1 =================
2 What is matroxfb?
3 =================
4
5 .. [This file is cloned from VesaFB. Thanks go to Gerd Knorr]
6
7
8 This is a driver for a graphic framebuffer for Matrox devices on
9 Alpha, Intel and PPC boxes.
10
11 Advantages:
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
18 Disadvantages:
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
24 How to use it?
25 ==============
26
27 Switching modes is done using the video=matroxfb:vesa:... boot parameter
28 or using `fbset` program.
29
30 If you want, for example, enable a resolution of 1280x1024x24bpp you should
31 pass to the kernel this command line: "video=matroxfb:vesa:0x1BB".
32
33 You should compile in both vgacon (to boot if you remove you Matrox from
34 box) and matroxfb (for graphics mode). You should not compile-in vesafb
35 unless you have primary display on non-Matrox VBE2.0 device (see
36 Documentation/fb/vesafb.rst for details).
37
38 Currently supported video modes are (through vesa:... interface, PowerMac
39 has [as addon] compatibility code):
40
41
42 Graphic modes
43 -------------
44
45 === ======= ======= ======= ======= =======
46 bpp 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
57 Graphic modes (continued)
58 -------------------------
59
60 === ======== ======== ========= ========= =========
61 bpp 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
72 Text modes
73 ----------
74
75 ==== ======= ======= ======== ======== ========
76 text 640x400 640x480 1056x344 1056x400 1056x480
77 ==== ======= ======= ======== ======== ========
78 8x8 0x1C0 0x108 0x10A 0x10B 0x10C
79 8x16 2, 3, 7 0x109
80 ==== ======= ======= ======== ======== ========
81
82 You can enter these number either hexadecimal (leading `0x`) or decimal
83 (0x100 = 256). You can also use value + 512 to achieve compatibility
84 with your old number passed to vesafb.
85
86 Non-listed number can be achieved by more complicated command-line, for
87 example 1600x1200x32bpp can be specified by `video=matroxfb:vesa:0x11C,depth:32`.
88
89
90 X11
91 ===
92
93 XF{68,86}_FBDev should work just fine, but it is non-accelerated. On non-intel
94 architectures there are some glitches for 24bpp videomodes. 8, 16 and 32bpp
95 works fine.
96
97 Running another (accelerated) X-Server like XF86_SVGA works too. But (at least)
98 XFree servers have big troubles in multihead configurations (even on first
99 head, not even talking about second). Running XFree86 4.x accelerated mga
100 driver is possible, but you must not enable DRI - if you do, resolution and
101 color depth of your X desktop must match resolution and color depths of your
102 virtual consoles, otherwise X will corrupt accelerator settings.
103
104
105 SVGALib
106 =======
107
108 Driver contains SVGALib compatibility code. It is turned on by choosing textual
109 mode for console. You can do it at boot time by using videomode
110 2,3,7,0x108-0x10C or 0x1C0. At runtime, `fbset -depth 0` does this work.
111 Unfortunately, after SVGALib application exits, screen contents is corrupted.
112 Switching to another console and back fixes it. I hope that it is SVGALib's
113 problem and not mine, but I'm not sure.
114
115
116 Configuration
117 =============
118
119 You can pass kernel command line options to matroxfb with
120 `video=matroxfb:option1,option2:value2,option3` (multiple options should be
121 separated by comma, values are separated from options by `:`).
122 Accepted options:
123
124 ============ ===================================================================
125 mem: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).
129 disabled do not load driver; you can use also `off`, but `disabled`
130 is here too.
131 enabled 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.
134 noaccel do not use acceleration engine. It does not work on Alphas.
135 accel use acceleration engine. It is default.
136 nopan create initial consoles with vyres = yres, thus disabling virtual
137 scrolling.
138 pan create initial consoles as tall as possible (vyres = memory/vxres).
139 It is default.
140 nopciretry 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).
