VGADB(6) VGADB(6)
NAME
vgadb - VGA controller and monitor database
DESCRIPTION
The VGA database, /lib/vgadb, consists of two parts, the
first describing how to identify and program a VGA con-
troller and the second describing the timing parameters for
known monitors to be loaded into a VGA controller to give a
particular resolution and refresh rate. Conventionally, at
system boot, the program aux/vga (see vga(8)) uses the moni-
tor type in /env/monitor, the display resolution in
/env/vgasize, and the VGA controller information in the
database to find a matching monitor entry and initialize the
VGA controller accordingly.
The file comprises multi-line entries made up of
attribute/value pairs of the form attr=value or sometimes
just attr. Each line starting without white space starts a
new entry. Lines starting with # are comments.
The first part of the database, the VGA controller identifi-
cation and programming information, consists of a number of
entries with attribute ctlr and no value. Within one of
these entries the following attributes are meaningful:
nnnnn an offset into the VGA BIOS area. The value is a
string expected to be found there that will iden-
tify the controller. For example, 0xC0068="#9GXE64
Pro" would identify a #9GXEpro VGA controller if
the string #9GXE64 Pro was found in the BIOS at
address 0xC0068. There may be more than one iden-
tifier attribute per controller. If a match cannot
be found, the first few bytes of the BIOS are
printed to help identify the card and create a con-
troller entry.
nnnnn-mmmmm
A range of the VGA BIOS area. The value is a
string as above, but the entire range is searched
for that string. The string must begin at or after
nnnnn and not contain any characters at or after
mmmmm. For example, 0xC0000-0xC0200="MACH64LP"
identifies a Mach 64 controller with the string
MACH64LP occurring anywhere in the first 512 bytes
of BIOS memory.
ctlr VGA controller chip type. This must match one of
the VGA controller types known to /dev/vgactl (see
vga(3)) and internally to aux/vga. Currently,
ark2000pv, clgd542x, ct65540, ct65545, cyber938x,
et4000, hiqvideo, ibm8514, mach32, mach64,
mach64xx, mga2164w, neomagic, s3801, s3805, s3928,
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VGADB(6) VGADB(6)
t2r4, trio64, virge, vision864, vision964,
vision968, and w30c516 are recognized.
ramdac RAMDAC controller type. This must match one of the
types known internally to aux/vga. Currently
att20c490, att20c491, att20c492, att21c498, bt485,
rgb524mn, sc15025, stg1702, tvp3020, tvp3025, and
tvp3026 are recognized.
clock clock generator type. This must match one of the
types known internally to aux/vga. Currently
ch9294, icd2061a, ics2494, ics2494a, s3clock,
tvp3025clock, and tvp3026clock are recognized.
hwgc hardware graphics cursor type. This must match one
of the types known to /dev/vgactl and internally to
aux/vga. Currently ark200pvhwgc, bt485hwgc,
clgd542xhwgc, clgd546xhwgc, ct65545hwgc,
cyber938xhwgc, hiqvideohwgc, mach64xxhwgc,
mga2164whwgc, neomagichwgc, rgb524hwgc, s3hwgc,
t2r4hwgc, tvp3020hwgc, and tvp3026hwgc are recog-
nized.
membw Memory bandwidth in megabytes per second. Vga
chooses the highest refresh rate possible within
the constraints of the monitor (explained below)
and the card's memory bandwidth.
linear Whether the card supports a large (>64kb) linear
memory window. The value is either 1 or 0 (equiva-
lent to unspecified). The current kernel graphics
subsystem requires a linear window; entries without
linear=1 are of historic value only.
link This must match one of the types known internally
to aux/vga. Currently vga and ibm8514 are recog-
nized. The type vga handles generic VGA functions
and should almost always be included. The type
Ibm8514 handles basic graphics accelerator initial-
ization on controllers such as the early S3 family
of GUI chips.
The clock, ctlr, link, and ramdac values can all take an
extension following a '-' that can be used as a speed-grade
or subtype; matching is done without the extension. For
example, ramdac=stg1702-135 indicates the STG1702 RAMDAC has
a maximum clock frequency of 135MHz, and clock=ics2494a-324
indicates that the frequency table numbered 324 should be
used for the ICS2494A clock generator.
The functions internal to aux/vga corresponding to the
clock, ctlr, link, and ramdac values will be called in the
order given for initialization. Sometimes the clock should
be set before the RAMDAC is initialized, for example,
depending on the components used. In general, link=vga will
always be first and, if appropriate, link=ibm8514 will be
last.
