this could damage your monitor, don't use
-this function.
-
-After scanning, the mode ordering is a bit different: the auto-detected SVGA
-modes are not listed at all and the modes revealed by ``scan`` are shown before
-all VESA modes.
-
-Mode IDs
-~~~~~~~~
-
-Because of the complexity of all the video stuff, the video mode IDs
-used here are also a bit complex. A video mode ID is a 16-bit number usually
-expressed in a hexadecimal notation (starting with "0x"). You can set a mode
-by entering its mode directly if you know it even if it isn't shown on the menu.
-
-The ID numbers can be divided to those regions::
-
- 0x0000 to 0x00ff - menu item references. 0x0000 is the first item. Don't use
- outside the menu as this can change from boot to boot (especially if you
- have used the ``scan`` feature).
-
- 0x0100 to 0x017f - standard BIOS modes. The ID is a BIOS video mode number
- (as presented to INT 10, function 00) increased by 0x0100.
-
- 0x0200 to 0x08ff - VESA BIOS modes. The ID is a VESA mode ID increased by
- 0x0100. All VESA modes should be autodetected and shown on the menu.
-
- 0x0900 to 0x09ff - Video7 special modes. Set by calling INT 0x10, AX=0x6f05.
- (Usually 940=80x43, 941=132x25, 942=132x44, 943=80x60, 944=100x60,
- 945=132x28 for the standard Video7 BIOS)
-
- 0x0f00 to 0x0fff - special modes (they are set by various tricks -- usually
- by modifying one of the standard modes). Currently available:
- 0x0f00 standard 80x25, don't reset mode if already set (=FFFF)
- 0x0f01 standard with 8-point font: 80x43 on EGA, 80x50 on VGA
- 0x0f02 VGA 80x43 (VGA switched to 350 scanlines with a 8-point font)
- 0x0f03 VGA 80x28 (standard VGA scans, but 14-point font)
- 0x0f04 leave current video mode
- 0x0f05 VGA 80x30 (480 scans, 16-point font)
- 0x0f06 VGA 80x34 (480 scans, 14-point font)
- 0x0f07 VGA 80x60 (480 scans, 8-point font)
- 0x0f08 Graphics hack (see the VIDEO_GFX_HACK paragraph below)
-
- 0x1000 to 0x7fff - modes specified by resolution. The code has a "0xRRCC"
- form where RR is a number of rows and CC is a number of columns.
- E.g., 0x1950 corresponds to a 80x25 mode, 0x2b84 to 132x43 etc.
- This is the only fully portable way to refer to a non-standard mode,
- but it relies on the mode being found and displayed on the menu
- (remember that mode scanning is not done automatically).
-
- 0xff00 to 0xffff - aliases for backward compatibility:
- 0xffff equivalent to 0x0f00 (standard 80x25)
- 0xfffe equivalent to 0x0f01 (EGA 80x43 or VGA 80x50)
-
-If you add 0x8000 to the mode ID, the program will try to recalculate
-vertical display timing according to mode parameters, which can be used to
-eliminate some annoying bugs of certain VGA BIOSes (usually those used for
-cards with S3 chipsets and old Cirrus Logic BIOSes) -- mainly extra lines at the
-end of the display.
-
-Options
-~~~~~~~
-
-Build options for arch/x86/boot/* are selected by the kernel kconfig
-utility and the kernel .config file.
-
-VIDEO_GFX_HACK - includes special hack for setting of graphics modes
-to be used later by special drivers.
-Allows to set _any_ BIOS mode including graphic ones and forcing specific
-text screen resolution instead of peeking it from BIOS variables. Don't use
-unless you think you know what you're doing. To activate this setup, use
-mode number 0x0f08 (see the Mode IDs section above).
-
-Still doesn't work?
-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-
-When the mode detection doesn't work (e.g., the mode list is incorrect or
-the machine hangs instead of displaying the menu), try to switch off some of
-the configuration options listed under "Options". If it fails, you can still use
-your kernel with the video mode set directly via the kernel parameter.
