Re: short display with 2.1.132-ac3, matroxfb and XF86_SVGA 3.3.3

Alan Cox (alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk)
Fri, 1 Jan 1999 01:44:05 +0000 (GMT)


> > Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, sometimes strange things occur.
> > It is not a supported combination. Both X and the kernel wish to be the sole
> > owner of the video driver unless you use the X fbcon server
>
> Ok. But it sounds stupid.

It is. The problem is both drivers have opinions about how the card is
configured.

> Maybe matroxfb should be fixed to work better with XFree -- after all
> plain text console and 2.1.127 version of matroxfb work perfectly for my
> purposes. Maybe I should take a look at matroxfb diffs and try to do it
> myself ... or is this something not easily accomplished?

It is probably doable given some Matrox documentation. You need to look at
both XFree setup/restore of the matrox chipset and the fbcon server to be
sure

o The matrox X server doesnt assume anything about the old mode being
text mode when it starts, and doesn't rely on bios time configured
values

o The matrox X server doesnt fail to restore anything or assume text
mode restoration. If it can't restore all the state then

o You need to make sure turning graphics mode off (there is an ioctl
where the X server tells the kernel its managing the display and
hands off) that the matrox fbcon rebuilds enough state itself
to work.

o Finally that the fbcon code doesnt do anything either it (when you
set graphics mode) or the Xserver itself cannot recover from.

Alan

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