I would like to point out that I have seen a number of different machines (different CPUs and brand names) booting to a blank screen with Haiku. And all of them have been fixed by adding a VESA file to: /boot/home/config/settings/kernel/drivers/vesa
I create a text file using the text editor containing the line ‘mode 640 480 32’, and a important detail that I just discovered today while setting up a multi-boot is that you MUST hit enter/newline after typing the above, otherwise it still will not work but will look the same as the working version if you just read it.
The only reason I spotted this detail is that the files were diffirent sizes.
Just use StyledEdit in your apps folder, run the program, then in the text window write out the needed string. I always use ‘mode 640 480 16’ the first time as I doubt there is any video system out there that can’t support that mode. Don’t forget to hit return(enter) at the end of the line.
Then using SaveAs save it to the correct location.
Notice that later even if you change the resolution using preferences/screen that you can always manually edit this file so that you always boot up in low res for some nice large boot icons. I dislike the tiny icons I get during boot if I have a very high res monitor.
We don’t have good enough ATI/AMD driver to support AtomBIOS and ATI/AMD Vesa support is crap, so you are out of luck until we have proper AtomBIOS support.
Does not matter what AtomBIOS supports. You need to boot Haiku in safe-mode and see what resolutions the VESA driver allows you to choose from. It will depend on your graphic card’s video BIOS. That’s where those resolutions come from.
For my laptop I only get 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768. Everyone will have these 4:3 modes but others may have additional ones. Will depend on your card chipset (Ati, Nvidia, Intel) & video BIOS. Not sure if any of the 16:9 modes work properly.
I was told by Intel that same Intel graphic cards could have different video BIOSes.
I noticed with my Atom system & Core i3 laptop that they have differing VESA modes in Haiku even though both have Intel graphics. I get more modes with my older Atom system and less with Core i3. I could not understand why I had less modes with newer Intel graphics but was told by Intel support to talk to Dell about it because Dell customizes the video BIOS for my laptop.
[quote=tonestone57]Does not matter what AtomBIOS supports. You need to boot Haiku in safe-mode and see what resolutions the VESA driver allows you to choose from. It will depend on your graphic card’s video BIOS. That’s where those resolutions come from.
For my laptop I only get 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768. Everyone will have these 4:3 modes but others may have additional ones. Will depend on your card chipset (Ati, Nvidia, Intel) & video BIOS. Not sure if any of the 16:9 modes work properly.
I was told by Intel that same Intel graphic cards could have different video BIOSes.
I noticed with my Atom system & Core i3 laptop that they have differing VESA modes in Haiku even though both have Intel graphics. I get more modes with my older Atom system and less with Core i3. I could not understand why I had less modes with newer Intel graphics but was told by Intel support to talk to Dell about it because Dell customizes the video BIOS for my laptop.[/quote]
the essential problem is that it does support vesa modes higher then haiku boot vesa claims. Per AMD as well as other people who have tested it. I am unsure as to why the haiku vesa driver doesn't pickup up on these higher resolution modes but I have noticed that it pretty much tops out at 1280x1024 regardless of what card it is if it doesn't have a native driver. I haven't had a chance to look in the vesa code but I don't think support for a higher resolution is actually in there.
The VIA card (P4M800 PRO) gets the most VESA modes & very high resolutions with top listed one as 2048 x 1536 x 32. My Intel card is listed in that ticket too. See that for me lots of the modes show as 0x0x0 - not properly detected. I tested with Linux and saw the same modes with VESA driver so affects Linux & Haiku.
So, either a) your video BIOS has limited # of VESA modes or b) VESA driver is not getting all the modes properly (ie: 0x0x0).
Testing with Linux is good way to quickly compare and see if same or different result. If you get different modes then bug in Haiku’s VESA driver.
The VIA card (P4M800 PRO) gets the most VESA modes & very high resolutions with top listed one as 2048 x 1536 x 32. My Intel card is listed in that ticket too. See that for me lots of the modes show as 0x0x0 - not properly detected. I tested with Linux and saw the same modes with VESA driver so affects Linux & Haiku.
So, either a) your video BIOS has limited # of VESA modes or b) VESA driver is not getting all the modes properly (ie: 0x0x0).
Testing with Linux is good way to quickly compare and see if same or different result. If you get different modes then bug in Haiku’s VESA driver.[/quote]
I totally forgot that the bios setups the video card for vesa on boot. I will have to check my bios to see whats setup for video modes. I’ll post back in a bit.
well I booted into safe mode and I set the resolution to 1400 x 1050 and its works, but haiku still only reports 1280 x 1024. So something is amiss.
Did that mode show up in your syslog? What modes were listed in your syslog for VESA? If it didn’t show in syslog then not properly detected by VESA driver but may still work. I would have to see the VESA mode listing in your syslog to better understand.
The 0x0x0 are the modes the VESA driver can’t read right but not sure why. Same thing I noticed in Linux. They are not properly detected but forcing mode with VESA file might still work like it does for you.
VESA 2 standard supports 1280x1024 as highest resolution. Cards may have higher modes but they are not part of VESA 2 default modes.
That’s why you see 1280x1024 because VESA driver cannot read the other supported modes from your card. So, it chooses the highest VESA 2 mode and reports that.
The 0x0x0 are the modes the VESA driver can’t read right but not sure why. Same thing I noticed in Linux. They are not properly detected but forcing mode with VESA file might still work like it does for you.
VESA 2 standard supports 1280x1024 as highest resolution. Cards may have higher modes but they are not part of VESA 2 default modes.
That’s why you see 1280x1024 because VESA driver cannot read the other supported modes from your card. So, it chooses the highest VESA 2 mode and reports that.[/quote]
the interesting part is that If i go into the boot screen and look to see what mode are available, I see 1400 x 1050.
I still think my gpu is underscalling the output image to.