| Intel 810/815 Framebuffer driver |
| Tony Daplas <adaplas@pol.net> |
| http://i810fb.sourceforge.net |
| |
| March 17, 2002 |
| |
| First Released: July 2001 |
| Last Update: September 12, 2005 |
| ================================================================ |
| |
| A. Introduction |
| |
| This is a framebuffer driver for various Intel 810/815 compatible |
| graphics devices. These include: |
| |
| Intel 810 |
| Intel 810E |
| Intel 810-DC100 |
| Intel 815 Internal graphics only, 100Mhz FSB |
| Intel 815 Internal graphics only |
| Intel 815 Internal graphics and AGP |
| |
| B. Features |
| |
| - Choice of using Discrete Video Timings, VESA Generalized Timing |
| Formula, or a framebuffer specific database to set the video mode |
| |
| - Supports a variable range of horizontal and vertical resolution and |
| vertical refresh rates if the VESA Generalized Timing Formula is |
| enabled. |
| |
| - Supports color depths of 8, 16, 24 and 32 bits per pixel |
| |
| - Supports pseudocolor, directcolor, or truecolor visuals |
| |
| - Full and optimized hardware acceleration at 8, 16 and 24 bpp |
| |
| - Robust video state save and restore |
| |
| - MTRR support |
| |
| - Utilizes user-entered monitor specifications to automatically |
| calculate required video mode parameters. |
| |
| - Can concurrently run with xfree86 running with native i810 drivers |
| |
| - Hardware Cursor Support |
| |
| - Supports EDID probing either by DDC/I2C or through the BIOS |
| |
| C. List of available options |
| |
| a. "video=i810fb" |
| enables the i810 driver |
| |
| Recommendation: required |
| |
| b. "xres:<value>" |
| select horizontal resolution in pixels. (This parameter will be |
| ignored if 'mode_option' is specified. See 'o' below). |
| |
| Recommendation: user preference |
| (default = 640) |
| |
| c. "yres:<value>" |
| select vertical resolution in scanlines. If Discrete Video Timings |
| is enabled, this will be ignored and computed as 3*xres/4. (This |
| parameter will be ignored if 'mode_option' is specified. See 'o' |
| below) |
| |
| Recommendation: user preference |
| (default = 480) |
| |
| d. "vyres:<value>" |
| select virtual vertical resolution in scanlines. If (0) or none |
| is specified, this will be computed against maximum available memory. |
| |
| Recommendation: do not set |
| (default = 480) |
| |
| e. "vram:<value>" |
| select amount of system RAM in MB to allocate for the video memory |
| |
| Recommendation: 1 - 4 MB. |
| (default = 4) |
| |
| f. "bpp:<value>" |
| select desired pixel depth |
| |
| Recommendation: 8 |
| (default = 8) |
| |
| g. "hsync1/hsync2:<value>" |
| select the minimum and maximum Horizontal Sync Frequency of the |
| monitor in kHz. If using a fixed frequency monitor, hsync1 must |
| be equal to hsync2. If EDID probing is successful, these will be |
| ignored and values will be taken from the EDID block. |
| |
| Recommendation: check monitor manual for correct values |
| (default = 29/30) |
| |
| h. "vsync1/vsync2:<value>" |
| select the minimum and maximum Vertical Sync Frequency of the monitor |
| in Hz. You can also use this option to lock your monitor's refresh |
| rate. If EDID probing is successful, these will be ignored and values |
| will be taken from the EDID block. |
| |
| Recommendation: check monitor manual for correct values |
| (default = 60/60) |
| |
| IMPORTANT: If you need to clamp your timings, try to give some |
| leeway for computational errors (over/underflows). Example: if |
| using vsync1/vsync2 = 60/60, make sure hsync1/hsync2 has at least |
| a 1 unit difference, and vice versa. |
| |
| i. "voffset:<value>" |
| select at what offset in MB of the logical memory to allocate the |
| framebuffer memory. The intent is to avoid the memory blocks |
| used by standard graphics applications (XFree86). The default |
| offset (16 MB for a 64 MB aperture, 8 MB for a 32 MB aperture) will |
| avoid XFree86's usage and allows up to 7 MB/15 MB of framebuffer |
| memory. Depending on your usage, adjust the value up or down |
| (0 for maximum usage, 31/63 MB for the least amount). Note, an |
| arbitrary setting may conflict with XFree86. |
| |
| Recommendation: do not set |
| (default = 8 or 16 MB) |
| |
| j. "accel" |
| enable text acceleration. This can be enabled/reenabled anytime |
| by using 'fbset -accel true/false'. |
| |
| Recommendation: enable |
| (default = not set) |
| |
| k. "mtrr" |
| enable MTRR. This allows data transfers to the framebuffer memory |
| to occur in bursts which can significantly increase performance. |
| Not very helpful with the i810/i815 because of 'shared memory'. |
