Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S269654AbUJSScK (ORCPT ); Tue, 19 Oct 2004 14:32:10 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S269586AbUJSS07 (ORCPT ); Tue, 19 Oct 2004 14:26:59 -0400 Received: from mail.scitechsoft.com ([63.195.13.67]:54760 "EHLO mail.scitechsoft.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S270090AbUJSRzJ (ORCPT ); Tue, 19 Oct 2004 13:55:09 -0400 From: "Kendall Bennett" Organization: SciTech Software, Inc. To: Martin Waitz Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2004 10:54:50 -0700 MIME-Version: 1.0 Subject: Re: Generic VESA framebuffer driver and Video card BOOT? CC: Linux Kernel Mailing List Message-ID: <4174F27A.1499.1645EC81@localhost> In-reply-to: <20041019170111.GG3618@admingilde.org> References: <4173BA7D.32320.11833A1D@localhost> X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (4.21c) Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Content-description: Mail message body X-Spam-Flag: NO Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1586 Lines: 42 Martin Waitz wrote: > On Mon, Oct 18, 2004 at 12:43:41PM -0700, Kendall Bennett wrote: > > I am not sure what you mean by basic text output? If you mean to a > > display, then yes, embedded boxes using U-Boot and OpenBIOS usually do > > not have any text output. But if you mean serial output that is usually > > the method of choice for the embedded machines that don't have support > > for a physical display in the firmware. > > I mean: text output on the preferred console. > > Embedded devices have a serial console anyway and all other > machines have firmware support for drawing text. No, all other machines don't have firmware support for drawing text. That is why we wrote this code in the first place. > That is: switching into graphics mode can be done by the firmware, > bootloader, or by userspace and doesn't have to be in the kernel. U-Boot and OpenBIOS on the machines we are working with do not have any support for initialising the video card. Both could be modified but at present neither support this so the only way to bring up the video card for framebuffer console support is in the kernel. Regards, --- Kendall Bennett Chief Executive Officer SciTech Software, Inc. Phone: (530) 894 8400 http://www.scitechsoft.com ~ SciTech SNAP - The future of device driver technology! ~ - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/