fbcon: Console Rotation
cover fbcon: Console Rotation
This patch series implements generic code to rotate the console at 90, 180, and 270 degrees. The implementation is completely done in the framebuffer console level, thus no changes to the framebuffer layer or to the drivers are needed.
Console rotation is required by some Sharp-based devices where the natural orientation of the display is not at 0 degrees. Also, users that have displays that can pivot will benefit by having a console in portrait mode if they so desire.
The choice to implement the code in the console layer rather than in the framebuffer layer is due to the following reasons:
- it's fast
- it does not require driver changes
- it can coexist with devices that can rotate the display at the hardware level
- it complements graphics applications that can do display rotation
The changes to core fbcon are minimal-- recognition of the console rotation angle so it can swap directions, origins and axes (xres vs yres, xpanstep vs ypanstep, xoffset vs yoffset, etc) and storage of the rotation angle per display. The bulk of the code that does the actual drawing to the screen are placed in separate files. Each angle of rotation has separate methods (bmove, clear, putcs, cursor, update_start which is derived from update_var, and clear_margins). To mimimize processing time, the fontdata are pre-rotated at each console switch (only if the font or the angle has changed).
The option can be compiled out (CONFIG_FRAMEBUFFER_CONSOLE_ROTATION = n) if rotation is not needed.
Choosing the rotation angle can be done in several ways:
1. boot option fbcon=rotate:n, where
n = 0 - normal
n = 1 - 90 degrees (clockwise)
n = 2 - 180 degrees (upside down)
n = 3 - 270 degrees (counterclockwise)
2. echo n > /sys/class/graphics/fb[num]/con_rotate
where n is the same as described above. It sets the angle of rotation
of the current console
3 echo n > /sys/class/graphics/fb[num]/con_rotate_all
where n is the same as described above. Globally sets the angle of
rotation.
GOTCHAS:
The option, especially at angles of 90 and 270 degrees, will exercise
the least used code of drivers. Namely, at these angles, panning is done in the x-axis, so it can reveal bugs in the driver if xpanstep is set incorrectly. A workaround is to set xpanstep = 0.
Secondly, at these angles, the framebuffer memory access can be
unaligned if (fontheight * bpp) % 32 ~= 0 which can reveal bugs in the drivers imageblit, fillrect and copyarea functions. (I think cfbfillrect may have this buglet). A workaround is to use a standard 8x16 font.
Speed:
The scrolling speed difference between 0 and 180 degrees is minimal,
somewhere areound 1-2%. At 90 or 270 degress, speed drops down to a vicinity of 30-40%. This is understandable because the blit direction is across the framebuffer "direction." Scrolling will be helped at these angles if xpanstep is not equal to zero, use of 8x16 fonts, and setting xres_virtual >= xres * 2.
Note: The code is tested on little-endian only, so I don't know if it will work in big-endian. Please let me know, it will take only less than a minute of your time.
Tony
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Quoted 3 lines · Antonino A. Daplas
This patch series implements generic code to rotate the console at 90, 180, and 270 degrees.
I note that you have a bunch of fixes which are dependent upon these changes.
What's your priority on all this work?
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Quoted 8 lines · Andrew Morton
Quoted 2 lines · Antonino A. Daplas
This patch series implements generic code to rotate the console at 90, 180, and 270 degrees.
I note that you have a bunch of fixes which are dependent upon these changes.
What's your priority on all this work?
None are actually important, except for these 2 which are fixes of real problems:
[PATCH 1/7] savagefb: X-panning fixes
[PATCH 7/7] fbdev: Framebuffer mode required for PowerBook Titanium
These 2 should apply cleanly.
The rest are cleanups and can wait. If you have problems merging them, I'll resubmit them on your next release.
Tony
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Quoted 11 lines · Antonino A. Daplas
Quoted 8 lines · Andrew Morton
Quoted 2 lines · Antonino A. Daplas
This patch series implements generic code to rotate the console at 90, 180, and 270 degrees.
I note that you have a bunch of fixes which are dependent upon these changes.
What's your priority on all this work?
Quoted 7 lines
None are actually important, except for these 2 which are fixes of real problems:
[PATCH 1/7] savagefb: X-panning fixes
[PATCH 7/7] fbdev: Framebuffer mode required for PowerBook TitaniumThese 2 should apply cleanly.
OK.
Quoted 1 line
The rest are cleanups and can wait.
Well I was also referring to the rotation patches - a new feature.
I guess you'd like them in 2.6.15. Ho hum.
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Quoted 9 lines · Andrew Morton
Quoted 3 lines · Antonino A. Daplas
Quoted 1 line · Andrew Morton
"Antonino A. Daplas" <[email protected]> wrote:
The rest are cleanups and can wait.
Well I was also referring to the rotation patches - a new feature.
I guess you'd like them in 2.6.15. Ho hum.
Not really, I already had a patch much similar to this since 2.5.x, but never pushed it, so it can wait a few kernel versions. I would rather that they get the testing for as long as possible. It's the Zaurus people that may actually want this feature just because they need it, but I believe they have their own development kernel with this patch already included.
Unfortunately though, this patch substantially changed fbcon.c, so any other patch affecting that file may have to wait or risk conflicts in the future.
Tony
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Quoted 4 lines · Antonino A. Daplas
Unfortunately though, this patch substantially changed
fbcon.c, so
any other patch affecting that file may have to wait or risk conflicts in the future.
Yes, that's a problem. We _could_ just slam this in this week and grit our teeth. How would you evaluate the risk of regressions to existing setups?
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Quoted 8 lines · Andrew Morton
Quoted 4 lines · Antonino A. Daplas
Unfortunately though, this patch substantially changed
fbcon.c, so
any other patch affecting that file may have to wait or risk conflicts in the future.Yes, that's a problem. We _could_ just slam this in this week and grit our teeth. How would you evaluate the risk of regressions to existing setups?
Low, if rotation is disabled. Most of the rotation code will be compiled as no-ops.
Tony
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Quoted 8 lines · Antonino Daplas
Quoted 6 lines · Andrew Morton
Quoted 4 lines · Antonino A. Daplas
Unfortunately though, this patch substantially changed
fbcon.c, so
any other patch affecting that file may have to wait or risk conflicts in the future.
Quoted 5 lines
Quoted 2 lines
Yes, that's a problem. We _could_ just slam this in this week and grit our teeth. How would you evaluate the risk of regressions to existing setups?
Low, if rotation is disabled. Most of the rotation code will be compiled as no-ops.
Ho hum, OK. Fingers crossed...
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Quoted 10 lines
Quoted 10 lines
Quoted 10 lines
Quoted 6 lines
Unfortunately though, this patch substantially changed
fbcon.c, so any other patch affecting that file may have to wait or risk conflicts in the future.Yes, that's a problem. We _could_ just slam this in this week and grit our teeth. How would you evaluate the risk of regressions to existing setups?
Quoted 9 lines
Quoted 4 lines
Low, if rotation is disabled. Most of the rotation code will be compiled as no-ops.
Ho hum, OK. Fingers crossed...
If those patches would introduce bugs not related to rotated screens we would find those bugs quickly as every single user tests those routines at least during the boot process.
Screen rotation is a usefull feature. Not for everybody, but there are lots of people who would appreciate it. I vote for including them now, asap. This would give the maintainers of the hardware drivers a real argument to fix x-panning, or at least to disable it in *check_var() in case it is broken or not supported by the hardware.
cu,
knut
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