sstfb.rst (7001B)
1===== 2sstfb 3===== 4 5Introduction 6============ 7 8This is a frame buffer device driver for 3dfx' Voodoo Graphics 9(aka voodoo 1, aka sst1) and Voodoo² (aka Voodoo 2, aka CVG) based 10video boards. It's highly experimental code, but is guaranteed to work 11on my computer, with my "Maxi Gamer 3D" and "Maxi Gamer 3d²" boards, 12and with me "between chair and keyboard". Some people tested other 13combinations and it seems that it works. 14The main page is located at <http://sstfb.sourceforge.net>, and if 15you want the latest version, check out the CVS, as the driver is a work 16in progress, I feel uncomfortable with releasing tarballs of something 17not completely working...Don't worry, it's still more than usable 18(I eat my own dog food) 19 20Please read the Bug section, and report any success or failure to me 21(Ghozlane Toumi <gtoumi@laposte.net>). 22BTW, If you have only one monitor , and you don't feel like playing 23with the vga passthrou cable, I can only suggest borrowing a screen 24somewhere... 25 26 27Installation 28============ 29 30This driver (should) work on ix86, with "late" 2.2.x kernel (tested 31with x = 19) and "recent" 2.4.x kernel, as a module or compiled in. 32It has been included in mainstream kernel since the infamous 2.4.10. 33You can apply the patches found in `sstfb/kernel/*-2.{2|4}.x.patch`, 34and copy sstfb.c to linux/drivers/video/, or apply a single patch, 35`sstfb/patch-2.{2|4}.x-sstfb-yymmdd` to your linux source tree. 36 37Then configure your kernel as usual: choose "m" or "y" to 3Dfx Voodoo 38Graphics in section "console". Compile, install, have fun... and please 39drop me a report :) 40 41 42Module Usage 43============ 44 45.. warning:: 46 47 #. You should read completely this section before issuing any command. 48 49 #. If you have only one monitor to play with, once you insmod the 50 module, the 3dfx takes control of the output, so you'll have to 51 plug the monitor to the "normal" video board in order to issue 52 the commands, or you can blindly use sst_dbg_vgapass 53 in the tools directory (See Tools). The latest solution is pass the 54 parameter vgapass=1 when insmodding the driver. (See Kernel/Modules 55 Options) 56 57Module insertion 58---------------- 59 60 #. insmod sstfb.o 61 62 you should see some strange output from the board: 63 a big blue square, a green and a red small squares and a vertical 64 white rectangle. why? the function's name is self-explanatory: 65 "sstfb_test()"... 66 (if you don't have a second monitor, you'll have to plug your monitor 67 directly to the 2D videocard to see what you're typing) 68 69 #. con2fb /dev/fbx /dev/ttyx 70 71 bind a tty to the new frame buffer. if you already have a frame 72 buffer driver, the voodoo fb will likely be /dev/fb1. if not, 73 the device will be /dev/fb0. You can check this by doing a 74 cat /proc/fb. You can find a copy of con2fb in tools/ directory. 75 if you don't have another fb device, this step is superfluous, 76 as the console subsystem automagicaly binds ttys to the fb. 77 #. switch to the virtual console you just mapped. "tadaaa" ... 78 79Module removal 80-------------- 81 82 #. con2fb /dev/fbx /dev/ttyx 83 84 bind the tty to the old frame buffer so the module can be removed. 85 (how does it work with vgacon ? short answer : it doesn't work) 86 87 #. rmmod sstfb 88 89 90Kernel/Modules Options 91---------------------- 92 93You can pass some options to the sstfb module, and via the kernel 94command line when the driver is compiled in: 95for module : insmod sstfb.o option1=value1 option2=value2 ... 96in kernel : video=sstfb:option1,option2:value2,option3 ... 97 98sstfb supports the following options: 99 100=============== =============== =============================================== 101Module Kernel Description 102=============== =============== =============================================== 103vgapass=0 vganopass Enable or disable VGA passthrou cable. 104vgapass=1 vgapass When enabled, the monitor will get the signal 105 from the VGA board and not from the voodoo. 106 107 Default: nopass 108 109mem=x mem:x Force frame buffer memory in MiB 110 allowed values: 0, 1, 2, 4. 111 112 Default: 0 (= autodetect) 113 114inverse=1 inverse Supposed to enable inverse console. 115 doesn't work yet... 116 117clipping=1 clipping Enable or disable clipping. 118clipping=0 noclipping With clipping enabled, all offscreen 119 reads and writes are discarded. 120 121 Default: enable clipping. 122 123gfxclk=x gfxclk:x Force graphic clock frequency (in MHz). 124 Be careful with this option, it may be 125 DANGEROUS. 126 127 Default: auto 128 129 - 50Mhz for Voodoo 1, 130 - 75MHz for Voodoo 2. 131 132slowpci=1 fastpci Enable or disable fast PCI read/writes. 133slowpci=1 slowpci Default : fastpci 134 135dev=x dev:x Attach the driver to device number x. 136 0 is the first compatible board (in 137 lspci order) 138=============== =============== =============================================== 139 140Tools 141===== 142 143These tools are mostly for debugging purposes, but you can 144find some of these interesting: 145 146- `con2fb`, maps a tty to a fbramebuffer:: 147 148 con2fb /dev/fb1 /dev/tty5 149 150- `sst_dbg_vgapass`, changes vga passthrou. You have to recompile the 151 driver with SST_DEBUG and SST_DEBUG_IOCTL set to 1:: 152 153 sst_dbg_vgapass /dev/fb1 1 (enables vga cable) 154 sst_dbg_vgapass /dev/fb1 0 (disables vga cable) 155 156- `glide_reset`, resets the voodoo using glide 157 use this after rmmoding sstfb, if the module refuses to 158 reinsert. 159 160Bugs 161==== 162 163- DO NOT use glide while the sstfb module is in, you'll most likely 164 hang your computer. 165- If you see some artefacts (pixels not cleaning and stuff like that), 166 try turning off clipping (clipping=0), and/or using slowpci 167- the driver don't detect the 4Mb frame buffer voodoos, it seems that 168 the 2 last Mbs wrap around. looking into that . 169- The driver is 16 bpp only, 24/32 won't work. 170- The driver is not your_favorite_toy-safe. this includes SMP... 171 172 [Actually from inspection it seems to be safe - Alan] 173 174- When using XFree86 FBdev (X over fbdev) you may see strange color 175 patterns at the border of your windows (the pixels lose the lowest 176 byte -> basically the blue component and some of the green). I'm unable 177 to reproduce this with XFree86-3.3, but one of the testers has this 178 problem with XFree86-4. Apparently recent Xfree86-4.x solve this 179 problem. 180- I didn't really test changing the palette, so you may find some weird 181 things when playing with that. 182- Sometimes the driver will not recognise the DAC, and the 183 initialisation will fail. This is specifically true for 184 voodoo 2 boards, but it should be solved in recent versions. Please 185 contact me. 186- The 24/32 is not likely to work anytime soon, knowing that the 187 hardware does ... unusual things in 24/32 bpp. 188 189Todo 190==== 191 192- Get rid of the previous paragraph. 193- Buy more coffee. 194- test/port to other arch. 195- try to add panning using tweeks with front and back buffer . 196- try to implement accel on voodoo2, this board can actually do a 197 lot in 2D even if it was sold as a 3D only board ... 198 199Ghozlane Toumi <gtoumi@laposte.net> 200 201 202Date: 2002/05/09 20:11:45 203 204http://sstfb.sourceforge.net/README