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The entries in the second part of /lib/vgadb have as
attribute the name of a monitor type and the value is con-
ventionally a resolution in the form XxY, where X and Y are
numbers representing width and height in pixels. The moni-
tor type (i.e. entry) include has special properties,
described below and shown in the examples. The remainder of
the entry contains timing information for the desired reso-
lution. Within one of these entries the following
attributes are meaningful:
clock the video dot-clock frequency in MHz required for
this resolution. The value 25.175 is known
internally to vga(8) as the baseline VGA clock
rate. defaultclock the default video dot-clock
frequency in MHz used for this resolution when no
memory bandwidth is specified for the card or
when vga cannot determine the maximum clock fre-
quency of the card.
shb start horizontal blanking, in character clocks.
ehb end horizontal blanking, in character clocks.
ht horizontal total, in character clocks.
vrs vertical refresh start, in character clocks.
vre vertical refresh end, in character clocks.
vt vertical total, in character clocks.
hsync horizontal sync polarity. Value must be + or -.
vsync vertical sync polarity. Value must be + or -.
interlace interlaced mode. Only value v is recognized.
alias continue, replacing the alias line by the con-
tents of the entry whose attribute is given as
value.
include continue, replacing this include line by the con-
tents of the previously defined include monitor
type with matching value. (See the examples.)
Any non-zero attributes already set will not be
overwritten. This is used to save duplication of
timing information. Note that value is not
parsed, it is only used as a string to identify
the previous include=value monitor type entry.
The values given for shb, ehb, ht, vrs, vre, vt, hsync, and
vsync are beyond the scope of this manual page. See the
book by Ferraro for details.
EXAMPLES
Basic ctlr entry for a laptop with a Chips and Technology
65550 controller:
ctlr # NEC Versa 6030X/6200MX
0xC0090="CHIPS 65550 PCI & VL Accelerated VGA BIOS"
link=vga
ctlr=hiqvideo linear=1
hwgc=hiqvideohwgc
A more complex entry. Note the extensions on the clock,
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ctlr, and ramdac attributes. The order here is important:
the RAMDAC clock input must be initialized before the RAMDAC
itself. The clock frequency is selected by the ET4000 chip.
ctlr # Hercules Dynamite Power
0xC0076="Tseng Laboratories, Inc. 03/04/94 V8.00N"
link=vga
clock=ics2494a-324
ctlr=et4000-w32p
ramdac=stg1702-135
Monitor entry for type vga (the default monitor type used by
vga(8)) and resolution 640x480x[18].
include = 640x480@60Hz # 60Hz, 31.5KHz
clock=25.175
shb=664 ehb=760 ht=800
vrs=491 vre=493 vt=525
vga = 640x480 # 60Hz, 31.5KHz
include=640x480@60Hz
Entries for multisync monitors with video bandwidth up to
65MHz.
#
# Multisync monitors with video bandwidth up to 65MHz.
#
multisync65 = 1024x768 # 60Hz, 48.4KHz
include=1024x768@60Hz
multisync65 = 1024x768i # 87Hz, 35.5KHz (interlaced)
include=1024x768i@87Hz
multisync65
alias=vga
Note how this builds on the existing vga entries.
FILES
/lib/vgadb
SEE ALSO
ndb(2), vga(3), ndb(6), 9load(8), vga(8)
Richard E. Ferraro, Programming Guide to the EGA, VGA and
Super VGA Cards, Third Edition
BUGS
The database should provide a way to use the PCI bus as well
as BIOS memory to identify cards.
ADDING A NEW MONITOR
Adding a new monitor is usually fairly straightforward, as
most modern monitors are multisync and the only interesting
parameter is the maximum video bandwidth. Once the timing
parameters are worked out for a particular maximum video
bandwidth as in the example above, an entry for a new moni-
tor with that limit is simply
#
# Sony CPD-1304
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# Horizontal timing:
# Allowable frequency range: 28-50KHz
# Vertical timing:
# Allowable frequency range: 50-87Hz
#
cpd-1304
alias=multisync65
Even this is not necessary, as the monitor type could simply
be given as multisync65.
ADDING A NEW VGA CONTROLLER
While the use of this database formalizes the steps needed
to program a VGA controller, unless you are lucky and all
the important components on a new VGA controller card are
interconnected in the same way as an existing entry, adding
a new entry requires adding new internal types to vga(8).
Fortunately, the unit of variety has, for the most part,
shifted from individual components to entire video chipsets.
Thus in lucky cases all that is necessary is the addition of
another 0xNNNNN= line to the entry for the controller. This
is particularly true in the case of the ATI Mach 64 and the
S3 Virge.
If you need to actually add support for a controller with a
different chipset, you will need the data sheets for the VGA
controller as well as any RAMDAC or clock generator (these
are commonly integrated into the controller). You will also
need to know how these components interact. For example, a
common combination is an S3 86C928 VGA chip with an ICD2061A
clock generator. The ICD2061A is usually loaded by clocking
a serial bit-stream out of one of the 86C928 registers.
Similarly, the RAMDAC may have an internal clock-doubler
and/or pixel-multiplexing modes, in which case both the
clock generator and VGA chip must be programmed accordingly.
Hardware acceleration for rectangle fills and block copies
is provided in the kernel; writing code to handle this is
necessary to achieve reasonable performance at high pixel
depths.
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