144 pciretry enable PCI retries. It is default, except for intel's 82437.
145 novga 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.
148 vga 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).
151 nobios 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.
154 bios preserve state of BIOS ROM. It is default. Driver does not enable
155 BIOS if BIOS was not enabled before.
156 noinit 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.
160 init driver initializes every device it knows about.
161 memtype 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.
186 nomtrr 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).
190 mtrr 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).
193 sgram tells to driver that you have Gxx0 with SGRAM memory. It has no
194 effect without `init`.
195 sdram tells to driver that you have Gxx0 with SDRAM memory.
196 It is a default.
197 inv24 change timings parameters for 24bpp modes on Millennium and
198 Millennium II. Specify this if you see strange color shadows
199 around characters.
200 noinv24 use standard timings. It is the default.
201 inverse invert colors on screen (for LCD displays)
202 noinverse show true colors on screen. It is default.
203 dev: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.
207 nohwcursor disables hardware cursor (use software cursor instead).
208 hwcursor 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).
211 noblink disables cursor blinking. Cursor in text mode always blinks (hw
212 limitation).
213 blink enables cursor blinking. It is default.
214 nofastfont disables fastfont feature. It is default.
215 fastfont: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.
218 grayscale 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.
222 nograyscale disable grayscale summing. It is default.
223 cross4MB enables that pixel line can cross 4MB boundary. It is default for
224 non-Millennium.
225 nocross4MB 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.
230 dfp 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.
234 dfp: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.
242 outputs: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.
250 vesa: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
257 If you are not satisfied with videomode selected by `vesa` option, you
258 can modify it with these options:
259
260 ============ ===================================================================
261 xres:X horizontal resolution, in pixels. Default is derived from `vesa`
262 option.
263 yres:X vertical resolution, in pixel lines. Default is derived from `vesa`
264 option.
265 upper:X top boundary: lines between end of VSYNC pulse and start of first
266 pixel line of picture. Default is derived from `vesa` option.
267 lower:X bottom boundary: lines between end of picture and start of VSYNC
268 pulse. Default is derived from `vesa` option.
269 vslen:X length of VSYNC pulse, in lines. Default is derived from `vesa`
270 option.
271 left:X left boundary: pixels between end of HSYNC pulse and first pixel.
272 Default is derived from `vesa` option.
273 right:X right boundary: pixels between end of picture and start of HSYNC
274 pulse. Default is derived from `vesa` option.
275 hslen:X length of HSYNC pulse, in pixels. Default is derived from `vesa`
276 option.
277 pixclock:X dotclocks, in ps (picoseconds). Default is derived from `vesa`
278 option and from `fh` and `fv` options.
279 sync: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`.
285 depth:X Bits per pixel: 0=text, 4,8,15,16,24 or 32. Default depends on
286 `vesa`.
287 ============ ===================================================================
288
289 If 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
291 pixclock <= maxclk, real_fh <= fh and real_fv <= fv.
292
293 ============ ==================================================================
294 maxclk:X maximum dotclock. X can be specified in MHz, kHz or Hz. Default is
295 `don`t care`.
296 fh:X maximum horizontal synchronization frequency. X can be specified
297 in kHz or Hz. Default is `don't care`.
298 fv: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
304 Limitations
305 ===========
306
307 There are known and unknown bugs, features and misfeatures.
308 Currently 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
322 And 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
350 And 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
362 Benchmarks
363 ==========
364 It is time to redraw whole screen 1000 times in 1024x768, 60Hz. It is
365 time 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
367 16 seconds, i.e. 187 MBps).
368 Times were obtained from one older version of driver, now they are about 3%
369 faster, it is kernel-space only time on P-II/350 MHz, Millennium I in 33 MHz
370 PCI 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
404 Dualhead G400
405 =============
406 Driver 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
425 Dualhead G450
426 =============
427 Driver 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
441 Petr Vandrovec <vandrove@vc.cvut.cz>
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