F21/F22: xorg-x11-drv: which for SiS?

Wed Sep 24 01:35:55 UTC 2014

Adam Jackson wrote on 2014-09-23 12:45 (GMT-0400):

> On Tue, 2014-09-23 at 10:12 -0400, Felix Miata wrote:

>> Adam Jackson wrote on 2014-09-23 09:52 (GMT-0400):

>> > On Tue, 2014-09-23 at 04:44 -0400, Felix Miata wrote:

>> >> So, what exactly are people needing this driver supposed to do, particularly
>> >> those for whom X worked before last round of updates, install Mageia's or
>> >> openSUSE's driver (tried both in F22 with rpm. both failed deps, but with
>> >> nodeps switch for Mageia's 0.10.7-15, startx gives me KDE)? Switch distros?
>> >> If some other driver, why doesn't Xorg figure that out on its own?

>> > The vesa driver should work as well as it ever does;

>> Which is to say only on screens whose native modes are 4:3.

> Not entirely true.  It's a function of your video BIOS, not of the vesa
> driver.  The vesa driver can only set modes that are listed by the video
> BIOS, but it does know how to query the monitor for supported modes, and
> will attempt to set the monitor's native mode if it happens to be
> exposed by the BIOS.

> The X log you provided elsewhere in the thread seems to say you're not
> using the vesa X driver though:

>> [   819.945] (==) FBDEV(0): Depth 16, (==) framebuffer bpp 16
>> [   819.945] (==) FBDEV(0): RGB weight 565
>> [   819.945] (==) FBDEV(0): Default visual is TrueColor
>> [   819.945] (==) FBDEV(0): Using gamma correction (1.0, 1.0, 1.0)
>> [   819.945] (II) FBDEV(0): hardware: VESA VGA (video memory: 3072kB)

> That's the fbdev X driver, pointed at either vesafb or uvesafb kernel
> driver.  Which I suppose will get you a high-res console, but isn't
> especially great for mode selection in X.  (The fbdev interface has no
> way to query the kernel for supported resolutions, so X can't even know
> what to ask for.)  If you stopped using vesafb you might have a better
> time of it.

I didn't know what you meant about "using vesafb", so I tried a bunch
of permutations with F22, with and without anything video related on
cmdline to see if that's where "using vesafb" could have come from.
These are descriptions for the two LCDs (for this test used only with
15pin VGA cables):

LCD #1
advertised native resolution 1440x900
physical aspect ratio 16:10
http://www.cnet.com/products/polaroid-flm-1911/specs/ 
output of monitor-edid command: (inexplicable preferred mode: 1280x1024)
http://fm.no-ip.com/Tmp/Hardware/Display/edid-pola-flm1911-os131-rv380.txt

LCD #2
user manual:
http://www.vizio.com/documents/downloads/hdtv/VO32LF/259Manual.pdf
(1920x1080 FHDTV 16:9 aspect ratio)
output of monitor-edid command: (preferred mode 1920x1080)
http://fm.no-ip.com/Tmp/Hardware/Display/edid-vo32lfhdtv10a-oS121m3-i945G.txt

Prior test results (1 Xorg log):

#1 LCD: no xorg.conf, no video= on cmdline, with vga=791 on cmdline (apparent automagic)
vesa driver: NA
fbdev driver: 1024x768 09:26 13706
http://fm.no-ip.com/Tmp/Linux/F/xorg.0.log-g5eas-f22-0xconf-fbdev-1024x0768x096
sis driver: NA

New test results (17 Xorg logs):

#1 LCD: no xorg.conf, no vga=, with video=1024x768 at 60 on cmdline
vesa driver: 1600x1200 15:31 68420
http://fm.no-ip.com/Tmp/Linux/F/xorg.0.log-g5eas-f22-0xconf0Vcmdline-vesa-1600x1200on1440x900native
fbdev driver: NA
sis driver: NA

#2 LCD: with xorg.conf, no vga= on cmdline, with video=1024x768 at 60 on cmdline
vesa driver: 1024x768 19:49 63751
http://fm.no-ip.com/Tmp/Linux/F/xorg.0.log-g5eas-f22-1xconf0vga0768video-vesa-1024x768on1920x1080native
fbdev driver: na
sis driver: NA

#2 LCD: with xorg.conf, no vga= on cmdline, with video=1920x1080 at 60 on cmdline
vesa driver: 1024x768 19:52 60389
http://fm.no-ip.com/Tmp/Linux/F/xorg.0.log-g5eas-f22-1xconf0vga1080video-vesa-1024x768on1920x1080native
fbdev driver: na
sis driver: 1920x1080 19:54 30259
http://fm.no-ip.com/Tmp/Linux/F/xorg.0.log-g5eas-f22-1xconf0vga1080video-sis-1920x1080on1920x1080native

#1 LCD: neither xorg.conf, nor video= nor vga= on cmdline (100% X automagic)
vesa driver: 1600x1200 16:30 68402
http://fm.no-ip.com/Tmp/Linux/F/xorg.0.log-g5eas-f22-0xconf0Vcmdline-vesa-1600x1200on1440x900native
	19:47 63208
http://fm.no-ip.com/Tmp/Linux/F/xorg.0.log-g5eas-f22-0xconf0vga0768video-vesa-1024x768on1920x1080native
fbdev driver: NA
sis driver: NA	

