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Kernel 5.15.70 with simplefb

September 27, 2022 — BarryK

A very interesting discovery was made. Easy 4.4 was released with Limine 3.25, and Reynaldo reported got a black screen at bootup:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=6881

I recalled a change that was made last year:

https://bkhome.org/news/202111/kernel-51078-with-legacy-framebuffers.html

...I did decide to keep the legacy framebuffers, using the rather vague logic that it might be better for older hardware. At least, I think that was my reasoning at the time.

Limine developer mintsuki fixed it. But, tested with an older kernel that has "simple framebuffer" not legacy-framebuffers, and the problem I had with black screen on my old "HP motherboard" PC, just went away -- it booted.

So, it is looking like simplefb is the way to go, and I have compiled the 5.15.70 kernel, with the entries in bold enabled (builtin):

> Device Drivers > Graphics support > Frame buffer Devices > Support for frame buffer devices ── 
┌──────────────────────────── Support for frame buffer devices ─────────────────────────────┐
│ Arrow keys navigate the menu. <Enter> selects submenus ---> (or empty submenus ----). │
│ Highlighted letters are hotkeys. Pressing <Y> includes, <N> excludes, <M> modularizes │
│ features. Press <Esc><Esc> to exit, <?> for Help, </> for Search. Legend: [*] built-in │
│ [ ] excluded <M> module < > module capable │
│ ┌────────^(-)───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │
│ │ <M> VIA VT8623 support │ │
│ │ <M> Trident/CyberXXX/CyberBlade support │ │
│ │ <M> ARK 2000PV support │ │
│ │ <M> Permedia3 support │ │
│ │ <M> Fujitsu carmine frame buffer support │ │
│ │ DRAM timing (Eval board timings) ---> │ │
│ │ <M> Silicon Motion SM501 framebuffer support │ │
│ │ <M> SMSC UFX6000/7000 USB Framebuffer support │ │
│ │ <M> Displaylink USB Framebuffer support │ │
│ │ < > Framebuffer support for IBM GXT4000P/4500P/6000P/6500P adaptors │ │
│ │ < > Virtual Frame Buffer support (ONLY FOR TESTING!) │ │
│ │ <M> E-Ink Metronome/8track controller support │ │
│ │ <M> Fujitsu MB862xx GDC support │ │
│ │ GDC variant (Carmine/Coral-P(A) GDC) ---> │ │
│ │ [*] Support I2C bus on MB862XX GDC │ │
│ │ < > Simple framebuffer support CONFIG_FB_SIMPLE │ │
│ │ < > Solomon SSD1307 framebuffer support

Also:

> Device Drivers > Firmware Drivers ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 
┌──────────────────────────────────── Firmware Drivers ─────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Arrow keys navigate the menu. <Enter> selects submenus ---> (or empty submenus ----). │
│ Highlighted letters are hotkeys. Pressing <Y> includes, <N> excludes, <M> modularizes │
│ features. Press <Esc><Esc> to exit, <?> for Help, </> for Search. Legend: [*] built-in │
│ [ ] excluded <M> module < > module capable │
│ ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │
│ │ ARM System Control and Management Interface Protocol ---- │ │
│ │ < > BIOS Enhanced Disk Drive calls determine boot disk │ │
│ │ [*] Export DMI identification via sysfs to userspace │ │
│ │ < > DMI table support in sysfs │ │
│ │ < > iSCSI Boot Firmware Table Attributes module │ │
│ │ < > QEMU fw_cfg device support in sysfs │ │
│ │ [ ] Mark VGA/VBE/EFI FB as generic system framebuffer CONFIG_SYSFB_SIMPLEFB │ │
│ │ [ ] Google Firmware Drivers ---- │ │
│ │ EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface) Support ---> │ │
│ │ [ ] Load custom ACPI SSDT overlay from an EFI variable │ │
│ │ Tegra firmware driver ---- │ │

That CONFIG_SYSFB_SIMPLEFB is named CONFIG_X86_SYSFB in the 5.10.x kernel.

Note, CONFIG_FB_SIMPLE is also deprecated, it is missing in the 5.16 kernel, replaced with CONFIG_DRM_SIMPLEDRM. Will cross that bridge when I get to it.      

Tags: easy