diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/fb/framebuffer.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/fb/framebuffer.txt | 345 |
1 files changed, 345 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/fb/framebuffer.txt b/Documentation/fb/framebuffer.txt new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..610e7801207b --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/fb/framebuffer.txt @@ -0,0 +1,345 @@ + The Frame Buffer Device + ----------------------- + +Maintained by Geert Uytterhoeven <geert@linux-m68k.org> +Last revised: May 10, 2001 + + +0. Introduction +--------------- + +The frame buffer device provides an abstraction for the graphics hardware. It +represents the frame buffer of some video hardware and allows application +software to access the graphics hardware through a well-defined interface, so +the software doesn't need to know anything about the low-level (hardware +register) stuff. + +The device is accessed through special device nodes, usually located in the +/dev directory, i.e. /dev/fb*. + + +1. User's View of /dev/fb* +-------------------------- + +From the user's point of view, the frame buffer device looks just like any +other device in /dev. It's a character device using major 29; the minor +specifies the frame buffer number. + +By convention, the following device nodes are used (numbers indicate the device +minor numbers): + + 0 = /dev/fb0 First frame buffer + 1 = /dev/fb1 Second frame buffer + ... + 31 = /dev/fb31 32nd frame buffer + +For backwards compatibility, you may want to create the following symbolic +links: + + /dev/fb0current -> fb0 + /dev/fb1current -> fb1 + +and so on... + +The frame buffer devices are also `normal' memory devices, this means, you can +read and write their contents. You can, for example, make a screen snapshot by + + cp /dev/fb0 myfile + +There also can be more than one frame buffer at a time, e.g. if you have a +graphics card in addition to the built-in hardware. The corresponding frame +buffer devices (/dev/fb0 and /dev/fb1 etc.) work independently. + +Application software that uses the frame buffer device (e.g. the X server) will +use /dev/fb0 by default (older software uses /dev/fb0current). You can specify +an alternative frame buffer device by setting the environment variable +$FRAMEBUFFER to the path name of a frame buffer device, e.g. (for sh/bash +users): + + export FRAMEBUFFER=/dev/fb1 + +or (for csh users): + + setenv FRAMEBUFFER /dev/fb1 + +After this the X server will use the second frame buffer. + + +2. Programmer's View of /dev/fb* +-------------------------------- + +As you already know, a frame buffer device is a memory device like /dev/mem and +it has the same features. You can read it, write it, seek to some location in +it and mmap() it (the main usage). The difference is just that the memory that +appears in the special file is not the whole memory, but the frame buffer of +some video hardware. + +/dev/fb* also allows several ioctls on it, by which lots of information about +the hardware can be queried and set. The color map handling works via ioctls, +too. Look into <linux/fb.h> for more information on what ioctls exist and on +which data structures they work. Here's just a brief overview: + + - You can request unchangeable information about the hardware, like name, + organization of the screen memory (planes, packed pixels, ...) and address + and length of the screen memory. + + - You can request and change variable information about the hardware, like + visible and virtual geometry, depth, color map format, timing, and so on. + If you try to change that information, the driver maybe will round up some + values to meet the hardware's capabilities (or return EINVAL if that isn't + possible). + + - You can get and set parts of the color map. Communication is done with 16 + bits per color part (red, green, blue, transparency) to support all + existing hardware. The driver does all the computations needed to apply + it to the hardware (round it down to less bits, maybe throw away + transparency). + +All this hardware abstraction makes the implementation of application programs +easier and more portable. E.g. the X server works completely on /dev/fb* and +thus doesn't need to know, for example, how the color registers of the concrete +hardware are organized. XF68_FBDev is a general X server for bitmapped, +unaccelerated