matroxfb.rst (20058B)
1================= 2What is matroxfb? 3================= 4 5.. [This file is cloned from VesaFB. Thanks go to Gerd Knorr] 6 7 8This is a driver for a graphic framebuffer for Matrox devices on 9Alpha, Intel and PPC boxes. 10 11Advantages: 12 13 * It provides a nice large console (128 cols + 48 lines with 1024x768) 14 without using tiny, unreadable fonts. 15 * You can run XF{68,86}_FBDev or XFree86 fbdev driver on top of /dev/fb0 16 * Most important: boot logo :-) 17 18Disadvantages: 19 20 * graphic mode is slower than text mode... but you should not notice 21 if you use same resolution as you used in textmode. 22 23 24How to use it? 25============== 26 27Switching modes is done using the video=matroxfb:vesa:... boot parameter 28or using `fbset` program. 29 30If you want, for example, enable a resolution of 1280x1024x24bpp you should 31pass to the kernel this command line: "video=matroxfb:vesa:0x1BB". 32 33You should compile in both vgacon (to boot if you remove you Matrox from 34box) and matroxfb (for graphics mode). You should not compile-in vesafb 35unless you have primary display on non-Matrox VBE2.0 device (see 36Documentation/fb/vesafb.rst for details). 37 38Currently supported video modes are (through vesa:... interface, PowerMac 39has [as addon] compatibility code): 40 41 42Graphic modes 43------------- 44 45=== ======= ======= ======= ======= ======= 46bpp 640x400 640x480 768x576 800x600 960x720 47=== ======= ======= ======= ======= ======= 48 4 0x12 0x102 49 8 0x100 0x101 0x180 0x103 0x188 50 15 0x110 0x181 0x113 0x189 51 16 0x111 0x182 0x114 0x18A 52 24 0x1B2 0x184 0x1B5 0x18C 53 32 0x112 0x183 0x115 0x18B 54=== ======= ======= ======= ======= ======= 55 56 57Graphic modes (continued) 58------------------------- 59 60=== ======== ======== ========= ========= ========= 61bpp 1024x768 1152x864 1280x1024 1408x1056 1600x1200 62=== ======== ======== ========= ========= ========= 63 4 0x104 0x106 64 8 0x105 0x190 0x107 0x198 0x11C 65 15 0x116 0x191 0x119 0x199 0x11D 66 16 0x117 0x192 0x11A 0x19A 0x11E 67 24 0x1B8 0x194 0x1BB 0x19C 0x1BF 68 32 0x118 0x193 0x11B 0x19B 69=== ======== ======== ========= ========= ========= 70 71 72Text modes 73---------- 74 75==== ======= ======= ======== ======== ======== 76text 640x400 640x480 1056x344 1056x400 1056x480 77==== ======= ======= ======== ======== ======== 78 8x8 0x1C0 0x108 0x10A 0x10B 0x10C 798x16 2, 3, 7 0x109 80==== ======= ======= ======== ======== ======== 81 82You can enter these number either hexadecimal (leading `0x`) or decimal 83(0x100 = 256). You can also use value + 512 to achieve compatibility 84with your old number passed to vesafb. 85 86Non-listed number can be achieved by more complicated command-line, for 87example 1600x1200x32bpp can be specified by `video=matroxfb:vesa:0x11C,depth:32`. 88 89 90X11 91=== 92 93XF{68,86}_FBDev should work just fine, but it is non-accelerated. On non-intel 94architectures there are some glitches for 24bpp videomodes. 8, 16 and 32bpp 95works fine. 96 97Running another (accelerated) X-Server like XF86_SVGA works too. But (at least) 98XFree servers have big troubles in multihead configurations (even on first 99head, not even talking about second). Running XFree86 4.x accelerated mga 100driver is possible, but you must not enable DRI - if you do, resolution and 101color depth of your X desktop must match resolution and color depths of your 102virtual consoles, otherwise X will corrupt accelerator settings. 103 104 105SVGALib 106======= 107 108Driver contains SVGALib compatibility code. It is turned on by choosing textual 109mode for console. You can do it at boot time by using videomode 1102,3,7,0x108-0x10C or 0x1C0. At runtime, `fbset -depth 0` does this work. 111Unfortunately, after SVGALib application exits, screen contents is corrupted. 