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From: veit@mururoa.gmd.de (Holger Veit)
Subject: Re: syscons-0.2, codrv - bugs? (Or is it me?)
Message-ID: <1993Apr14.065814.20144@gmd.de>
Sender: veit@mururoa (Holger Veit)
Nntp-Posting-Host: mururoa.gmd.de
Organization: GMD, Sankt Augustin, Germany
References: <9310408.16741@mulga.cs.mu.OZ.AU>
Date: Wed, 14 Apr 1993 06:58:14 GMT
Lines: 75
In article <9310408.16741@mulga.cs.mu.OZ.AU>, summer@ee.mu.OZ.AU (Mark Summerfield) writes:
|> Over Easter I tried to install both codrv (0.1.1) and syscons-0.2 and
|> have experienced problems with each of them. I'd like to get one or
|> other of them working (preferably both/either for the peace of mind of
|> knowing that I've solved the problems!)
|>
|> codrv - Installed OK, works fine, but thinks I'm using a CGA graphics
|> card. Actually I'm running on a notebook with a 32 greyscale
|> VGA compatible LCD display.
Known problem. You run keycap-0.1.1, not the (still ALPHA) codrv-0.1.2.
The effect happens because 0.1.1 looks for a BIOS signature at 0xC0000, but
your notebook (same as mine) has a VGA BIOS at 0xE0000. This is fixed in 0.1.2.
(Although I am not the author of syscons, several of the below problems were
encountered by me as well, so the hints might help "sos").
|> syscons - Installs and "works" (i.e. I can log in and do things, so it's
|> not a total disaster) but:
|> * Characters with descenders are not displayed properly - the
|> bottom lines of the descenders get repeated below the
|> characters.
It is not so easy to make font switching work correctly :-) LCD displays are
sometimes not exactly VGA compatible, in particular in mapping scan lines.
This is usually caught by the special VGA BIOS, but requires special checking
in an OS without BIOS support.
|> * Numlock, capslock and scrolllock hang the keyboard (and kill
|> the turbo LED).
Partly known effect. A race condition between the LED switching code and an
incoming kbd interrupt (may lose interrupt when key is released while
8042 is still waiting for LED to turn on/off). Interesting however: the
Turbo-LED is normally not switched by the keyboard controller, but I have
to verify this on my lap whether there is some difference there.
|> * Switching between virtual consoles and back, or running the
|> 80x25 or 80x50 utilities causes the display to start double-
|> spacing (i.e. a blank line is displayed between each line,
|> and scrolling does not work properly). This also kills the
|> turbo LED -- which stays that way until a hard reset!
This looks as if the author relied on a particular register value of the VGA
which is not set this way by default in a LCD display controller. There are
reasons :-) why the hires text modes in the BIOS replace the complete set
of register values and not only the obvious CRTC-9.
|> syscons at least recognises that I have a "color" VGA display!
Well, the code for that is simple (extract from syscons.c-0.2):
if (crtc_addr == MONO_BASE)
printf("VGA mono");
else
printf("VGA color");
I suspect it cannot even fail in detecting a VGA card.
|> Mark.
|> --------------------------------------------------------
|> Mark Summerfield, Photonics Research Laboratory
|> Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Melbourne
|> ACSnet[AARN/Internet]: summer@ee.mu.oz[.au]
|> --------------------------------------------------------
|> The thing about death is that getting there is half the fun!
Greetings
Holger
--
Dr. Holger Veit | INTERNET: Holger.Veit@gmd.de
| | / GMD-SET German National Research | Phone: (+49) 2241 14 2448
|__| / Center for Computer Science | Fax: (+49) 2241 14 2342
| | / P.O. Box 13 16 | Three lines Signature space
| |/ Schloss Birlinghoven | available for rent. Nearly
DW-5205 St. Augustin, Germany | unused, good conditions