Using the framebuffer in NetBSD
The NetBSD Project
Status: Closed
Time to complete: 120 hrs
Mentors: Radoslaw Kujawa, Julian Coleman, Julian Fagir
NetBSD has a framebuffer, but until now, it is not much used. The framebuffer can be used for showing nice fonts and resolutions in the console, to show a spashscreen while booting, etc., but there is no documentation.
The genfb(4) and wsdisplay(4) manpages are a good start with this.
Your task is to try using the framebuffer, document what you are doing and why, and report what is missing and where you have no idea how to go on.
Uploaded Work
| File name/URL | File size | Date submitted | |
|---|---|---|---|
| framebuffer.tar.gz | 672.8 KB | November 28 2012 01:10 UTC | |
| usingframebuffer-dec1.tar | 730.0 KB | December 02 2012 00:01 UTC | |
| splashscreen | 1.0 KB | December 02 2012 01:13 UTC | |
| splash.bmp | 3.8 MB | December 02 2012 01:16 UTC | |
| noideas | 373 bytes | December 02 2012 01:22 UTC |
I would like to work on this task.
The claim on this task has been removed, someone else can claim it now.
I would like to work on this task.
The claim on this task has been removed, someone else can claim it now.
I would like to work on this task.
I'm going to install NetBSD on my desktop and test this out.
Will show a guide/comment on using a Terminus font on NetBSD (which I once did with FreeBSD)... if it works well enough. I suppose that it's VESA.
This is really awesome. I'm glad that I'll be able to contribute something to the NetBSD project.
This task has been assigned to Pedro L. Coutin. You have 120 hours to complete this task, good luck!
The work on this task is ready to be reviewed.
What you wrote is nice, however there's much more to framebuffer than just changing fonts. You still have almost 4 days of code-in time left for this task. Please try to research following areas:
- Using the framebuffer as backend for X11 driver
- Is it possible to display pictures on framebuffer without X11?
- What is wscons and wsdisplay? How do they fit together with graphics driver like genfb?
- Is genfb the only supported framebuffer driver? What other drivers are there? Are they all machine-independent?
- Is it possible to use more than one graphics card at the same time? (Don't waste your time on this this if you don't have spare card)
One of the mentors has sent this task back for more work. Talk to the mentor(s) assigned to this task to satisfy the requirements needed to complete this task, submit your work again and mark the task as complete once you re-submit your work.
There's only 12 hours left, we'd like to discuss progress. Please get in touch with us on irc.freenode.net, channel #netbsd-code.
The work on this task is ready to be reviewed.
Congratulations, this task has been completed successfully.