112Switching to another console and back fixes it. I hope that it is SVGALib's 113problem and not mine, but I'm not sure. 114 115 116Configuration 117============= 118 119You can pass kernel command line options to matroxfb with 120`video=matroxfb:option1,option2:value2,option3` (multiple options should be 121separated by comma, values are separated from options by `:`). 122Accepted options: 123 124============ =================================================================== 125mem:X size of memory (X can be in megabytes, kilobytes or bytes) 126 You can only decrease value determined by driver because of 127 it always probe for memory. Default is to use whole detected 128 memory usable for on-screen display (i.e. max. 8 MB). 129disabled do not load driver; you can use also `off`, but `disabled` 130 is here too. 131enabled load driver, if you have `video=matroxfb:disabled` in LILO 132 configuration, you can override it by this (you cannot override 133 `off`). It is default. 134noaccel do not use acceleration engine. It does not work on Alphas. 135accel use acceleration engine. It is default. 136nopan create initial consoles with vyres = yres, thus disabling virtual 137 scrolling. 138pan create initial consoles as tall as possible (vyres = memory/vxres). 139 It is default. 140nopciretry disable PCI retries. It is needed for some broken chipsets, 141 it is autodetected for intel's 82437. In this case device does 142 not comply to PCI 2.1 specs (it will not guarantee that every 143 transaction terminate with success or retry in 32 PCLK). 144pciretry enable PCI retries. It is default, except for intel's 82437. 145novga disables VGA I/O ports. It is default if BIOS did not enable 146 device. You should not use this option, some boards then do not 147 restart without power off. 148vga preserve state of VGA I/O ports. It is default. Driver does not 149 enable VGA I/O if BIOS did not it (it is not safe to enable it in 150 most cases). 151nobios disables BIOS ROM. It is default if BIOS did not enable BIOS 152 itself. You should not use this option, some boards then do not 153 restart without power off. 154bios preserve state of BIOS ROM. It is default. Driver does not enable 155 BIOS if BIOS was not enabled before. 156noinit tells driver, that devices were already initialized. You should use 157 it if you have G100 and/or if driver cannot detect memory, you see 158 strange pattern on screen and so on. Devices not enabled by BIOS 159 are still initialized. It is default. 160init driver initializes every device it knows about. 161memtype specifies memory type, implies 'init'. This is valid only for G200 162 and G400 and has following meaning: 163 164 G200: 165 - 0 -> 2x128Kx32 chips, 2MB onboard, probably sgram 166 - 1 -> 2x128Kx32 chips, 4MB onboard, probably sgram 167 - 2 -> 2x256Kx32 chips, 4MB onboard, probably sgram 168 - 3 -> 2x256Kx32 chips, 8MB onboard, probably sgram 169 - 4 -> 2x512Kx16 chips, 8/16MB onboard, probably sdram only 170 - 5 -> same as above 171 - 6 -> 4x128Kx32 chips, 4MB onboard, probably sgram 172 - 7 -> 4x128Kx32 chips, 8MB onboard, probably sgram 173 G400: 174 - 0 -> 2x512Kx16 SDRAM, 16/32MB 175 - 2x512Kx32 SGRAM, 16/32MB 176 - 1 -> 2x256Kx32 SGRAM, 8/16MB 177 - 2 -> 4x128Kx32 SGRAM, 8/16MB 178 - 3 -> 4x512Kx32 SDRAM, 32MB 179 - 4 -> 4x256Kx32 SGRAM, 16/32MB 180 - 5 -> 2x1Mx32 SDRAM, 32MB 181 - 6 -> reserved 182 - 7 -> reserved 183 184 You should use sdram or sgram parameter in addition to memtype 185 parameter. 186nomtrr disables write combining on frame buffer. This slows down driver 187 but there is reported minor incompatibility between GUS DMA and 188 XFree under high loads if write combining is enabled (sound 189 dropouts). 190mtrr enables write combining on frame buffer. It speeds up video 191 accesses much. It is default. You must have MTRR support enabled 192 in kernel and your CPU must have MTRR (f.e. Pentium II have them). 193sgram tells to driver that you have Gxx0 with SGRAM memory. It has no 194 effect without `init`. 