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Forum Topic - io-display and BIOS interactions: (6 Items)
   
io-display and BIOS interactions  
I am trying to interface an odd-resolution LCD screen to an x86 single-board PC.  My goal is to avoid having a custom 
BIOS created for our application.  My plan was to set the board for blank booting (which I have working) and let io-
display set the proper settings for the LCD screen, but this isn't working as expected.  We are experimenting with two 
different manufacturer's boards.  One uses an SMI SM712 LynxEM4+ graphics chip.  The other uses an XGI Technology Volari
 Z9 chip. The LCD screen is a 480x272 TFT color display (I didn't pick it).   For the SM712 I configure io-display to 
use the smi7xx driver and for the Z9 I use the svga driver.  Since the Z9 chip doesn't seem to have an existing QNX 
driver that targets this hardware, I've been concentrating on the SM712 board.

Both board power up OK in CRT 640x480 mode.  For the Sm712 board, I have a simple program that opens io-display and can 
display a simple bitmap.  I edited display.conf to set the resolution to 480x272, but the screen always comes up in 
648x480, the BIOS default.  Next, I tried to customize smi7xx.conf to match the LCD display's timing characteristics.  I
 set the BIOS display settings to 640x480 TFT LCD.  When I run my test program, gf_dev_attach returns 2, 
GF_ERR_IODISPLAY.  I will get this error even if I set display.conf to 640x480 resolution to match the BIOS resolution. 
 This error is too generic for me to determine what is wrong.  Is there something else I need to set to get io-display 
to at least attach to the LCD screen?
Re: io-display and BIOS interactions  
Some additional information from slogger:

Mar 27 22:58:20  2  8  200 io-display: driver doesn't support, or not configured for "rgb888" at 480x272, 60Hz

I've tried all the published pixel formats and none of them work.  Does this mean that io-display or devg-sm7xx.so does 
not support this format?  Also, am I stuck writing my own driver for this format?
RE: io-display and BIOS interactions  
Are you specifying a driver configuration file?    I believe the sm712
driver will only report 640x480 unless you specifically give the
settings in smi7xx.conf.    This is passed to the driver via the
/etc/system/config/display.conf file



-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Murrell [mailto:community-noreply@qnx.com] 
Sent: March 28, 2011 11:37 AM
To: advanced-graphics
Subject: Re: io-display and BIOS interactions

Some additional information from slogger:

Mar 27 22:58:20  2  8  200 io-display: driver doesn't support, or not
configured for "rgb888" at 480x272, 60Hz

I've tried all the published pixel formats and none of them work.  Does
this mean that io-display or devg-sm7xx.so does not support this format?
Also, am I stuck writing my own driver for this format?


_______________________________________________

Advanced Graphics
http://community.qnx.com/sf/go/post84337
Re: RE: io-display and BIOS interactions  
Thanks for responding.  I took a lot of guesses setting smi7xx.conf based on the display timing diagrams.  Its unclear 
what the units are in the configuration file.  Its even less clear on how the numbers relate to the color depth.  The 
display uses pixel clock counts for all horizontal timing and horizontal clocks for all vertical timings.  I guess I 
will have to play with the settings some more.
Re: RE: io-display and BIOS interactions  
The slog message you provided indicates that the driver likely doesn't believe it supports 480x272 - (regardless of 
whether the timing provided matches what the LCD requires)

I took a closer look at the driver and realized for X86 the modes supported will depend on what the BIOS provides.     
There is no way around this right now unless you get the driver source and make a change to disable the driver's BIOS 
support - thus allowing you to override LCD settings.   (this is what happens for non-X86 systems)
Re: RE: io-display and BIOS interactions  
I had suspected that is what is happening.  I have submitted a request to get access to the source code.  Thanks for 
your response.