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VGADB(6)							      VGADB(6)

NAME
       vgadb - VGA controller and monitor database

DESCRIPTION
       The VGA database, /lib/vgadb, consists of two parts, the first describ‐
       ing how to identify  and	 program  a  VGA  controller  and  the	second
       describing the timing parameters for known monitors to be loaded into a
       VGA controller to give a particular resolution and refresh rate.	  Con‐
       ventionally,  at system boot, the program aux/vga (see vga(8)) uses the
       monitor type in /env/monitor, the display resolution  in	 /env/vgasize,
       and  the	 VGA controller information in the database to find a matching
       monitor entry and initialize the VGA controller accordingly.

       The file comprises multi-line entries made up of attribute/value	 pairs
       of  the	form  attr=value  or  sometimes just attr.  Each line starting
       without white space starts a new entry.	Lines starting with # are com‐
       ments.

       The  first  part of the database, the VGA controller identification and
       programming information, consists of a number of entries with attribute
       ctlr  and  no  value.   Within  one  of	these  entries	the  following
       attributes are meaningful:

       nnnnn  an offset into the  VGA  BIOS  area.   The  value	 is  a	string
	      expected	to  be	found there that will identify the controller.
	      For example, 0xC0068="#9GXE64 Pro" would identify a #9GXEpro VGA
	      controller  if  the  string #9GXE64 Pro was found in the BIOS at
	      address  0xC0068.	  There	 may  be  more	than  one   identifier
	      attribute per controller.	 If a match cannot be found, the first
	      few bytes of the BIOS are printed to help identify the card  and
	      create a controller entry.

       nnnnn-mmmmm
	      A	 range	of the VGA BIOS area.  The value is a string as above,
	      but the entire range is searched for that	 string.   The	string
	      must  begin  at or after nnnnn and not contain any characters at
	      or after mmmmm.  For example, 0xC0000-0xC0200="MACH64LP" identi‐
	      fies  a  Mach  64	 controller with the string MACH64LP occurring
	      anywhere in the first 512 bytes of BIOS memory.

       ctlr   VGA controller chip type.	 This must match one of the  VGA  con‐
	      troller  types  known to /dev/vgactl (see vga(3)) and internally
	      to aux/vga.  Currently, ark2000pv, clgd542x,  ct65540,  ct65545,
	      cyber938x,  et4000, hiqvideo, ibm8514, mach32, mach64, mach64xx,
	      mga2164w, neomagic, s3801, s3805, s3928,	t2r4,  trio64,	virge,
	      vision864, vision964, vision968, and w30c516 are recognized.

       ramdac RAMDAC  controller type.	This must match one of the types known
	      internally  to   aux/vga.	   Currently   att20c490,   att20c491,
	      att20c492,   att21c498,	bt485,	 rgb524mn,  sc15025,  stg1702,
	      tvp3020, tvp3025, and tvp3026 are recognized.

       clock  clock generator type.  This must match one of  the  types	 known
	      internally  to  aux/vga.	 Currently  ch9294, icd2061a, ics2494,
	      ics2494a, s3clock, tvp3025clock,	and  tvp3026clock  are	recog‐
	      nized.

       hwgc   hardware graphics cursor type.  This must match one of the types
	      known to	/dev/vgactl  and  internally  to  aux/vga.   Currently
	      ark200pvhwgc,	bt485hwgc,     clgd542xhwgc,	 clgd546xhwgc,
	      ct65545hwgc,    cyber938xhwgc,	hiqvideohwgc,	 mach64xxhwgc,
	      mga2164whwgc,   neomagichwgc,   rgb524hwgc,   s3hwgc,  t2r4hwgc,
	      tvp3020hwgc, and tvp3026hwgc are recognized.

       membw  Memory bandwidth in megabytes per second.	 Vga chooses the high‐
	      est  refresh rate possible within the constraints of the monitor
	      (explained below) and the card's memory bandwidth.

       linear Whether the card supports a large (>64kb) linear memory  window.
	      The  value  is  either  1 or 0 (equivalent to unspecified).  The
	      current kernel graphics  subsystem  requires  a  linear  window;
	      entries without linear=1 are of historic value only.

       link   This  must  match	 one of the types known internally to aux/vga.
	      Currently vga and ibm8514 are recognized.	 The type vga  handles
	      generic VGA functions and should almost always be included.  The
	      type Ibm8514 handles basic graphics  accelerator	initialization
	      on controllers such as the early S3 family of GUI chips.

       The clock, ctlr, link, and ramdac values can all take an extension fol‐
       lowing a '-' that can be used as a speed-grade or subtype; matching  is
       done  without the extension.  For example, ramdac=stg1702-135 indicates
       the STG1702 RAMDAC  has	a  maximum  clock  frequency  of  135MHz,  and
       clock=ics2494a-324  indicates  that  the	 frequency  table numbered 324
       should be used for the ICS2494A clock generator.

       The functions internal to aux/vga corresponding	to  the	 clock,	 ctlr,
       link,  and ramdac values will be called in the order given for initial‐
       ization.	 Sometimes the clock should be set before the RAMDAC  is  ini‐
       tialized,  for  example, depending on the components used.  In general,
       link=vga will always be first and, if appropriate, link=ibm8514 will be
       last.

