linux/drivers
Antonino A. Daplas 50ec42edd9 [PATCH] Detaching fbcon: fix vgacon to allow retaking of the console
One of the limitations of the framebuffer console system is its inablity to
unload or detach itself from the console layer.  And once it loads, it also
locks in framebuffer drivers preventing their unload. Although the con2fbmap
utility does provide a means to unload individual drivers, it requires that at
least one framebuffer driver is loaded for use by fbcon.

With this change, it is possible to detach fbcon from the console layer. If it
is detached, it will reattach the boot console driver (which is permanently
loaded) back to the console layer so the system can continue to work.  As a
consequence, fbcon will also decrement its reference count of individual
framebuffer drivers, allowing all of these drivers to be unloaded even if
fbcon is still loaded.

Unless you use drivers that restores the display to text mode (rivafb and
i810fb, for example), detaching fbcon does require assistance from userspace
tools (ie, vbetools) for text mode to be restored completely.  Without the
help of these tools, fbcon will leave the VGA console corrupted. The methods
that can be used will be described in Documentation/fb/fbcon.txt.

Because the vt layer also increments the module reference count for each
console driver, fbcon cannot be directly unloaded.  It must be detached first
prior to unload.

Similarly, fbcon can be reattached to the console layer without having to
reload the module.  A nice feature if fbcon is compiled statically.

Attaching and detaching fbcon is done via sysfs attributes. A class device
entry for fbcon is created in /sys/class/graphics. The two attributes that
controls this feature are detach and attach. Two other attributes that are
piggybacked under /sys/class/graphics/fb[n] that are fbcon-specific,
'con_rotate' and 'con_rotate_all' are moved to fbcon.  They are renamed as
'rotate' and 'rotate_all' respectively.

Overall, this feature is a great help for developers working in the
framebuffer or console layer.  There is not need to continually reboot the
kernel for every small change. It is also useful for regular users who wants
to choose between a graphical console or a text console without having to
reboot.

Example usage for x86:

/* start in text mode */
modprobe xxxfb
modprobe fbcon
/* graphical mode with fbcon using xxxfb */
echo 1 > /sys/class/graphics/fbcon/detach
/* back to text mode, will produce corrupt display unless vbetool is used */
rmmod xxxfb
modprobe yyyfb
/* back to graphical mode with fbcon using yyyfb */

Before trying out this feature, please read Documentation/fb/fbcon.txt.

This patch:

In order for fbcon to detach itself from the console layer, vgacon, which is a
boot console driver, must be fixed so it can retake the console multiple
times, not just during init.  The following needs to be done:

- remove __init from the vgacon_startup, this is called again by
  take_over_console().

- vc->rows and vc->cols are set manually by vgacon during init. After init,
  vc_resize() can be used

- make sure the scrollback_buffer is not reallocated

Signed-off-by: Antonino Daplas <adaplas@pol.net>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2006-06-26 09:58:32 -07:00
..
acorn
acpi [PATCH] Time: i386 Conversion - part 2: Rework TSC Support 2006-06-26 09:58:21 -07:00
amba
atm
base [PATCH] core: use list_move() 2006-06-26 09:58:17 -07:00
block [PATCH] CCISS: tidy up product table indentation 2006-06-25 10:01:22 -07:00
bluetooth [PATCH] Bluetooth: fix potential NULL ptr deref in dtl1_cs.c::dtl1_hci_send_frame() 2006-06-26 09:58:16 -07:00
cdrom [PATCH] cdrom/mcdx: section fixes 2006-06-25 10:01:16 -07:00
char [PATCH] vt: Delay the update of the visible console 2006-06-26 09:58:30 -07:00
clocksource [PATCH] GTOD: add scx200 HRT clocksource 2006-06-26 09:58:21 -07:00
connector
cpufreq
crypto
dio
dma
edac
eisa
fc4
firmware [PATCH] DMI: cleanup kernel-doc, add to DocBook 2006-06-25 10:01:24 -07:00
hwmon
i2c
ide [PATCH] Remove code that has long been commented out from pdc20265_old 2006-06-26 09:58:28 -07:00
ieee1394 [PATCH] drivers: use list_move() 2006-06-26 09:58:18 -07:00
infiniband [PATCH] drivers: use list_move() 2006-06-26 09:58:18 -07:00
input [PATCH] random: remove redundant SA_SAMPLE_RANDOM from touchscreen drivers 2006-06-25 10:01:00 -07:00
isdn [PATCH] isdn4linux: Gigaset driver cleanup 2006-06-26 09:58:23 -07:00
leds [PATCH] LED: add LED heartbeat trigger 2006-06-25 10:01:23 -07:00
macintosh [PATCH] Rewritten backlight infrastructure for portable Apple computers 2006-06-25 10:00:59 -07:00
mca
md [PATCH] drivers: use list_move() 2006-06-26 09:58:18 -07:00
media [PATCH] drivers: use list_move() 2006-06-26 09:58:18 -07:00
message
mfd
misc
mmc
mtd
net [PATCH] Add bcm43xx HW RNG support 2006-06-26 09:58:19 -07:00
nubus
oprofile [PATCH] oprofile: convert from semaphores to mutexes 2006-06-25 10:01:04 -07:00
parisc
parport [PATCH] parport: add to kernel-doc 2006-06-25 10:01:25 -07:00
pci
pcmcia
pnp [PATCH] pnp: card_probe(): fix memory leak 2006-06-25 10:01:01 -07:00
rapidio
rtc [PATCH] RTC: add rtc-ds1742 driver 2006-06-25 10:01:14 -07:00
s390 [PATCH] drivers: use list_move() 2006-06-26 09:58:18 -07:00
sbus [PATCH] mm: remove VM_LOCKED before remap_pfn_range and drop VM_SHM 2006-06-25 10:00:55 -07:00
scsi [PATCH] drivers: use list_move() 2006-06-26 09:58:18 -07:00
serial [PATCH] m68knommu: 532x UART support 2006-06-25 17:43:33 -07:00
sh
sn
spi
tc
telephony
usb [PATCH] drivers: use list_move() 2006-06-26 09:58:18 -07:00
video [PATCH] Detaching fbcon: fix vgacon to allow retaking of the console 2006-06-26 09:58:32 -07:00
w1
zorro
Kconfig
Makefile [PATCH] Time: i386 Clocksource Drivers 2006-06-26 09:58:21 -07:00