[nwst-dev] Re: Video on the ns1000

[Santiago G. M. <ma...@ay...>]

Hi, I'm back.

> I posted a newer patch on sourceforge which allows to run the S3 chip at
> 640x480-8, or 80x30. I need to add support for multiple modes, and
> perhaps a couple other items. The boot stage does not know how to talk
> to the S3 chip, so that still goes over the serial port for now.

Hi!

I have been testing the patch and have built some kernels with it using my
previous config but adding the FB stuff, console works ok, now I get all the
messages on it and in the terminal, with all the Debian messages on the
console already, it looks great to see that penguin on the screen ;-)

What I have built is as always on prohibido.aytolacoruna.es/nc/ (BTW, I have
a SF account, mantinan, so if you want I could be uploading stuff there,
there is no problem for me to continue doing it here, though), I have moved
the old kernel and xfree log to old/ and the new stuff I have put there
looks like this:

   851869 Nov 26 14:44 kernel.fb	(kernel with framebuffer support)
    12548 Nov 26 15:02 config.fb	(the config I used for this kernel)
  1443987 Nov 26 15:10 fb.log		(log and strace of X using fb server)
  1273904 Nov 26 15:10 s3.log		(log and strace of X using s3 server)
 30223414 Nov 26 15:11 woody-xfb.tbz	(new debian base with lots of X stuff
					 and strace)

> I think that XFree86 should work in frame buffer mode, but I could be
> wrong. I have done very little testing with this driver so far.

My tests show that the fb is not working, at least it doesn't show anything
on the screen, wich becomes black after you try to start X. I thought that
maybe this was a problem with the modeline that X was trying to use so I
tried to calculate a modeline equivalent of the one we use on the FB, the
result was this line:

Modeline "640x480xmio"   25.175  640 664 760 800  480 491 493 525

and this is the output that the X server showed:

(--) FBDEV(0): Virtual size is 640x480 (pitch 640)
(**) FBDEV(0): Mode "640x480xmio": 25.2 MHz (scaled from 0.0 MHz), 31.5 kHz, 59.9 Hz
(II) FBDEV(0): Modeline "640x480xmio"   25.18  640 664 760 800  480 491 493 525

this should be at the log of the fb X test, however screen was still black.


I had reported a bug on the S3 server on this cards to the XFree guys, still
got no answer to it :-(

> Maybe 3.3.6 works in framebuffer mode, I know fairly little about XFree86
> inner workings.

Umm I tried 4.2.1, I'll try to test 3.3.6 tomorrow.

Well, that is all I could do today, basically gatter info to see if anybody
can diagnose this ;-)

Hope this helps a bit, work is really promissing, seing Tux here by my side
on the NC next to the one I'm using really looks great, we only need a
little push more.

Regards...