On Tue, 25 Aug 2026, Greg A. Woods wrote:
But again, genfb(4) shouldn't be switching the screen resolution -- it should simply be discovering what resolution the bootloader changed it to!
It doesn't, and it can't. genfb(4) and vesafb just provide access to a dumb, linear framebuffer. All resolution changes are are done by the BIOS via the bootloader. The kernel, ie. genfb(4), can't do this.
It shouldn't be doing any font switching either.
Well, I prefer the larger fonts myself, but, if you don't want any font change, just compile only a single font into the kernel.
I'm betting this part of the reason, if not the whole reason, that genfb(4) causes a scrambled mess of bits on the screen on my macbook-air when it attaches (thus so far making testing or further development on the macbook impossible).
No, that's due to a bootloader bug (which triggers on Macs--which present a single resolution). I have a fix--file a PR soon after I read the UEFI stds a bit more. -RVP
