1 2Introduction 3 4 This is a frame buffer device driver for 3dfx' Voodoo Graphics 5 (aka voodoo 1, aka sst1) and Voodoo² (aka Voodoo 2, aka CVG) based 6 video boards. It's highly experimental code, but is guaranteed to work 7 on my computer, with my "Maxi Gamer 3D" and "Maxi Gamer 3d²" boards, 8 and with me "between chair and keyboard". Some people tested other 9 combinations and it seems that it works. 10 The main page is located at <http://sstfb.sourceforge.net>, and if 11 you want the latest version, check out the CVS, as the driver is a work 12 in progress, I feel uncomfortable with releasing tarballs of something 13 not completely working...Don't worry, it's still more than usable 14 (I eat my own dog food) 15 16 Please read the Bug section, and report any success or failure to me 17 (Ghozlane Toumi <gtoumi@laposte.net>). 18 BTW, If you have only one monitor , and you don't feel like playing 19 with the vga passthrou cable, I can only suggest borrowing a screen 20 somewhere... 21 22 23Installation 24 25 This driver (should) work on ix86, with "late" 2.2.x kernel (tested 26 with x = 19) and "recent" 2.4.x kernel, as a module or compiled in. 27 It has been included in mainstream kernel since the infamous 2.4.10. 28 You can apply the patches found in sstfb/kernel/*-2.{2|4}.x.patch, 29 and copy sstfb.c to linux/drivers/video/, or apply a single patch, 30 sstfb/patch-2.{2|4}.x-sstfb-yymmdd to your linux source tree. 31 32 Then configure your kernel as usual: choose "m" or "y" to 3Dfx Voodoo 33 Graphics in section "console". Compile, install, have fun... and please 34 drop me a report :) 35 36 37Module Usage 38 39 Warnings. 40 # You should read completely this section before issuing any command. 41 # If you have only one monitor to play with, once you insmod the 42 module, the 3dfx takes control of the output, so you'll have to 43 plug the monitor to the "normal" video board in order to issue 44 the commands, or you can blindly use sst_dbg_vgapass 45 in the tools directory (See Tools). The latest solution is pass the 46 parameter vgapass=1 when insmodding the driver. (See Kernel/Modules 47 Options) 48 49 Module insertion: 50 # insmod sstfb.o 51 you should see some strange output from the board: 52 a big blue square, a green and a red small squares and a vertical 53 white rectangle. why? the function's name is self-explanatory: 54 "sstfb_test()"... 55 (if you don't have a second monitor, you'll have to plug your monitor 56 directly to the 2D videocard to see what you're typing) 57 # con2fb /dev/fbx /dev/ttyx 58 bind a tty to the new frame buffer. if you already have a frame 59 buffer driver, the voodoo fb will likely be /dev/fb1. if not, 60 the device will be /dev/fb0. You can check this by doing a 61 cat /proc/fb. You can find a copy of con2fb in tools/ directory. 62 if you don't have another fb device, this step is superfluous, 63 as the console subsystem automagicaly binds ttys to the fb. 64 # switch to the virtual console you just mapped. "tadaaa" ... 65 66 Module removal: 67 # con2fb /dev/fbx /dev/ttyx 68 bind the tty to the old frame buffer so the module can be removed. 69 (how does it work with vgacon ? short answer : it doesn't work) 70 # rmmod sstfb 71 72 73Kernel/Modules Options 74 75 You can pass some options to the sstfb module, and via the kernel 76 command line when the driver is compiled in: 77 for module : insmod sstfb.o option1=value1 option2=value2 ... 78 in kernel : video=sstfb:option1,option2:value2,option3 ... 79 80 sstfb supports the following options : 81 82Module Kernel Description 83 84vgapass=0 vganopass Enable or disable VGA passthrou cable. 85vgapass=1 vgapass When enabled, the monitor will get the signal 86 from the VGA board and not from the voodoo. 87 Default: nopass 88 89mem=x mem:x Force frame buffer memory in MiB 90 allowed values: 0, 1, 2, 4. 91 Default: 0 (= autodetect) 92 93inverse=1 inverse Supposed to enable inverse console. 94 doesn't work yet... 95 96clipping=1 clipping Enable or disable clipping. 97clipping=0 noclipping With clipping enabled, all offscreen 98 reads and writes are discarded. 99 Default: enable clipping. 100 101gfxclk=x gfxclk:x Force graphic clock frequency (in MHz). 102 Be careful with this option, it may be 103 DANGEROUS. 104 Default: auto 105 50Mhz for Voodoo 1, 106 75MHz for Voodoo 2. 107 108slowpci=1 fastpci Enable or disable fast PCI read/writes. 109slowpci=1 slowpci Default : fastpci 110 111dev=x dev:x Attach the driver to device number x. 112 0 is the first compatible board (in 113 lspci order) 114 115Tools 116 117 These tools are mostly for debugging purposes, but you can 118 find some of these interesting : 119 - con2fb , maps a tty to a fbramebuffer . 120 con2fb /dev/fb1 /dev/tty5 121 - sst_dbg_vgapass , changes vga passthrou. You have to recompile the 122 driver with SST_DEBUG and SST_DEBUG_IOCTL set to 1 123 sst_dbg_vgapass /dev/fb1 1 (enables vga cable) 124 sst_dbg_vgapass /dev/fb1 0 (disables vga cable) 125 - glide_reset , resets the voodoo using glide 126 use this after rmmoding sstfb, if the module refuses to 127 reinsert . 128 129Bugs 130 131 - DO NOT use glide while the sstfb module is in, you'll most likely 132 hang your computer. 133 - If you see some artefacts (pixels not cleaning and stuff like that), 134 try turning off clipping (clipping=0), and/or using slowpci 135 - the driver don't detect the 4Mb frame buffer voodoos, it seems that 136 the 2 last Mbs wrap around. looking into that . 137 - The driver is 16 bpp only, 24/32 won't work. 138 - The driver is not your_favorite_toy-safe. this includes SMP... 139 [Actually from inspection it seems to be safe - Alan] 140 - When using XFree86 FBdev (X over fbdev) you may see strange color 141 patterns at the border of your windows (the pixels lose the lowest 142 byte -> basically the blue component and some of the green). I'm unable 143 to reproduce this with XFree86-3.3, but one of the testers has this 144 problem with XFree86-4. Apparently recent Xfree86-4.x solve this 145 problem. 146 - I didn't really test changing the palette, so you may find some weird 147 things when playing with that. 148 - Sometimes the driver will not recognise the DAC, and the 149 initialisation will fail. This is specifically true for 150 voodoo 2 boards, but it should be solved in recent versions. Please 151 contact me. 152 - The 24/32 is not likely to work anytime soon, knowing that the 153 hardware does ... unusual things in 24/32 bpp. 154 - When used with another video board, current limitations of the linux 155 console subsystem can cause some troubles, specifically, you should 156 disable software scrollback, as it can oops badly ... 157 158Todo 159 160 - Get rid of the previous paragraph. 161 - Buy more coffee. 162 - test/port to other arch. 163 - try to add panning using tweeks with front and back buffer . 164 - try to implement accel on voodoo2, this board can actually do a 165 lot in 2D even if it was sold as a 3D only board ... 166 167ghoz. 168 169-- 170Ghozlane Toumi <gtoumi@laposte.net> 171 172 173$Date: 2002/05/09 20:11:45 $ 174http://sstfb.sourceforge.net/README 175