On Wed, Jan 02, 2008 at 05:31:27PM -0800, ron minnich wrote: > On Jan 2, 2008 5:03 PM, Luc Verhaegen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > What i am trying to do is implement native VGA bring-up for unichrome. I > > have had userspace code doing this on top of a clean linuxbios for more > > than 8 months. This is not just my X driver, i can also set up standard > > vga text mode, so it is not a pipe dream. > > That's great to hear. Be aware that SiS also did native vga text mode > in 2000, by Ollie Lo. So, we know that it is possible to have this > work. We have done a fair amount of native and emulated VGA bringup > over the years.
Where did this code go? > > In that light it is perfectly valid to claim CONFIG_CONSOLE_VGA > > without setting CONFIG_PCI_ROM_RUN, because: > > * i have no need for a vga rom, as i provide the necessary code for a > > full vga text mode bringup myself. > > * i have no need to run any other rom either. > > * i do want vga console logging. > > > > Ah. Now I see what you are trying to do. I misunderstood from your > first message. No argument. We've been doing this for years. And if > you can't do it, then something is broken for sure. So I'm happy to > see it fixed. > > At the same time, let's suppose for the sake of argument that you set > BOTH CONFIG_CONSOLE_VGA and CONFIG_PCI_ROM_RUN AND you have the native > hardware bringup. How does that hurt your native device? It doesn't, except that it makes this whole exercise rather useless. What point is there in a fully free bios when one still uselessly includes emulator code? > There's no > option rom for it --> it won't be run. I'd like to understand this. We > have had cases where people had native bringup and installed a vga > card, and both were needed. In that case we would want roms to run. What about providing both CONFIG_PCI_ROM_RUN and CONFIG_CONSOLE_VGA, at the same time? In the case a standalone card is used, the target Config.lb should have CONFIG_PCI_ROM_RUN. But it should never be forced by the motherboard or a device Config.lb when not needed. > > So when i initialise the unichrome, i set vga_inited myself, like any > > device driver should when it initialises a vga compatible device to a > > vga compatible state and expects the console code to make use of it as a > > vga compatible console. > > OK. It's fine to set it there I suppose. Why "I suppose"? vga_inited is from the console code. We are currently only setting it, as an extern, in the device code. What could stop anyone from setting it in any other code? > It was considered. I think there is a bigger picture than you might > have realised. Torsten also pointed out a secondary issue. CONFIG_CONSOLE_VGA is not the right solution in that case. Maybe CONFIG_VGA_ROM_RUN should be trivially introduced. > I read your patch. I am still unsure of the case where there are vga > class devices but we don't want a vga console (hint: GPU computing). As one of the main radeonhd driver developers, i am rather acutely aware of gpgpu. But i fail to see the relevance of this here. > It seems there is no way in your code to allow us to run the option > ROMs for a "vga" device and not enable a vga console. My patch allows this in the exact same manner as before. Please look at the resulting code. The real question is: What happens the unerring linuxbios user only specificies only CONFIG_CONSOLE_VGA, and still expects it to work with a vga rom. But this is a purely an issue of bad former practice and bad documentation. Both options should be specified if both are needed. > This is a cooperative project and some patience from all sides is > important. So please bear with us as we try to make sure we understand > your needs and what you are doing. Very trivial changes can turn into > problems in ways we do not expect, and VGA and ROM issues have been a > headache. Heh. Luc Verhaegen. -- linuxbios mailing list linuxbios@linuxbios.org http://www.linuxbios.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
