FBDEV Is Still Alive In 2019, Picking Up A Few Minor Improvements In Linux 4.21

It's been nearly seven years already since some kernel developers called for deprecating FBDEV drivers. FBDEV is still alive and well within the Linux kernel but at least more embedded/mobile developers are pursuing DRM/KMS drivers these days and less code targeting these frame-buffer device drivers. With Linux 4.21, FBDEV is picking up a few improvements.

FBDEV for Linux 4.21 adds support (finally?) for centering the boot-up logo now horizontally/vertically on the display rather than starting in the upper left corner, but that is not enabled by default - it will require setting the FB_LOGO_CENTER Kconfig option. The FBDEV subsystem work for the Linux 4.21 kernel also includes better support for small rotated displays, a frame-buffer console (fbcon) crash fix when there is more than one frame-buffer, and other fixes and minor improvements.

The complete list of the fairly small FBDEV changes for Linux 4.21 can be found via this pull request.

Separately but along similar lines to the FBDEV deprecation not having happened yet, sadly there is nothing new to report on KMSCON and its development still in hibernation for trying to replace the kernel VT code.