[532] in linux-announce channel archive
SVGATextMode version 0.8: Will it work?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Lars Wirzenius)
Fri May 5 13:35:49 1995
Date: Fri, 5 May 1995 18:29:05 +0300
From: Lars Wirzenius <wirzeniu@cc.helsinki.fi>
To: linux-activists@niksula.hut.fi, linux-announce@vger.rutgers.edu
X-Mn-Key: announce
From: kmg@barco.be
Subject: SVGATextMode version 0.8: Will it work?
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.announce
Keywords: SVGA VGA console text screen monitor clock XFREE
Organization: ?
Approved: linux-announce@news.ornl.gov (Lars Wirzenius)
Followup-to: comp.os.linux.setup
References:
Hello, licensed Linux Users ! ;-)
You might (or might not) be interested to know that SVGATextMode has again
evolved into a new version.
The main features have remained the same, but some enhancements were made.
And some bugs were replaced by others, to keep it all interesting.
WARNING:
The changes are so extensive that it would be a wise idea NOT to throw
version 0.7 out the door until you find 0.8 works OK. I cannot test all
cards (unless someone donates them ...), so YOU will be the testers! Long
live Internet!
The LSM file:
Begin3
Title: SVGA textmode manipulation/enhancement
Version: 0.8
Entered-date: 2MAY1995
Description: Uses extra features found in all SVGA video cards to enhance
Linux text modes independently of what the BIOS can do. It is
configured with an XF86Config-like file, and allows setting of
pixel clock, H/V timings, font size, cursor size, etc. Now you
can use your video card AND your monitor to the MAX in
textmode, as in XWindows. Current support includes S3, ET4000,
Cirrus Logic, Trident, Western Digital, ATI (and MACH32) and
Video7 (Headland techn.) cards. It can also use an external
clock program. Supports all S3 clock chips from XFREE 3.1.1
Includes: palette changer, clock probe, text/graphics mode
grabber (for Linux and DOS), automatic font loading, monitor
definition (H/V frequency limits),...
Keywords: SVGA VGA console text screen monitor clock XFREE
Author: kmg@barco.be (Koen Gadeyne)
Maintained-by: kmg@barco.be (Koen Gadeyne)
Primary-site: sunsite.unc.edu pub/Linux/utils/console
250k SVGATextMode-0.8.tar.gz
Alternate-site: tsx-11.mit.edu pub/linux/sources/sbin
Original-site:
Platform: Linux PC with one of the supported VGA cards, kernel 1.1.54 or newer.
Also reported to work on Linux/Alpha (see documentation)
Copying-policy: Freely Redistributable
End
Now for the most important changes (from a list of ~30):
(in order of relative importance)
- XFREE 3.1.1 clock chips now included! But if they work ...?
- Fixed a problem with the ATI MACH32 card support. Those cards seem to need
bits 2 and 3 of the clock selection word exchanged. Weird. Now at least it
works for one of them.
- Added two new mechanisms to avoid those silly "out of memory" errors when
switching to high-resolution modes.
- added '-s' option to scan config file for all possible mode lines.
- removed "bug" that limited modes to max 1024 lines per screen. Now up to
2048 lines are possible. This is all a standard VGA chip can do.
- fixed a bug that made some font sizes NOT mentionned in the font
selection table be assigned the wrong font.
- added contrib/loadfont. A better alternative to setfont written by Albert
Cahalan <albert@ccs.neu.edu>
- changed argv[0] processing of set/getVGAreg and set/getpalette so they
select between set/get function correctly (no more need for "./" prefix).
- added a "rescue" program "set80" that programs the VGA 80x25 mode, without
options or configfile. Usefull for when you made a mistake using
SVGATextMode... Does not work on all cards.
- Changed TextConfig file clock selection mechanism (again). Now you only
have to define a clocks line when it is actually NEEDED: for non-clockchip
S3 cards, cards needing a Clockprog, and all other cards except Cirrus.
- fixed bug that called random filename for ResetProg when it was not
defined.
Enjoy! (or suffer... if it doesn't work)
Koen.
--
Send submissions for comp.os.linux.announce to: linux-announce@news.ornl.gov
PLEASE remember Keywords: and a short description of the software.