       The entries in the second part of /lib/vgadb have as attribute the name
       of a monitor type and the value is conventionally a resolution  in  the
       form  XxY,  where  X and Y are numbers representing width and height in
       pixels.	The monitor type (i.e. entry) include has special  properties,
       described  below and shown in the examples.  The remainder of the entry
       contains timing information for the desired resolution.	Within one  of
       these entries the following attributes are meaningful:

       clock  the  video  dot-clock frequency in MHz required for this resolu‐
	      tion.  The value 25.175 is known internally  to  vga(8)  as  the
	      baseline	VGA  clock  rate.  defaultclock the default video dot-
	      clock frequency in MHz used for this resolution when  no	memory
	      bandwidth is specified for the card or when vga cannot determine
	      the maximum clock frequency of the card.

       shb    start horizontal blanking, in character clocks.

       ehb    end horizontal blanking, in character clocks.

       ht     horizontal total, in character clocks.

       vrs    vertical refresh start, in character clocks.

       vre    vertical refresh end, in character clocks.

       vt     vertical total, in character clocks.

       hsync  horizontal sync polarity.	 Value must be + or -.

       vsync  vertical sync polarity.  Value must be + or -.

       interlace
	      interlaced mode.	Only value v is recognized.

       alias  continue, replacing the alias line by the contents of the	 entry
	      whose attribute is given as value.

       include
	      continue,	 replacing  this  include  line by the contents of the
	      previously defined include monitor  type	with  matching	value.
	      (See  the	 examples.)   Any non-zero attributes already set will
	      not be overwritten.  This is used to save duplication of	timing
	      information.   Note that value is not parsed, it is only used as
	      a string to identify the	previous  include=value	 monitor  type
	      entry.

       The  values  given for shb, ehb, ht, vrs, vre, vt, hsync, and vsync are
       beyond the scope of this manual page.  See  the	book  by  Ferraro  for
       details.

EXAMPLES
       Basic  ctlr  entry  for a laptop with a Chips and Technology 65550 con‐
       troller:
       ctlr			   # NEC Versa 6030X/6200MX
	   0xC0090="CHIPS 65550 PCI & VL Accelerated VGA BIOS"
	   link=vga
	   ctlr=hiqvideo linear=1
	   hwgc=hiqvideohwgc
       A more complex entry. Note the extensions on the clock, ctlr, and  ram‐
       dac  attributes.	 The  order  here is important: the RAMDAC clock input
       must be initialized before the RAMDAC itself. The  clock	 frequency  is
       selected by the ET4000 chip.
       ctlr			     # Hercules Dynamite Power
	   0xC0076="Tseng Laboratories, Inc. 03/04/94 V8.00N"
	   link=vga
	   clock=ics2494a-324
	   ctlr=et4000-w32p
	   ramdac=stg1702-135
       Monitor	entry  for  type vga (the default monitor type used by vga(8))
       and resolution 640x480x[18].
       include = 640x480@60Hz		       # 60Hz, 31.5KHz
	   clock=25.175
	   shb=664 ehb=760 ht=800
	   vrs=491 vre=493 vt=525

       vga = 640x480			  # 60Hz, 31.5KHz
	   include=640x480@60Hz
       Entries for multisync monitors with video bandwidth up to 65MHz.
       #
       # Multisync monitors with video bandwidth up to 65MHz.
       #
       multisync65 = 1024x768	     # 60Hz, 48.4KHz
	   include=1024x768@60Hz
       multisync65 = 1024x768i	     # 87Hz, 35.5KHz (interlaced)
	   include=1024x768i@87Hz
       multisync65
	   alias=vga
       Note how this builds on the existing vga entries.

FILES
       /lib/vgadb

SEE ALSO
       ndb(2), vga(3), ndb(6), 9boot(8), vga(8)
       Richard E. Ferraro, Programming Guide to the EGA,  VGA  and  Super  VGA
       Cards, Third Edition

BUGS
       The  database  should  provide a way to use the PCI bus as well as BIOS
       memory to identify cards.

ADDING A NEW MONITOR
       Adding a new monitor is usually fairly straightforward, as most	modern
       monitors	 are multisync and the only interesting parameter is the maxi‐
       mum video bandwidth.  Once the timing parameters are worked out	for  a
       particular  maximum  video  bandwidth as in the example above, an entry
       for a new monitor with that limit is simply
       #
       # Sony CPD-1304
       # Horizontal timing:
       #    Allowable frequency range: 28-50KHz
       # Vertical timing:
       #    Allowable frequency range: 50-87Hz
       #
       cpd-1304
	    alias=multisync65
       Even this is not necessary, as the monitor type could simply  be	 given
       as multisync65.

ADDING A NEW VGA CONTROLLER
       While the use of this database formalizes the steps needed to program a
       VGA controller, unless you are lucky and all the	 important  components
       on  a  new VGA controller card are interconnected in the same way as an
       existing entry, adding a new entry requires adding new  internal	 types
       to  vga(8).   Fortunately,  the unit of variety has, for the most part,
       shifted from individual components to entire video chipsets.   Thus  in
       lucky  cases  all that is necessary is the addition of another 0xNNNNN=
       line to the entry for the controller.  This is particularly true in the
       case of the ATI Mach 64 and the S3 Virge.

       If  you	need to actually add support for a controller with a different
       chipset, you will need the data sheets for the VGA controller  as  well
       as  any	RAMDAC	or clock generator (these are commonly integrated into
       the controller).	 You will also	need  to  know	how  these  components
       interact.   For	example, a common combination is an S3 86C928 VGA chip
       with an ICD2061A clock generator. The ICD2061A  is  usually  loaded  by
       clocking a serial bit-stream out of one of the 86C928 registers.	 Simi‐
       larly, the RAMDAC may have an internal clock-doubler and/or  pixel-mul‐
       tiplexing  modes,  in  which case both the clock generator and VGA chip
       must be programmed accordingly.	Hardware  acceleration	for  rectangle
       fills  and block copies is provided in the kernel; writing code to han‐
       dle this is necessary to achieve reasonable performance at  high	 pixel
       depths.

								      VGADB(6)
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