195sdram tells to driver that you have Gxx0 with SDRAM memory. 196 It is a default. 197inv24 change timings parameters for 24bpp modes on Millennium and 198 Millennium II. Specify this if you see strange color shadows 199 around characters. 200noinv24 use standard timings. It is the default. 201inverse invert colors on screen (for LCD displays) 202noinverse show true colors on screen. It is default. 203dev:X bind driver to device X. Driver numbers device from 0 up to N, 204 where device 0 is first `known` device found, 1 second and so on. 205 lspci lists devices in this order. 206 Default is `every` known device. 207nohwcursor disables hardware cursor (use software cursor instead). 208hwcursor enables hardware cursor. It is default. If you are using 209 non-accelerated mode (`noaccel` or `fbset -accel false`), software 210 cursor is used (except for text mode). 211noblink disables cursor blinking. Cursor in text mode always blinks (hw 212 limitation). 213blink enables cursor blinking. It is default. 214nofastfont disables fastfont feature. It is default. 215fastfont:X enables fastfont feature. X specifies size of memory reserved for 216 font data, it must be >= (fontwidth*fontheight*chars_in_font)/8. 217 It is faster on Gx00 series, but slower on older cards. 218grayscale enable grayscale summing. It works in PSEUDOCOLOR modes (text, 219 4bpp, 8bpp). In DIRECTCOLOR modes it is limited to characters 220 displayed through putc/putcs. Direct accesses to framebuffer 221 can paint colors. 222nograyscale disable grayscale summing. It is default. 223cross4MB enables that pixel line can cross 4MB boundary. It is default for 224 non-Millennium. 225nocross4MB pixel line must not cross 4MB boundary. It is default for 226 Millennium I or II, because of these devices have hardware 227 limitations which do not allow this. But this option is 228 incompatible with some (if not all yet released) versions of 229 XF86_FBDev. 230dfp enables digital flat panel interface. This option is incompatible 231 with secondary (TV) output - if DFP is active, TV output must be 232 inactive and vice versa. DFP always uses same timing as primary 233 (monitor) output. 234dfp:X use settings X for digital flat panel interface. X is number from 235 0 to 0xFF, and meaning of each individual bit is described in 236 G400 manual, in description of DAC register 0x1F. For normal 237 operation you should set all bits to zero, except lowest bit. This 238 lowest bit selects who is source of display clocks, whether G400, 239 or panel. Default value is now read back from hardware - so you 240 should specify this value only if you are also using `init` 241 parameter. 242outputs:XYZ set mapping between CRTC and outputs. Each letter can have value 243 of 0 (for no CRTC), 1 (CRTC1) or 2 (CRTC2), and first letter 244 corresponds to primary analog output, second letter to the 245 secondary analog output and third letter to the DVI output. 246 Default setting is 100 for cards below G400 or G400 without DFP, 247 101 for G400 with DFP, and 111 for G450 and G550. You can set 248 mapping only on first card, use matroxset for setting up other 249 devices. 250vesa:X selects startup videomode. X is number from 0 to 0x1FF, see table 251 above for detailed explanation. Default is 640x480x8bpp if driver 252 has 8bpp support. Otherwise first available of 640x350x4bpp, 253 640x480x15bpp, 640x480x24bpp, 640x480x32bpp or 80x25 text 254 (80x25 text is always available). 255============ =================================================================== 256 257If you are not satisfied with videomode selected by `vesa` option, you 258can modify it with these options: 259 260============ =================================================================== 261xres:X horizontal resolution, in pixels. Default is derived from `vesa` 262 option. 263yres:X vertical resolution, in pixel lines. Default is derived from `vesa` 264 option. 