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[sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>]

I am still experimenting with the framebuffer kernel that David Moberg 
compiled.

I compiled my own fb kernel which did not work at all, that had matroxfb 
and millenium Y.   His has them as modules.

His kernel boots properly.  I can then insmod fbcon-cfb4 followed by 
insmod matroxfb (you need both in that order).

I am told:
Matrox Millenium (PCI) detected
640x480x8bpp (virtual:  640x3276)
framebuffer at 0x01000000, mapped to .....

The console switches from the usual 80x25 to a nice-looking 80x30,
which I appreciate since resizecons will not work in this particular 
computer (it causes all sorts of problems).

I have things set up to load mdacon during boot and use it with vt1 and 
vt2.  These two terminals no longer work (I see text on them but the last 
line is a blinking cursor and I cannot enter any more text).
Also vt3 where I insmodded matroxfb from is blank white with a small black 
area at the bottom with a blinking cursor.  I could switch to vt4 which is 
normal, then back to vt3 which was now usable (the white area graudally 
shrank as I typed).


David provided with this package (vesafb.tar.gz) a new mdacon.o which he 
compiled at the same time as the kernel.  It is a bit smaller than what I 
got from sw71.

Usually I cannot rmmod mdacon after loading it.  But after insmodding 
matroxfb I can rmmod mdacon.   I renamed his new version and insmodded it 
and things work perfectly.

I rebooted and discovered vt1 and vt2 were not working again (with the new 
mdacon) until I rmmodded and insmodded this new mdacon.

So the procedure is
1.  Boot without mdacon
2.  Insmod fbcon-cfb4 insmod matroxfb
3.  insmod the new mdacon

The new mdacon works fine with the non-fb kernel too so I can just replace 
the old one with the new one, which is smaller and all-purpose.

Next I tried Xvesa and it works correctly with this kernel at 1024 and 
16-bit color.

Finally I tried xfbdev and as predicted I got a blue X on a blue 
background because the default for matroxfb is 8-bit color.

I will need to set up a modes configuration file in order to use fbset, 
which is specific to matrox, so that I can set resolution and colors 
before using xfbdev.  Typing fbset produces something on screen that is 
probably the current setting and default

mode "640x480-60"
        geometry 640 480 640 3276 8     This is 8-bit color at 640x480
        timings 39683......
        accel true                      The millenium module improves accel
        rgba 8/0, 8/0, 8/0, 0/0         I need to change this part for xfbdev
endmode

Perhaps I can just copy this into the mode config file and manually add
800x600-60 (should the 60 be changed?) and rgba 16/0

The regular vesafb kernel used with this or other cards works with the 
older mdacon, as does the BL2 kernel and the one I compiled.  Only the 
matroxfb seems to need a different mdacon.o (which works with the other 
kernels too).  The kernel configuration program has a question 
specifically about using mdacon with matrox, which produces this new 
mdacon.  I don't know why this mdacon is not the default instead of the 
larger one.


I have a Matrox Millenium which can be optimized by using an additional 
modules whose name I don't know, but David also provided fbcon-mac - 
perhaps this is what I need?  It insmodded with no special message.

Does anyone know what fbcon-cfb4.o has to do with 8-bit color, if 
anything?  Or whether I need fbcon-cfb16.o for 16-bit color?  David 
provided modules for fbcon-cfb2.o and fbcon-cfb4.o.  The latter was needed 
by matroxfb. The former would insmod but I don't know what it does.  I 
think they are something to do with color depth in text mode and I have 
8-bit color with cfb4.