[Debian-eeepc-devel] Squeeze release goals

[Pedro Bulach Gapski]

On Sun, Oct 11, 2009 at 10:34 AM, Juha Heinanen <jh at tutpro.com> wrote:
> Pedro Bulach Gapski writes:
>
>  > I have been running squeeze on the ao751h (not an eeepc, but holds a
>  > GMA500), and I believe this can be done with some installer black
>  > magic:
>
> Pedro,
>
>  >  1. latest grub2 from sid includes 915resolution patch for the GMA500.
>  > With this approach we can work at full screen resolution (1366x768 in
>  > my case), as long as grub-pc is used;
>
> I don't why, but grub2 is not able to dual boot to windows on my 1101HA.
> Grub2 just spits an error message 'cannot get C/H/S values'.  Dual boot
> used to work with legacy grub.  This is not a major issue, however,
> because I can live fine without windows.

I do not have windows on my box, but I do have dual boot with ubuntu.
I just installed os-prober and updated-grub.

>
>  >  2. configure a kernel framebuffer with uvesa  (BTW, this gives a
>  > *beautiful* console);
>
> Any hints on how to configure that?

Sure. Install grub-pc from sid, and add a file to /etc/grub:

cat /etc/grub.d/01_915resolution
echo insmod 915resolution
echo 915resolution 38 1366 768 8
echo 915resolution 49 1366 768 16
echo 915resolution 58 1366 768 32

Install v86d from the archives, as uvesafb requires it. Then add this
to /etc/modules:
# framebuffer config and console
uvesafb vbemode=0x011b nocrtc mtrr=2

Please check uvesafb docs, as your module options may be different.

Then change xorg.conf and place:
Driver          "fbdev"
on your device section.

That is. One improvement (that I have not tried) would be to load the
uvesafb module in the initrd.

For reference, I am running kernel 2.6.30-2 and X 7.4.

Please report back as I am interested in hearing how it goes on your box.

>
>  >  3. drive X with fbdev.
>
> Same question.
>
>  > I believe this is approach is feasible for squeeze and it would solve
>  > a lot of GMA500 problems, and does not involve anything but installer
>  > black magic.
>
> I have two problems that I have with Grub2+vesa+GMA500 solution:
>
> - Performance.  glxgears gives about 200 fps, which is quite low for
>  video and things like googlemaps.

Indeed. My glxgears numbers have been greatly reduced when I upgraded
to xorg 7.4, although general experience improved. My glxgears give me
about 50 FPS, and performance is acceptable for general use.

This can see lots of improvement, though.

>
> - No backlight control.  If I want to adjust backlight, I need to do it
>  during bios setup.  Also, screen banking does not work using normal
>  screen saver.  I have to use 'vbetool dpms on/off' for that,

Agreed. Backlight control is still missing, and I miss it a lot.

Screen blanking is supported with fb, as is RandR.

Pedro

>
> These are not show stopper issues, but surely I would like to be able to
> utilize all capabilities of the graphics chipset.
>
> -- juha
>