265upper:X top boundary: lines between end of VSYNC pulse and start of first 266 pixel line of picture. Default is derived from `vesa` option. 267lower:X bottom boundary: lines between end of picture and start of VSYNC 268 pulse. Default is derived from `vesa` option. 269vslen:X length of VSYNC pulse, in lines. Default is derived from `vesa` 270 option. 271left:X left boundary: pixels between end of HSYNC pulse and first pixel. 272 Default is derived from `vesa` option. 273right:X right boundary: pixels between end of picture and start of HSYNC 274 pulse. Default is derived from `vesa` option. 275hslen:X length of HSYNC pulse, in pixels. Default is derived from `vesa` 276 option. 277pixclock:X dotclocks, in ps (picoseconds). Default is derived from `vesa` 278 option and from `fh` and `fv` options. 279sync:X sync. pulse - bit 0 inverts HSYNC polarity, bit 1 VSYNC polarity. 280 If bit 3 (value 0x08) is set, composite sync instead of HSYNC is 281 generated. If bit 5 (value 0x20) is set, sync on green is turned 282 on. Do not forget that if you want sync on green, you also probably 283 want composite sync. 284 Default depends on `vesa`. 285depth:X Bits per pixel: 0=text, 4,8,15,16,24 or 32. Default depends on 286 `vesa`. 287============ =================================================================== 288 289If you know capabilities of your monitor, you can specify some (or all) of 290`maxclk`, `fh` and `fv`. In this case, `pixclock` is computed so that 291pixclock <= maxclk, real_fh <= fh and real_fv <= fv. 292 293============ ================================================================== 294maxclk:X maximum dotclock. X can be specified in MHz, kHz or Hz. Default is 295 `don`t care`. 296fh:X maximum horizontal synchronization frequency. X can be specified 297 in kHz or Hz. Default is `don't care`. 298fv:X maximum vertical frequency. X must be specified in Hz. Default is 299 70 for modes derived from `vesa` with yres <= 400, 60Hz for 300 yres > 400. 301============ ================================================================== 302 303 304Limitations 305=========== 306 307There are known and unknown bugs, features and misfeatures. 308Currently there are following known bugs: 309 310 - SVGALib does not restore screen on exit 311 - generic fbcon-cfbX procedures do not work on Alphas. Due to this, 312 `noaccel` (and cfb4 accel) driver does not work on Alpha. So everyone 313 with access to `/dev/fb*` on Alpha can hang machine (you should restrict 314 access to `/dev/fb*` - everyone with access to this device can destroy 315 your monitor, believe me...). 316 - 24bpp does not support correctly XF-FBDev on big-endian architectures. 317 - interlaced text mode is not supported; it looks like hardware limitation, 318 but I'm not sure. 319 - Gxx0 SGRAM/SDRAM is not autodetected. 320 - maybe more... 321 322And following misfeatures: 323 324 - SVGALib does not restore screen on exit. 325 - pixclock for text modes is limited by hardware to 326 327 - 83 MHz on G200 328 - 66 MHz on Millennium I 329 - 60 MHz on Millennium II 330 331 Because I have no access to other devices, I do not know specific 332 frequencies for them. So driver does not check this and allows you to 333 set frequency higher that this. It causes sparks, black holes and other 334 pretty effects on screen. Device was not destroyed during tests. :-) 335 - my Millennium G200 oscillator has frequency range from 35 MHz to 380 MHz 336 (and it works with 8bpp on about 320 MHz dotclocks (and changed mclk)). 337 But Matrox says on product sheet that VCO limit is 50-250 MHz, so I believe 338 them (maybe that chip overheats, but it has a very big cooler (G100 has 339 none), so it should work). 340 - special mixed video/graphics videomodes of Mystique and Gx00 - 2G8V16 and 341 G16V16 are not supported 342 - color keying is not supported 343 - feature connector of Mystique and Gx00 is set to VGA mode (it is disabled 344 by BIOS) 345 - DDC (monitor detection) is supported through dualhead driver 346 - some check for input values are not so strict how it should be (you can 347 specify vslen=4000 and so on). 