Messages in this thread | | | Date | Sat, 23 Jan 1999 09:46:17 +0100 | From | Thomas Pornin <> | Subject | why is vesafb not a module? |
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In article <36A90777.80279E78@quark.vpplus.com> you write: > Because the VESA framebuffer uses the VESA 2.0 BIOS, it can only be > called from real mode. Therefore, it must be done at boot time, before > the kernel enters protected mode. This means that it cannot be compiled > as a module (unless somebody wants to hack vm86 support so that it can > be used _inside_ the kernel).
It could be done with a simple dosemu trick I think. Back to dosemu-0.66.7, I could run Warcraft 2 under dosemu, which initiates a non-standard 640x480x256 video mode. Most vendors have some msdos tsr program on their website, that would run on dosemu+freedos, provided access to the video card ports is granted via the dosemu.conf.
If I find some time, I'll try it. Could be fun.
Moreover, both FreeBSD and Minix386 can access bios functions with vm86. This shows that it can be done under Linux (although a REAL solution should always be preferred).
--Thomas Pornin
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