31 Jan, 2009

1 commit


17 Oct, 2007

1 commit

  • uvesafb is an enhanced version of vesafb. It uses a userspace helper (v86d)
    to execute calls to the x86 Video BIOS functions. The driver is not limited
    to any specific arch and whether it works on a given arch or not depends on
    that arch being supported by the userspace daemon. It has been tested on
    x86_32 and x86_64.

    A single BIOS call is represented by an instance of the uvesafb_ktask
    structure. This structure contains a buffer, a completion struct and a
    uvesafb_task substructure, containing the values of the x86 registers, a flags
    field and a field indicating the length of the buffer. Whenever a BIOS call
    is made in the driver, uvesafb_exec() builds a message using the uvesafb_task
    substructure and the contents of the buffer. This message is then assigned a
    random ack number and sent to the userspace daemon using the connector
    interface.

    The message's sequence number is used as an index for the uvfb_tasks array,
    which provides a mapping from the messages coming from userspace to the
    in-kernel uvesafb_ktask structs.

    The userspace daemon performs the requested operation and sends a reply in the
    form of a uvesafb_task struct and, optionally, a buffer. The seq and ack
    numbers in the reply should be exactly the same as those in the request.

    Each message from userspace is processed by uvesafb_cn_callback() and after
    passing a few sanity checks leads to the completion of a BIOS call request.

    Signed-off-by: Michal Januszewski
    Signed-off-by: Antonino Daplas
    Cc: Paul Mundt
    Cc: Paulo Marques
    Cc: "H. Peter Anvin"
    Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton
    Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds

    Michal Januszewski