Framebuffer HOWTO
Alex Buell, alex.buell@tahallah.clara.co.uk
v1.2, 27 Feb 2000

This document describes how to use the framebuffer devices in Linux witha variety of platforms. This also includes how to set up multi-headed displays.

1. History

2. Contributors

3. What is a framebuffer device?

4. What advantages does framebuffer devices have?

5. Using framebuffer devices on Intel platforms

* 5.1 What is vesafb?
* 5.2 How do I activate the vesafb drivers?
* 5.3 What VESA modes are available to me?
* 5.4 Got a Matrox card?
* 5.5 Got a Permedia card?
* 5.6 Got a ATI card?
* 5.7 Which graphic cards are VESA 2.0 compliant?
* 5.8 Can I make vesafb as a module?
* 5.9 How do I modify the cursor?

6. Using framebuffer devices on Atari m68k platforms

* 6.1 What modes are available on Atari m68k platforms?
* 6.2 Additional suboptions on Atari m68k platforms
* 6.3 Using the internal suboption on Atari m68k platforms
* 6.4 Using the external suboption on Atari m68k platforms

7. Using framebuffer devices on Amiga m68k platforms

* 7.1 What modes are available for Amiga m68k platforms?
* 7.2 Additional suboptions on Amiga m68k platforms
* 7.3 Supported Amiga graphic expansion boards

8. Using framebuffer devices on Macintosh m68k platforms

9. Using framebuffer devices on PowerPC platforms

10. Using framebuffer devices on Alpha platforms

* 10.1 What modes are available to me?
* 10.2 Which graphic cards can work with the frambuffer device?

11. Using framebuffer devices on SPARC platforms

* 11.1 Which graphic cards can work with the framebuffer device?
* 11.2 Configuring the framebuffer devices

12. Using framebuffer devices on MIPS platforms

13. Using framebuffer devices on ARM platforms

* 13.1 Netwinders
* 13.2 Acorn Archimedes
* 13.3 Other ARM ports (SA 7110s et. al)

14. Using multi-headed framebuffers

* 14.1 Introduction
* 14.2 Feedback
* 14.3 Contributors
* 14.4 Standard Disclaimer
* 14.5 Copyright Information
* 14.6 What hardware is supported?
* 14.7 Commercial support
* 14.8 Getting all the stuff.
* 14.9 Getting Started
* 14.10 Summary
* 14.11 Other Notes and Problems

15. Using/Changing fonts

16. Changing console modes

17. Setting up the X11 FBdev driver

18. How do I convert XFree86 mode-lines into framebuffer device timings?

19. Changing the Linux logo

20. Looking for further information?
1. History

Revision history

19990607 - Release of 1.0

19990722 - Release of 1.1

20000222 - Release of 1.2
2. Contributors

Thanks go to these people listed below who helped improve the Framebuffer HOWTO.

* Jeff Noxon jeff@planetfall.com
* Francis Devereux f.devereux@cs.ucl.ac.uk
* Andreas Ehliar ehliar@futurniture.se
* Martin McCarthy marty@ehabitat.demon.co.uk
* Simon Kenyon simon@koala.ie
* David Ford david@kalifornia.com
* Chris Black cblack@cmpteam4.unil.ch
* N Becker nbecker@fred.net
* Bob Tracy rct@gherkin.sa.wlk.com
* Marius Hjelle marius.hjelle@roman.uib.no
* James Cassidy jcassidy@misc.dyn.ml.org
* Andreas U. Trottmann andreas.trottmann@werft22.com
* Lech Szychowski lech7@lech.pse.pl
* Aaron Tiensivu tiensivu@pilot.msu.edu
* Jan-Frode Myklebust for his info on permedia cards janfrode@ii.uib.no
* Many others too numerous to add, but thanks!

Thanks go to Rick Niles frederick.a.niles@gsfc.nasa.gov who has very kindly handed over his Multi-Head Mini-HOWTO for inclusion in this HOWTO.

Thanks to these people listed below who built libc5/glibc2 versions of theXF86_FBdev X11 framebuffer driver for X11 on Intel platforms:

* Brion Vibber brion@pobox.com
* Gerd Knorr kraxel@cs.tu-berlin.de

and of course the authors of the framebuffer devices:

* Martin Schaller - original author of the framebuffer concept
* Roman Hodek Roman.Hodek@informatik.uni-erlangen.de
* Andreas Schwab schwab@issan.informatik.uni-dortmund.de
* Guenther Kelleter
* Geert Uytterhoeven Geert.Uytterhoeven@cs.kuleuven.ac.be
* Roman Zippel roman@sodom.obdg.de
* Pavel Machek pavel@atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz
* Gerd Knorr kraxel@cs.tu-berlin.de
* Miguel de Icaza miguel@nuclecu.unam.mx
* David Carter carter@compsci.bristol.ac.uk
* William Rucklidge wjr@cs.cornell.edu
* Jes Sorensen jds@kom.auc.dk
* Sigurdur Asgeirsson
* Jeffrey Kuskin jsk@mojave.stanford.edu
* Michal Rehacek michal.rehacek@st.mff.cuni.edu
* Peter Zaitcev zaitcev@lab.ipmce.su
* David S. Miller davem@dm.cobaltmicro.com
* Dave Redman djhr@tadpole.co.uk
* Jay Estabrook
* Martin Mares mj@ucw.cz
* Dan Jacobowitz dan@debian.org
* Emmanuel Marty core@ggi-project.org
* Eddie C. Dost ecd@skynet.be
* Jakub Jelinek jj@ultra.linux.cz
* Phil Blundell philb@gnu.org
* Anyone else, stand up and be counted. :o)

3. What is a framebuffer device?

A framebuffer device is an abstraction for the graphic har