#2 LCD: neither xorg.conf nor video= nor vga= on cmdline (100% X automagic)
vesa driver: 1024x768 15:47 67408
http://fm.no-ip.com/Tmp/Linux/F/xorg.0.log-g5eas-f22-0xconf0Vcmdline-vesa-1024x768on1920x1080native
fbdev driver: NA
sis driver: NA

#1 LCD: with xorg.conf, neither video= nor vga= on cmdline
vesa driver: 1600x1200 16:41 65824
http://fm.no-ip.com/Tmp/Linux/F/xorg.0.log-g5eas-f22-1xconf0Vcmdline-vesa-1600x1200on1440x900native
fbdev driver: FAIL 16:42 4576
http://fm.no-ip.com/Tmp/Linux/F/xorg.0.log-g5eas-f22-1xconf0Vcmdline-fbdev-on1440x900FAIL
sis driver: 1440x900 16:49 36870 (put display out of range on X exit, reboot required)
http://fm.no-ip.com/Tmp/Linux/F/xorg.0.log-g5eas-f22-1xconf0Vcmdline-SiS-1440x900on1440x900native-OORonExit

#2 LCD: with xorg.conf, neither video= nor vga= on cmdline
vesa driver: not tested
fbdev driver: not tested
sis driver not tested

#1 LCD: with xorg.conf, with video= & vga= on cmdline
vesa driver: 1024x768 16:57 65857
http://fm.no-ip.com/Tmp/Linux/F/xorg.0.log-g5eas-f22-1xconf1Vcmdline-vesa-1024x768on1440x900native
fbdev driver: 1024x768 17:00 12966
http://fm.no-ip.com/Tmp/Linux/F/xorg.0.log-g5eas-f22-1xconf1Vcmdline-fbdev-1024x768on1440x900native
sis driver: 1440x900 17:05 36896
http://fm.no-ip.com/Tmp/Linux/F/xorg.0.log-g5eas-f22-1xconf1Vcmdline-SiS-1440x900on1440x900x108dpi

#2 LCD: with xorg.conf, with video= & vga= on cmdline
vesa driver: 1024x768 16:07 60956
http://fm.no-ip.com/Tmp/Linux/F/xorg.0.log-g5eas-f22-1xconf1Vcmdline-vesa-1024x768on1920x1080native
fbdev driver: 1024x768 16:15 12524
http://fm.no-ip.com/Tmp/Linux/F/xorg.0.log-g5eas-f22-1xconf1Vcmdline-fbdev-1024x768on1920x1080native
sis driver: 1920x1080 @70 DPI (no DisplaySize) 16:18 34830
http://fm.no-ip.com/Tmp/Linux/F/xorg.0.log-g5eas-f22-1xconf1Vcmdline-SiS-1920x1080on1920x1080native070DPI
sis driver: 1920x1080 @120 DPI (using DisplaySize) 16:19 34917
http://fm.no-ip.com/Tmp/Linux/F/xorg.0.log-g5eas-f22-1xconf1Vcmdline-SiS-1920x1080on1920x1080native120DPI

One extra test round with CRT:
Sony '21"' CPD-G520, reports preferred mode 1280x1024, optimal mode 1600x1200
http://fm.no-ip.com/Tmp/Hardware/Display/edid-sG520-oS132m0-i945G.txt
no xorg.conf, no vga= on cmdline, with video=1024x768 at 60 on cmdline
vesa driver: X starts @1600x1200, but display out of sync, unusable; 21:13 68822
http://fm.no-ip.com/Tmp/Linux/F/xorg.0.log-g5eas-f22-0xconf0vga0768video-vesa-1600x1200onG520crt1600x1200
fbdev driver: NA
sis driver: 1600x1200 21:21 43994
http://fm.no-ip.com/Tmp/Linux/F/xorg.0.log-g5eas-f22-1xconf0vga0768video-sis-1600x1200x120-onG520crt

So to sum it up, to use vga=791 on cmdline, in order that ttys work
as nicely as they always have in the past, both before and after KMS,
means kernel's choice of framebuffer drive tells X it should prefer
fbdev to vesa. So in order to use vesa in X, it needs a config file
entry specifying it to override the kernel's choice.

It's only a minor improvement to use vesa instead of fbdev, as neither
are as competent as the sis driver (or as fast, slow as sis is). Sis
is the only driver that will result in (any tested) display using the
optimal mode.

Since there is no sis driver any more in Fedora, its sis users will
need either to use a display whose native mode is one of the standard
vesa modes, or to find a driver elsewhere, if they want the optimal
modes they had before before the xorg-x11-drv-sis orphaning, and that
at least for now, remain available to users of other distros.

AFAIK, xorg-x11-drv-mga and xorg-x11-drv-sis, in contrast to the others
on https://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/devel/2013-October/190696.html,
include support for some much newer devices. So IMO, even though they lack
"maintainers", for the little "maintenance" they need, Fedora users deserve
that they be kept available.

Any chance to get the xorg-x11-drv-sisusb maintainer to pick up xorg-x11-drv-usb?

BTW, with neither VGA= nor video= on cmdline, ttys are in a legacy 80x25
video mode that is broken. Trailing spaces are written to screen as high
ASCII characters both in bash and parts of mc. Some program output that
should be in text is also these junk characters.
-- 
"The wise are known for their understanding, and pleasant
words are persuasive." Proverbs 16:21 (New Living Translation)

 Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks!

Felix Miata  ***  http://fm.no-ip.com/