[openbeos] Re: intel_extreme driver (9xx support, continued)

"Mathew Schofield" <mr.skoe@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I have recently stumbled upon the idea that both the X.Org Driver, 
> and
> Syllable, use the vesa BIOS to set the Video mode.
> 
> Just in case i havn't pointed it out thus far, the symptoms are: The
> Screen resolution is limited to just 640x480, and anything bigger 
> then
> this creates two black lines. These black lines cut off anything 
> after
> the 640x480 resolution -- i.e. the higher the resolution, the bigger
> the black lines.
> 
> Anyway, i have been looking at the Haiku respitory, and i can't see
> any graphics drivers (Erm, accelerants) that set the Video Mode
> through the Vesa BIOS...Have i overlooked something simple?

No, there is no driver that does this, and there are even two reasons 
for this:
a) the (pre VBE3) VESA BIOS needs a real mode (ie. vm86) environment to 
work which neither BeOS nor Haiku deliver
b) it's generally a bad idea to use the BIOS if you can program the 
chip itself. For example, this causes numerous problems in Linux with 
the Intel driver, as there are only a number of VESA modes available, 
and those might not fit your needs (or those of your wide screen 
monitor).

Intel stated to be working on programming the video mode directly for 
the X.org driver, and we should probably just wait to see what they 
deliver. In any way, it should already be available as a beta in a 
branch of the official repository; I just didn't find the time yet to 
look at it.

Bye,
   Axel.

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