348 - maybe more... 349 350And following features: 351 352 - 4bpp is available only on Millennium I and Millennium II. It is hardware 353 limitation. 354 - selection between 1:5:5:5 and 5:6:5 16bpp videomode is done by -rgba 355 option of fbset: "fbset -depth 16 -rgba 5,5,5" selects 1:5:5:5, anything 356 else selects 5:6:5 mode. 357 - text mode uses 6 bit VGA palette instead of 8 bit (one of 262144 colors 358 instead of one of 16M colors). It is due to hardware limitation of 359 Millennium I/II and SVGALib compatibility. 360 361 362Benchmarks 363========== 364It is time to redraw whole screen 1000 times in 1024x768, 60Hz. It is 365time for draw 6144000 characters on screen through /dev/vcsa 366(for 32bpp it is about 3GB of data (exactly 3000 MB); for 8x16 font in 36716 seconds, i.e. 187 MBps). 368Times were obtained from one older version of driver, now they are about 3% 369faster, it is kernel-space only time on P-II/350 MHz, Millennium I in 33 MHz 370PCI slot, G200 in AGP 2x slot. I did not test vgacon:: 371 372 NOACCEL 373 8x16 12x22 374 Millennium I G200 Millennium I G200 375 8bpp 16.42 9.54 12.33 9.13 376 16bpp 21.00 15.70 19.11 15.02 377 24bpp 36.66 36.66 35.00 35.00 378 32bpp 35.00 30.00 33.85 28.66 379 380 ACCEL, nofastfont 381 8x16 12x22 6x11 382 Millennium I G200 Millennium I G200 Millennium I G200 383 8bpp 7.79 7.24 13.55 7.78 30.00 21.01 384 16bpp 9.13 7.78 16.16 7.78 30.00 21.01 385 24bpp 14.17 10.72 18.69 10.24 34.99 21.01 386 32bpp 16.15 16.16 18.73 13.09 34.99 21.01 387 388 ACCEL, fastfont 389 8x16 12x22 6x11 390 Millennium I G200 Millennium I G200 Millennium I G200 391 8bpp 8.41 6.01 6.54 4.37 16.00 10.51 392 16bpp 9.54 9.12 8.76 6.17 17.52 14.01 393 24bpp 15.00 12.36 11.67 10.00 22.01 18.32 394 32bpp 16.18 18.29* 12.71 12.74 24.44 21.00 395 396 TEXT 397 8x16 398 Millennium I G200 399 TEXT 3.29 1.50 400 401 * Yes, it is slower than Millennium I. 402 403 404Dualhead G400 405============= 406Driver supports dualhead G400 with some limitations: 407 + secondary head shares videomemory with primary head. It is not problem 408 if you have 32MB of videoram, but if you have only 16MB, you may have 409 to think twice before choosing videomode (for example twice 1880x1440x32bpp 410 is not possible). 411 + due to hardware limitation, secondary head can use only 16 and 32bpp 412 videomodes. 413 + secondary head is not accelerated. There were bad problems with accelerated 414 XFree when secondary head used to use acceleration. 415 + secondary head always powerups in 640x480@60-32 videomode. You have to use 416 fbset to change this mode. 417 + secondary head always powerups in monitor mode. You have to use fbmatroxset 418 to change it to TV mode. Also, you must select at least 525 lines for 419 NTSC output and 625 lines for PAL output. 420 + kernel is not fully multihead ready. So some things are impossible to do. 421 + if you compiled it as module, you must insert i2c-matroxfb, matroxfb_maven 422 and matroxfb_crtc2 into kernel. 423 424 425Dualhead G450 426============= 427Driver supports dualhead G450 with some limitations: 428 + secondary head shares videomemory with primary head. It is not problem 429 if you have 32MB of videoram, but if you have only 16MB, you may have 430 to think twice before choosing videomode. 431 + due to hardware limitation, secondary head can use only 16 and 32bpp 432 videomodes. 433 + secondary head is not accelerated. 434 + secondary head always powerups in 640x480@60-32 videomode. You have to use 435 fbset to change this mode. 436 + TV output is not supported 437 + kernel is not fully multihead ready, so some things are impossible to do. 438 + if you compiled it as module, you must insert matroxfb_g450 and matroxfb_crtc2 439 into kernel. 440 441Petr Vandrovec <vandrove@vc.cvut.cz>