projects::vesafb-tng

WARNING: This project is deprecated. Please use uvesafb instead.

vesafb-tng is an extended version of the vesafb Linux driver. It allows the user to (among other things):

• set video modes with refresh rates higher than the standard 60 Hz,
• set modes by specifying their name, like 1024x768-32@85 -- no more need to look up mode numbers in the VESA mode tables!
• set video modes at any time (not only at boot),
• get more info about the VBE BIOS (through /proc and dmesg output),
• compile and use vesafb as a module,
• use the console with vesafb-tng and have X running with nVidia binary drivers.

The patch contains updated documentation for vesafb-tng (Documentation/fb/vesafb.txt) -- please refer to it if you're in doubt about how to use the new driver.

Patches for -mm and other kernels contributed by various people can be found in contrib/. Patches in the contrib section are not officially supported. If they don't work for you, please contact the author of the contributed patch or fix the problem yourself.

Announcements of new versions of the patch are made on the gentoo-kernel mailing list.

NOTE: After patching the kernel, setting modes the old vga= way WILL NOT WORK. You'll have to specify the mode you want to set through the video option, for example: video=vesafb:ypan,1024x768-32@85.

NOTE: The driver name used in the video= kernel command line section is still vesafb, and not vesafb-tng. Thus, video=vesafb-tng:1024x768-32@85 is invalid, video=vesafb:1024x768-32@86 being the proper form.

Please report all bugs and enhancement requests to spock (at) gentoo.org. Before reporting bugs, please read this short HOW-TO.

DISCLAIMER: I've done my best to make this thing work, but there may still be bugs in the code. Please rememeber, that you're using vesafb-tng on your own responsibility. In the highly improbable case that it fries your monitor, blows up your CPU or erases your hdd, please file a bug report :)

vesafb-tng::Installation instructions

To install vesafb-tng, please follow the instructions below.

1. Download the patch.
2. cd /usr/src/linux
3. cat <path_to_where_the_patch_is>/vesafb-tng.patch | patch -p1
4. make menuconfig (enable vesafb, select vesafb-tng as driver type)
5. make
6. Install the new kernel image, install new modules (if necessary) and configure your bootloader.
   Don't forget to add the video option and remove the vga option from the kernel parameters.