On 3/15/06, Mark Adams <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > i've been out for the last year or two, life's tribulations i had to attend 
> > to.
> > now back, and i'm asking all of you, what's up with viafb, what's new?
>
> You don't say exactly which versions you've been trying.

the machine is powered down at the moment and i am at work, but when i
get home, i'll list the full setup.  here's an overview:

 - linux-2.4.25 + bootsplash + viafb (don't remember these versions,
i built this kernel over a year ago, and everything works great except
for tv-out)
 - linux-2.6.12.3-epia + bootsplash-2.6.15 + patcher2k-viafb_03

> I would suggest that you use the latest DirectFB from CVS and the
> 'linux-viafb' framebuffer, also from DirectFB CVS.

these are for 2.4, correct?  i will try this, as i haven't updated my
2.4 kernel configuration in almost two years. (ref:
http://www.directfb.org/mailinglists/directfb-users/2004/05-2004/msg00004.html)

i figured in the two year span i've been away, the 2.6 support would
have matured.

> On the CLE266, this supports a range of video modes and most have
> corresponding configurations for the TV encoder that should give you a
> nice TV picture, whether PAL or NTSC.

ah, this i may have been missing.  i left the TVencoder option set to
0, because i had no idea what it was.  i don't remember seeing it
before.  additionally, every time i've set TVon=1 and TVtype=1 (with
TVencoder=0), the 2.6 kernel panics in the viafb driver.

> In addition, there's a 720x576 PAL mode that has no scaling or
> filtering which gives an optimal output on a 625/PAL/50 TV.  There is
> no corresponding NTSC mode because no-one has done the work to write
> one.  Feel free.

i've experimented with several modes using modeline2fb and some
extreme googling, but i haven't had any luck.  i do not know what the
timing fields correspond to; they might as well be random numbers.

> This version of viafb certainly does support arguments passed when the
> module is loaded (you'll need to make 'fbcon' a module and refrain
> from loading it though if you ever want to remove the viafb module
> during testing).

i'm not using a loadable module.  in both my 2.4 and 2.6 kernel, the
viafb code is compiled into the kernel.  i need viafb in the kernel
for bootsplash.  not that it matters, because bootsplash-2.6.15 isn't
working for me.  i had to backport it to the 2.6.12.3-epia kernel,
which was relatively straightforward.  that's another issue entirely i
need to tackle.  i've seen a few ramblings from the gentoo camp
regarding their bootsplash replacements gensplash and fbsplash.  the
consensus in that group is that bootsplash is no longer maintained
(despite the 2.6.15 patch released ~2 months ago) and that
fbsplash/gensplash are far superior.  once i get tv-out working, i
will revisit the bootsplash issue.

note: viafb in 2.4 happily respects my arguments; viafb in 2.6 doesn't
even acknowledge them.  unfortunately, i am not (yet) a kernel hacker,
but the myriad of viafb patches out there does give one an incentive
to dive in, consolidate, and improve.

> This route does have some limitations: some of the newer chips are not
> wonderfully supported but if you really do have the CLE266 as you
> suggest, and you have the VT1622 or VT1622A TV encoder, you should be
> able to make things work.

great.  yes, i have the epia m10000 nehemiah board, which has the via
apollo cle266 northbridge and the vt1622 encoder.

thanks for the information mark.  you're a gold mine and my peons are
taking the goods to the town hall.

-mike

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