framebuffer, fbset, rivafb, cirrusfb, vga16fb, 2.4 vs 2.6

[nessie]

This is about 2 different computers actually...

1) I want a console framebuffer with a 1600x1200x32, 85Hz resolution. Not because I absolutely need the space (although it would be very practical), but because X runs that, and I don't like the resolution switching all the time. The vesa framebuffer just doesn't cut it. It won't do more than 1280x1024x16 with a very lousy refresh rate which makes my eyes hurt. I tried using the riva framebuffer for my Geforce4 Ti 4200. It boots into the right resolution but gets ugly when I start switching consoles (garbled screen, lockups)

Since I started using kernel 2.6.x, fbset doesn't seem to do much anymore. What's up with that? I like 2.6.x too much to go back to 2.4. Is fbset replaced by a different tool? Why is the riva framebuffer buggy as hell? Any ideas on getting my desired resolution?

2) An old laptop that had a vga16 framebuffer on kernel 2.4.x (it's incapable of running vesafb)... fbset used to resize it properly to 800x600x4. Same problem with fbset when running 2.6. It doesn't do much, although it does *something* this time. What happens is that it moves the 640x480 centered console 'window' to the upper left corner of the screen, with the remaining space containing noise. When I switch consoles everything is reset again. Again I'm wondering if there's something wrong with fbset...

There is a cirrusfb driver(the laptop has a cirrus gd 7548) that apparently did not survive the transition from 2.4 to 2.6 as it doesn't compile anymore. Perhaps I should try to contact the original authors of that driver.

thirdly, also on the old laptop, there's this minor thing where 2.6 doesn't do console blanking properly. 2.4 switches the backlight of the LCD off, 2.6 doesn't. Even though the "Enable console blanking using APM" kernel option is checked in both cases. Any ideas?

Would it be appropriate to post some of these issues on the kernel ml?

[Hayl]

unfortunately the riva FB driver in the Linux Kernel does not play nice with the nvidia (commercial) drivers however, i have heard that it will work with the generic nv driver that comes with XFree.

if you don't want to do then you are pretty much stuck with VESA, and the highest resolution that you can get with VESA is 1280x1024.

i have heard that it is possible to add additional mode lines to the VESA framebuffer. try googling -- maybe someone has a patch that does it.
_________________
"I do not fear computers. I fear lack of them." - Isaac Asimov

[fintux]

Some info is actually in the kernel documentation, I don't know if you have already read that, and if it's for any help:

/usr/src/linux-[version]/Documentation/fb/framebuffer.txt

Especially see the sections 5 and 6. Though it's not said, if these work with vesa frma buffers (I've got LCD, so I can't really try). Anyway, it also says this:

Good examples for VESA timings can be found in the XFree86 source tree, under "xc/programs/Xserver/hw/xfree86/doc/modeDB.txt"

[nessie]