video hardware. The only thing that has to be built into +application programs is the screen organization (bitplanes or chunky pixels +etc.), because it works on the frame buffer image data directly. + +For the future it is planned that frame buffer drivers for graphics cards and +the like can be implemented as kernel modules that are loaded at runtime. Such +a driver just has to call register_framebuffer() and supply some functions. +Writing and distributing such drivers independently from the kernel will save +much trouble... + + +3. Frame Buffer Resolution Maintenance +-------------------------------------- + +Frame buffer resolutions are maintained using the utility `fbset'. It can +change the video mode properties of a frame buffer device. Its main usage is +to change the current video mode, e.g. during boot up in one of your /etc/rc.* +or /etc/init.d/* files. + +Fbset uses a video mode database stored in a configuration file, so you can +easily add your own modes and refer to them with a simple identifier. + + +4. The X Server +--------------- + +The X server (XF68_FBDev) is the most notable application program for the frame +buffer device. Starting with XFree86 release 3.2, the X server is part of +XFree86 and has 2 modes: + + - If the `Display' subsection for the `fbdev' driver in the /etc/XF86Config + file contains a + + Modes "default" + + line, the X server will use the scheme discussed above, i.e. it will start + up in the resolution determined by /dev/fb0 (or $FRAMEBUFFER, if set). You + still have to specify the color depth (using the Depth keyword) and virtual + resolution (using the Virtual keyword) though. This is the default for the + configuration file supplied with XFree86. It's the most simple + configuration, but it has some limitations. + + - Therefore it's also possible to specify resolutions in the /etc/XF86Config + file. This allows for on-the-fly resolution switching while retaining the + same virtual desktop size. The frame buffer device that's used is still + /dev/fb0current (or $FRAMEBUFFER), but the available resolutions are + defined by /etc/XF86Config now. The disadvantage is that you have to + specify the timings in a different format (but `fbset -x' may help). + +To tune a video mode, you can use fbset or xvidtune. Note that xvidtune doesn't +work 100% with XF68_FBDev: the reported clock values are always incorrect. + + +5. Video Mode Timings +--------------------- + +A monitor draws an image on the screen by using an electron beam (3 electron +beams for color models, 1 electron beam for monochrome monitors). The front of +the screen is covered by a pattern of colored phosphors (pixels). If a phosphor +is hit by an electron, it emits a photon and thus becomes visible. + +The electron beam draws horizontal lines (scanlines) from left to right, and +from the top to the bottom of the screen. By modifying the intensity of the +electron beam, pixels with various colors and intensities can be shown. + +After each scanline the electron beam has to move back to the left side of the +screen and to the next line: this is called the horizontal retrace. After the +whole screen (frame) was painted, the beam moves back to the upper left corner: +this is called the vertical retrace. During both the horizontal and vertical +retrace, the electron beam is turned off (blanked). + +The speed at which the electron beam paints the pixels is determined by the +dotclock in the graphics board. For a dotclock of e.g. 28.37516 MHz (millions +of cycles per second), each pixel is 35242 ps (picoseconds) long: + + 1/(28.37516E6 Hz) = 35.242E-9 s + +If the screen resolution is 640x480, it will take + + 640*35.242E-9 s = 22.555E-6 s + +to paint the 640 (xres) pixels on one scanline. But the horizontal retrace +also takes time (e.g. 272 `pixels'), so a full scanline takes + + (640+272)*35.242E-9 s = 32.141E-6 s + +We'll say that the horizontal scanrate is about 31 kHz: + + 1/(32.141E-6 s) = 31.113E3 Hz + +A full screen counts 480 (yres) lines, but we have to consider the vertical +retrace too (e.g. 49 `lines'). So a full screen will take + + (480+49)*32.141E-6 s = 17.002E-3 s + +The vertical scanrate is about 59 Hz: + + 1/(17.002E-3 s) = 58.815 Hz + +This means the screen data is refreshed about 59 times per second. To have a +stable picture without visible flicker, VESA recommends a vertical scanrate of +at least 