Bug#347186: linux-image-2.6.14-2-alpha-generic: garbled Matrox framebuffer

[Sven Luther <sven.luther@wanadoo.fr>]

On Mon, Jan 09, 2006 at 02:51:46AM -0800, Steve Langasek wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 09, 2006 at 10:35:18AM +0100, Sven Luther wrote:
> > On Mon, Jan 09, 2006 at 01:08:49AM -0800, Steve Langasek wrote:
> > > Package: linux-2.6
> > > Version: 2.6.14-7
> > > Severity: important
> 
> > > Sigh, can't get a break with alpha kernel support around here.  After
> > > upgrading to 2.6.14 (from 2.4.27), the Matrox framebuffer no longer works
> > > correctly on my alpha with a Matrox Millenium II.  The matroxfb_base module
> > > loads without error, but gives me corrupt video output only.
> 
> > Try turning off acceleration.
> 
> Doesn't make a difference.
> 
> What did make a difference was, after googling, loading fbcon manually
> before loading matroxfb_base.  Given that I'm loading matroxfb_base by hand
> (/etc/modules), it's not getting loaded via udev or anything like that, it
> seems to me that it's my responsibility to load fbcon by hand as well, but

Indeed, if you load it by hand, you need to load fbcon also. Maybe there
should be a dependency between matroxfb and fbcon, which modprobe would then
take care of, but i guess it also makes sense to use matroxfb without fbcon,
or something.

> it's still something of an unexpected change from 2.4.  It might be nice to
> have these modules all autoloaded by something, but it's not strictly
> necessary, and some users may not want the framebuffer activated
> automatically?

I think that if you configure yaird to load in matroxfb, it should then also
load fbcon.

> The other issue (and the first thing I was trying to get work, which led me
> to believe the fb was completely broken) is that, even though console works
> on the framebuffer now, X does not.  This breakage corresponds to the kernel
> upgrade, not to any changes in X, so still looks like a kernel bug to me.

What X version are you using ? 

> If I turn off "UseFBDev" in my xorg.conf, X displays correctly.  I haven't
> poked yet to see what this does performance-wise.

Should not make a difference.

Friendly,

Sven Luther