| |
| Recommendation: do not set |
| (default = not set) |
| |
| l. "extvga" |
| if specified, secondary/external VGA output will always be enabled. |
| Useful if the BIOS turns off the VGA port when no monitor is attached. |
| The external VGA monitor can then be attached without rebooting. |
| |
| Recommendation: do not set |
| (default = not set) |
| |
| m. "sync" |
| Forces the hardware engine to do a "sync" or wait for the hardware |
| to finish before starting another instruction. This will produce a |
| more stable setup, but will be slower. |
| |
| Recommendation: do not set |
| (default = not set) |
| |
| n. "dcolor" |
| Use directcolor visual instead of truecolor for pixel depths greater |
| than 8 bpp. Useful for color tuning, such as gamma control. |
| |
| Recommendation: do not set |
| (default = not set) |
| |
| o. <xres>x<yres>[-<bpp>][@<refresh>] |
| The driver will now accept specification of boot mode option. If this |
| is specified, the options 'xres' and 'yres' will be ignored. See |
| Documentation/fb/modedb.txt for usage. |
| |
| D. Kernel booting |
| |
| Separate each option/option-pair by commas (,) and the option from its value |
| with a colon (:) as in the following: |
| |
| video=i810fb:option1,option2:value2 |
| |
| Sample Usage |
| ------------ |
| |
| In /etc/lilo.conf, add the line: |
| |
| append="video=i810fb:vram:2,xres:1024,yres:768,bpp:8,hsync1:30,hsync2:55, \ |
| vsync1:50,vsync2:85,accel,mtrr" |
| |
| This will initialize the framebuffer to 1024x768 at 8bpp. The framebuffer |
| will use 2 MB of System RAM. MTRR support will be enabled. The refresh rate |
| will be computed based on the hsync1/hsync2 and vsync1/vsync2 values. |
| |
| IMPORTANT: |
| You must include hsync1, hsync2, vsync1 and vsync2 to enable video modes |
| better than 640x480 at 60Hz. HOWEVER, if your chipset/display combination |
| supports I2C and has an EDID block, you can safely exclude hsync1, hsync2, |
| vsync1 and vsync2 parameters. These parameters will be taken from the EDID |
| block. |
| |
| E. Module options |
| |
| The module parameters are essentially similar to the kernel |
| parameters. The main difference is that you need to include a Boolean value |
| (1 for TRUE, and 0 for FALSE) for those options which don't need a value. |
| |
| Example, to enable MTRR, include "mtrr=1". |
| |
| Sample Usage |
| ------------ |
| |
| Using the same setup as described above, load the module like this: |
| |
| modprobe i810fb vram=2 xres=1024 bpp=8 hsync1=30 hsync2=55 vsync1=50 \ |
| vsync2=85 accel=1 mtrr=1 |
| |
| Or just add the following to a configuration file in /etc/modprobe.d/ |
| |
| options i810fb vram=2 xres=1024 bpp=16 hsync1=30 hsync2=55 vsync1=50 \ |
| vsync2=85 accel=1 mtrr=1 |
| |
| and just do a |
| |
| modprobe i810fb |
| |
| |
| F. Setup |
| |
| a. Do your usual method of configuring the kernel. |
| |
| make menuconfig/xconfig/config |
| |
| b. Under "Code maturity level options" enable "Prompt for development |
| and/or incomplete code/drivers". |
| |
| c. Enable agpgart support for the Intel 810/815 on-board graphics. |
| This is required. The option is under "Character Devices". |
| |
| d. Under "Graphics Support", select "Intel 810/815" either statically |
| or as a module. Choose "use VESA Generalized Timing Formula" if |
| you need to maximize the capability of your display. To be on the |
| safe side, you can leave this unselected. |
| |
| e. If you want support for DDC/I2C probing (Plug and Play Displays), |
| set 'Enable DDC Support' to 'y'. To make this option appear, set |
| 'use VESA Generalized Timing Formula' to 'y'. |
| |
| f. If you want a framebuffer console, enable it under "Console |
| Drivers". |
| |
| g. Compile your kernel. |
| |
| h. Load the driver as described in sections D and E. |
| |
| i. Try the DirectFB (http://www.directfb.org) + the i810 gfxdriver |
| patch to see the chipset in action (or inaction :-). |
| |
| G. Acknowledgment: |
| |
| 1. Geert Uytterhoeven - his excellent howto and the virtual |
| framebuffer driver code made this possible. |
| |
| 2. Jeff Hartmann for his agpgart code. |
| |
| 3. The X developers. Insights were provided just by reading the |
| XFree86 source code. |
| |
| 4. Intel(c). For this value-oriented chipset driver and for |
| providing documentation. |
| |
| 5. Matt Sottek. His inputs and ideas helped in making some |
| optimizations possible. |
| |
| H. Home Page: |
| |
| A more complete, and probably updated information is provided at |
| http://i810fb.sourceforge.net. |
| |
| ########################### |
| Tony |
| |
