Intel Publishes Massive "Fastboot" Patch Set

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Intel Publishes Massive "Fastboot" Patch Set

Intel's Open-Source Technology Center team has published a massive set of 43 patches for "Fastboot" support with their open-source Linux graphics driver...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTEwNzc

[uid313]

But the BIOS is like 80?25 (colums, rows) or 640?480 (pixels) or something, probably even worse than that.

Very low resolution.

[ickle]

Sure, we have no wish to preserve VGA mode (which not only is something like 720x540 but is also paletted 8-bit). Not the most pleasant experience on the desktop ;-)

However, some BIOS and EFI do setup native modes, or that modeswitch may be performed by grub2. If the output is already at native resolution, we may as well continue to use the same configuration. This does make the presumption that the BIOS sets up the output in the most economical manner - normally the BIOS sets extremely conservative values with maximum power consumption for simplicity.

The patches have a secondary effect, the memory stolen by the BIOS is now put to use for permanent allocations required by the driver, whereas previously it was never recovered and so lost to the system.

[uid313]

However, some BIOS and EFI do setup native modes, or that modeswitch may be performed by grub2.

I am not aware of any BIOS implementation that does setup native modes.
How would it do that?

With SeaBIOS you can create a splash screen the same size of the native resolution and it to use that though.

[elmariachi]

that's nice... if we could use coreboot

[[Knuckles]]

I am not aware of any BIOS implementation that does setup native modes.
How would it do that?

Most laptops in the latest 5 years?

I for one think that this work is very needed. It's one of those things that might not seem very important, but having a beatiful boot, and not having random errors and notes and colors and blinking cursors helps in causing a good impression on new users. I know that many developers and all use ssds and do not notice this, but on most computers you do notice the boot happening, and do notice the issues.

[schmidtbag]

This is nice but I'd rather have opengl 4 (something else I don't care to have ATM) than this.

[elmariachi]

Most laptops in the latest 5 years?

I for one think that this work is very needed. It's one of those things that might not seem very important, but having a beatiful boot, and not having random errors and notes and colors and blinking cursors helps in causing a good impression on new users. I know that many developers and all use ssds and do not notice this, but on most computers you do notice the boot happening, and do notice the issues.

I wish my 4 year old Dell E5400 did...

[uid313]

that's nice... if we could use coreboot

Yeah, I would like to use coreboot too.
Too bad coreboot haven't seen more adoption.

SeaBIOS can run under virtual machines such as QEMU and KVM too, so its benefit there too.

I know that many developers and all use ssds and do not notice this, but on most computers you do notice the boot happening, and do notice the issues.

In a few years, everyone will be using SSD anyways. SSD is the future, it is here to stay.
HDD is going away...

[MonkeyPaw]

My last 3 Ubuntu installs were all on UEFI machines, the last being an HP ProBook that I'm pretty sure uses the panel's native resolution at the configuration screen. I suppose it's nice to have flicker free as a goal to make the whole experience more polished. Can't argue with refinement, so long as the bigger issues are being addressed. Honestly, my Sandy Bridge builds have probably been the best experiences for me. I never thought I'd see the day where Intel offers better graphics support, but I guess open drivers will do that for you.