Tim Roberts writes:
 > On Fri, 05 Sep 2003 20:04:19 +0200, Alessandro Temil wrote:
 > 
 > >Christian Zietz wrote:
 > >> 
 > >> The problem is: The current i810 driver does not only read the available
 > >> resolutions from the BIOS but also uses the BIOS to set the video mode.
 > >> So if the BIOS doesn't know of 1400x1050, it won't set it.
 > >> I think there are two solutions:
 > >> - Change the BIOS to know of 1400x1050. This should be easy for
 > >> manufacturer of the notebook but considerably harder than my 855patch
 > >> (for the video memory issue) for anyone else.
 > >
 > >I know this but at the moment i'm getting weak support from the 
 > >manufacturer (acer), as they say they give no support to linux
 > >(my try to explain the difference that passes from a linux driver bug 
 > >and a bios bug had little effect, as you can imagine)
 > 
 > This path is hopeless; the engineers at Acer have absolutely no idea how to 
 > program the graphics chipset.
 > 
 > Hoewever, I am absolutely astonished that the graphics BIOS on a 1400x1050 
 > panel does not know how to set a 1400x1050 mode.  That means, for example, 
 > that the kernel console driver could never set a mode that fills the panel.
 > 
 > Does the i810 driver list the modes it got from the BIOS in the server log?  
No, that's exactly the problem: The BIOS doesn't support the native
mode of the panel. I suppose most manufactuerers don't bother to pay
much attention to the BIOS. For them it's more importand to get the
Windows driver working which doesn't make use of the BIOS and get the 
product on the market.

 > 
 > It will be interesting to see if you get a response.  Many manufacturers DO, 
 > in fact, protect their register specifications as confidential intellectual 
 > property.
 > 

According to Intel the i8xx get combined with too many different video
bridges so that adding support for all of these would be close to
impossible. 
The only driver that does this currently is the SiS driver. If you
look at the work Thomas Winischhofer has done you can imagine that
Intel did not want to pay for that.

Even if we cannot get the complete docs we may be able to get enough
documentation to 'tweak' a mode that is closeby.

Egbert.
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