175 lines
6.7 KiB
Plaintext
175 lines
6.7 KiB
Plaintext
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Introduction
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This is a frame buffer device driver for 3dfx' Voodoo Graphics
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(aka voodoo 1, aka sst1) and Voodoo² (aka Voodoo 2, aka CVG) based
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video boards. It's highly experimental code, but is guaranteed to work
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on my computer, with my "Maxi Gamer 3D" and "Maxi Gamer 3d²" boards,
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and with me "between chair and keyboard". Some people tested other
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combinations and it seems that it works.
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The main page is located at <http://sstfb.sourceforge.net>, and if
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you want the latest version, check out the CVS, as the driver is a work
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in progress, I feel uncomfortable with releasing tarballs of something
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not completely working...Don't worry, it's still more than usable
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(I eat my own dog food)
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Please read the Bug section, and report any success or failure to me
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(Ghozlane Toumi <gtoumi@laposte.net>).
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BTW, If you have only one monitor , and you don't feel like playing
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with the vga passthrou cable, I can only suggest borrowing a screen
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somewhere...
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Installation
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This driver (should) work on ix86, with "late" 2.2.x kernel (tested
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with x = 19) and "recent" 2.4.x kernel, as a module or compiled in.
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It has been included in mainstream kernel since the infamous 2.4.10.
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You can apply the patches found in sstfb/kernel/*-2.{2|4}.x.patch,
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and copy sstfb.c to linux/drivers/video/, or apply a single patch,
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sstfb/patch-2.{2|4}.x-sstfb-yymmdd to your linux source tree.
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Then configure your kernel as usual: choose "m" or "y" to 3Dfx Voodoo
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Graphics in section "console". Compile, install, have fun... and please
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drop me a report :)
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Module Usage
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Warnings.
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# You should read completely this section before issuing any command.
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# If you have only one monitor to play with, once you insmod the
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module, the 3dfx takes control of the output, so you'll have to
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plug the monitor to the "normal" video board in order to issue
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the commands, or you can blindly use sst_dbg_vgapass
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in the tools directory (See Tools). The latest solution is pass the
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parameter vgapass=1 when insmodding the driver. (See Kernel/Modules
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Options)
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Module insertion:
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# insmod sstfb.o
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you should see some strange output from the board:
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a big blue square, a green and a red small squares and a vertical
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white rectangle. why? the function's name is self-explanatory:
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"sstfb_test()"...
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(if you don't have a second monitor, you'll have to plug your monitor
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directly to the 2D videocard to see what you're typing)
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# con2fb /dev/fbx /dev/ttyx
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bind a tty to the new frame buffer. if you already have a frame
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buffer driver, the voodoo fb will likely be /dev/fb1. if not,
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the device will be /dev/fb0. You can check this by doing a
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cat /proc/fb. You can find a copy of con2fb in tools/ directory.
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if you don't have another fb device, this step is superfluous,
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as the console subsystem automagicaly binds ttys to the fb.
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# switch to the virtual console you just mapped. "tadaaa" ...
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Module removal:
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# con2fb /dev/fbx /dev/ttyx
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bind the tty to the old frame buffer so the module can be removed.
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(how does it work with vgacon ? short answer : it doesn't work)
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# rmmod sstfb
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Kernel/Modules Options
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You can pass some options to the sstfb module, and via the kernel
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command line when the driver is compiled in:
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for module : insmod sstfb.o option1=value1 option2=value2 ...
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in kernel : video=sstfb:option1,option2:value2,option3 ...
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sstfb supports the following options :
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Module Kernel Description
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vgapass=0 vganopass Enable or disable VGA passthrou cable.
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vgapass=1 vgapass When enabled, the monitor will get the signal
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from the VGA board and not from the voodoo.
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Default: nopass
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mem=x mem:x Force frame buffer memory in MiB
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allowed values: 0, 1, 2, 4.
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Default: 0 (= autodetect)
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inverse=1 inverse Supposed to enable inverse console.
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doesn't work yet...
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clipping=1 clipping Enable or disable clipping.
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clipping=0 noclipping With clipping enabled, all offscreen
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reads and writes are discarded.
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Default: enable clipping.
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gfxclk=x gfxclk:x Force graphic clock frequency (in MHz).
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Be careful with this option, it may be
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DANGEROUS.
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Default: auto
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50Mhz for Voodoo 1,
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75MHz for Voodoo 2.
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slowpci=1 fastpci Enable or disable fast PCI read/writes.
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slowpci=1 slowpci Default : fastpci
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dev=x dev:x Attach the driver to device number x.
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0 is the first compatible board (in
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lspci order)
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Tools
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These tools are mostly for debugging purposes, but you can
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find some of these interesting :
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- con2fb , maps a tty to a fbramebuffer .
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con2fb /dev/fb1 /dev/tty5
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- sst_dbg_vgapass , changes vga passthrou. You have to recompile the
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driver with SST_DEBUG and SST_DEBUG_IOCTL set to 1
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sst_dbg_vgapass /dev/fb1 1 (enables vga cable)
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sst_dbg_vgapass /dev/fb1 0 (disables vga cable)
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- glide_reset , resets the voodoo using glide
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use this after rmmoding sstfb, if the module refuses to
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reinsert .
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Bugs
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- DO NOT use glide while the sstfb module is in, you'll most likely
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hang your computer.
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- If you see some artefacts (pixels not cleaning and stuff like that),
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try turning off clipping (clipping=0), and/or using slowpci
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- the driver don't detect the 4Mb frame buffer voodoos, it seems that
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the 2 last Mbs wrap around. looking into that .
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- The driver is 16 bpp only, 24/32 won't work.
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- The driver is not your_favorite_toy-safe. this includes SMP...
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[Actually from inspection it seems to be safe - Alan]
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- When using XFree86 FBdev (X over fbdev) you may see strange color
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patterns at the border of your windows (the pixels lose the lowest
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byte -> basically the blue component and some of the green). I'm unable
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to reproduce this with XFree86-3.3, but one of the testers has this
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problem with XFree86-4. Apparently recent Xfree86-4.x solve this
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problem.
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- I didn't really test changing the palette, so you may find some weird
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things when playing with that.
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- Sometimes the driver will not recognise the DAC, and the
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initialisation will fail. This is specifically true for
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voodoo 2 boards, but it should be solved in recent versions. Please
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contact me.
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- The 24/32 is not likely to work anytime soon, knowing that the
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hardware does ... unusual things in 24/32 bpp.
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- When used with another video board, current limitations of the linux
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console subsystem can cause some troubles, specifically, you should
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disable software scrollback, as it can oops badly ...
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Todo
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- Get rid of the previous paragraph.
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- Buy more coffee.
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- test/port to other arch.
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- try to add panning using tweeks with front and back buffer .
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- try to implement accel on voodoo2, this board can actually do a
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lot in 2D even if it was sold as a 3D only board ...
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ghoz.
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--
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Ghozlane Toumi <gtoumi@laposte.net>
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$Date: 2002/05/09 20:11:45 $
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http://sstfb.sourceforge.net/README
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