-
-In either case, please send me a bug report containing what _exactly_
-happens and how do the configuration switches affect the behaviour of the bug.
-
-If you start Linux from M$-DOS, you might also use some DOS tools for
-video mode setting. In this case, you must specify the 0x0f04 mode ("leave
-current settings") to Linux, because if you don't and you use any non-standard
-mode, Linux will switch to 80x25 automatically.
-
-If you set some extended mode and there's one or more extra lines on the
-bottom of the display containing already scrolled-out text, your VGA BIOS
-contains the most common video BIOS bug called "incorrect vertical display
-end setting". Adding 0x8000 to the mode ID might fix the problem. Unfortunately,
-this must be done manually -- no autodetection mechanisms are available.
-
-History
-~~~~~~~
-
-=============== ================================================================
-1.0 (??-Nov-95) First version supporting all adapters supported by the old
- setup.S + Cirrus Logic 54XX. Present in some 1.3.4? kernels
- and then removed due to instability on some machines.
-2.0 (28-Jan-96) Rewritten from scratch. Cirrus Logic 64XX support added, almost
- everything is configurable, the VESA support should be much more
- stable, explicit mode numbering allowed, "scan" implemented etc.
-2.1 (30-Jan-96) VESA modes moved to 0x200-0x3ff. Mode selection by resolution
- supported. Few bugs fixed. VESA modes are listed prior to
- modes supplied by SVGA autodetection as they are more reliable.
- CLGD autodetect works better. Doesn't depend on 80x25 being
- active when started. Scanning fixed. 80x43 (any VGA) added.
- Code cleaned up.
-2.2 (01-Feb-96) EGA 80x43 fixed. VESA extended to 0x200-0x4ff (non-standard 02XX
- VESA modes work now). Display end bug workaround supported.
- Special modes renumbered to allow adding of the "recalculate"
- flag, 0xffff and 0xfffe became aliases instead of real IDs.
- Screen contents retained during mode changes.
-2.3 (15-Mar-96) Changed to work with 1.3.74 kernel.
-2.4 (18-Mar-96) Added patches by Hans Lermen fixing a memory overwrite problem
- with some boot loaders. Memory management rewritten to reflect
- these changes. Unfortunately, screen contents retaining works
- only with some loaders now.
- Added a Tseng 132x60 mode.
-2.5 (19-Mar-96) Fixed a VESA mode scanning bug introduced in 2.4.
-2.6 (25-Mar-96) Some VESA BIOS errors not reported -- it fixes error reports on
- several cards with broken VESA code (e.g., ATI VGA).
-2.7 (09-Apr-96) - Accepted all VESA modes in range 0x100 to 0x7ff, because some
- cards use very strange mode numbers.
- - Added Realtek VGA modes (thanks to Gonzalo Tornaria).
- - Hardware testing order slightly changed, tests based on ROM
- contents done as first.
- - Added support for special Video7 mode switching functions
- (thanks to Tom Vander Aa).
- - Added 480-scanline modes (especially useful for notebooks,
- original version written by hhanemaa@cs.ruu.nl, patched by
- Jeff Chua, rewritten by me).
- - Screen store/restore fixed.
-2.8 (14-Apr-96) - Previous release was not compilable without CONFIG_VIDEO_SVGA.
- - Better recognition of text modes during mode scan.
-2.9 (12-May-96) - Ignored VESA modes 0x80 - 0xff (more VESA BIOS bugs!)
-2.10(11-Nov-96) - The whole thing made optional.
- - Added the CONFIG_VIDEO_400_HACK switch.
- - Added the CONFIG_VIDEO_GFX_HACK switch.
- - Code cleanup.
-2.11(03-May-97) - Yet another cleanup, now including also the documentation.
- - Direct testing of SVGA adapters turned off by default, ``scan``
- offered explicitly on the prompt line.
- - Removed the doc section describing adding of new probing
- functions as I try to get rid of _all_ hardware probing here.
-2.12(25-May-98) Added support for VESA frame buffer graphics.
-2.13(14-May-99) Minor documentation fixes.
-=============== ================================================================