72 Hz. But the perceived flicker is very human dependent: some people +can use 50 Hz without any trouble, while I'll notice if it's less than 80 Hz. + +Since the monitor doesn't know when a new scanline starts, the graphics board +will supply a synchronization pulse (horizontal sync or hsync) for each +scanline. Similarly it supplies a synchronization pulse (vertical sync or +vsync) for each new frame. The position of the image on the screen is +influenced by the moments at which the synchronization pulses occur. + +The following picture summarizes all timings. The horizontal retrace time is +the sum of the left margin, the right margin and the hsync length, while the +vertical retrace time is the sum of the upper margin, the lower margin and the +vsync length. + + +----------+---------------------------------------------+----------+-------+ + | | ^ | | | + | | |upper_margin | | | + | | ¥ | | | + +----------###############################################----------+-------+ + | # ^ # | | + | # | # | | + | # | # | | + | # | # | | + | left # | # right | hsync | + | margin # | xres # margin | len | + |<-------->#<---------------+--------------------------->#<-------->|<----->| + | # | # | | + | # | # | | + | # | # | | + | # |yres # | | + | # | # | | + | # | # | | + | # | # | | + | # | # | | + | # | # | | + | # | # | | + | # | # | | + | # | # | | + | # ¥ # | | + +----------###############################################----------+-------+ + | | ^ | | | + | | |lower_margin | | | + | | ¥ | | | + +----------+---------------------------------------------+----------+-------+ + | | ^ | | | + | | |vsync_len | | | + | | ¥ | | | + +----------+---------------------------------------------+----------+-------+ + +The frame buffer device expects all horizontal timings in number of dotclocks +(in picoseconds, 1E-12 s), and vertical timings in number of scanlines. + + +6. Converting XFree86 timing values info frame buffer device timings +-------------------------------------------------------------------- + +An XFree86 mode line consists of the following fields: + "800x600" 50 800 856 976 1040 600 637 643 666 + < name > DCF HR SH1 SH2 HFL VR SV1 SV2 VFL + +The frame buffer device uses the following fields: + + - pixclock: pixel clock in ps (pico seconds) + - left_margin: time from sync to picture + - right_margin: time from picture to sync + - upper_margin: time from sync to picture + - lower_margin: time from picture to sync + - hsync_len: length of horizontal sync + - vsync_len: length of vertical sync + +1) Pixelclock: + xfree: in MHz + fb: in picoseconds (ps) + + pixclock = 1000000 / DCF + +2) horizontal timings: + left_margin = HFL - SH2 + right_margin = SH1 - HR + hsync_len = SH2 - SH1 + +3) vertical timings: + upper_margin = VFL - SV2 + lower_margin = SV1 - VR + vsync_len = SV2 - SV1 + +Good examples for VESA timings can be found in the XFree86 source tree, +under "xc/programs/Xserver/hw/xfree86/doc/modeDB.txt". + + +7. References +------------- + +For more specific information about the frame buffer device and its +applications, please refer to the Linux-fbdev website: + + http://linux-fbdev.sourceforge.net/ + +and to the following documentation: + + - The manual pages for fbset: fbset(8), fb.modes(5) + - The manual pages for XFree86: XF68_FBDev(1), XF86Config(4/5) + - The mighty kernel sources: + o linux/drivers/video/ + o linux/include/linux/fb.h + o linux/include/video/ + + + +8. Mailing list +--------------- + +There are several frame buffer device related mailing lists at SourceForge: + - linux-fbdev-announce@lists.sourceforge.net, for announcements, + - linux-fbdev-user@lists.sourceforge.net, for generic user support, + - linux-fbdev-devel@lists.sourceforge.net, for project developers. + +Point your web browser to http://sourceforge.net/projects/linux-fbdev/ for +subscription information and archive browsing. + + +9. Downloading +-------------- + +All necessary files can be found at + + ftp://ftp.uni-erlangen.de/pub/Linux/LOCAL/680x0/ + +and on its mirrors. + +The latest version of fbset can be found at + + http://home.tvd.be/cr26864/Linux/fbdev/ + + +10. Credits +---------- + +This readme was written by Geert Uytterhoeven, partly based on the original +`X-framebuffer.README' by Roman Hodek and Martin Schaller. Section 6 was +provided by Frank Neumann. + +The frame buffer device abstraction was designed by Martin Schaller. |