Re: console / fbdev: fbcon support for bits_per_pixel = 1?

From: Bruno PrÃmont
Date: Sat Jun 14 2014 - 08:36:26 EST


Hi Stefan,

On Sat, 14 June 2014 Stefan Biereigel <stefan@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> CC: linux-console, linux-fbdev
>
> Hello Kernel Developers,
> for a university assignment we are developing a frame buffer driver for a monochrome
> display. We succeeded so far in making a simple "RAM frame buffer" module, which is needed
> as the basis (we don't have read access to the RAM in the LCD).
> We are using the system-default fb_ops (fb_sys_{read,write},
> sys_{fillrect,copyarea,imageblit), and all is well when we use bits_per_pixel = 8. When we
> map a console to the RAM frame buffer (con2fbmap 1 1), do strg-alt-F1, type some
> characters there, we can then 'cat /dev/fb1' and plot the ram contents in Matlab
> (reshaping the data to be our display geometry first), where our typed characters and the
> console appear.
>
> If we however change bits_per_pixel to 1, and divide line_length by 8 (as it should
> represent the line length in bytes), this suddenly stops working: echo and cat to fb1 work
> as intended: We change our Matlab-Script to interpret every byte as 8 pixels, bytes
> written into /dev/fb1 can be read out correctly. If we however map the console to fb1, no
> console output can be seen in RAM - it is (seemingly) filled with garbage.
>
> We're using fbcon as the console driver, and the first frame buffer for me is intelfb. I
> see, that the bitblitting-calls for every typed character are depth 1 and have correct
> geometry, but the whole bitblitting-builtin seems not to work for bits_per_pixel = 1, i
> tried it with a simple test image after the initialisation...
>
> Is this behavior intended or are we triggering a bug here (that no one noticed, because
> who in the world uses monochrome framebuffers these days..). I can't see any comments that
> monochrome consoles should not work with 1 bit per pixel. See the code below if you spot
> some errors (ignore some missing error handling and mediocre style for now, please).

fbcon on 1bpp frambuffer worked for me with picoLCD (though I have found no userspace
framebuffer application willing to operate at 1bpp).
Thus I allow for 1bpp or 8bpp and convert 8bpp to 1bpp for the picolcd. As for your case,
picoLCD is "write-only" monochrome LCD backed by in-RAM shadow framebuffer.

(see drivers/hid/hid-picolcd_fb.c)

Bruno

> Thank you for any help and input.
> Best regards,
> Stefan Biereigel
>
> 8<--- testfb.c
>
> #include <linux/init.h>
> #include <linux/module.h>
>
> #include <linux/fb.h>
> #include <linux/slab.h>
> #include <linux/wait.h>
> #include <linux/errno.h>
> #include <linux/platform_device.h>
>
> #define DISPLAY_WIDTH 240
> #define DISPLAY_HEIGHT 64
> #define FB_MEM_SIZE (DISPLAY_WIDTH * DISPLAY_HEIGHT)/8
>
> static struct platform_device *testfb_device;
>
> static struct fb_ops fbops = {
> .owner = THIS_MODULE,
> .fb_fillrect = sys_fillrect,
> .fb_copyarea = sys_copyarea,
> .fb_imageblit = sys_imageblit,
> .fb_read = fb_sys_read,
> .fb_write = fb_sys_write,
> .fb_sync = NULL,
> };
>
> static int __init testfb_probe (struct platform_device *pdev) {
> void *fb_mem = NULL;
> struct fb_info *fbinfo = NULL;
>
> fb_mem = kzalloc(FB_MEM_SIZE, GFP_KERNEL);
>
> if (!fb_mem) {
> pr_err("testfb: memory allocation for framebuffer failed\n");
> return(-ENOMEM);
> }
> else
> pr_debug("testfb: allocated framebuffer memory successfully\n");
>
> fbinfo = framebuffer_alloc(0, &pdev->dev);
>
> if (!fbinfo) {
> pr_err("testfb: framebuffer_alloc() failed\n");
> kfree(fb_mem);
> return(-1);
> }
> else
> pr_debug("testfb: framebuffer_alloc was successful\n");
>
> fbinfo->fix.smem_start = (unsigned long) fb_mem;
> fbinfo->screen_base = (char __iomem *) fb_mem;
> fbinfo->fix.smem_len = FB_MEM_SIZE;
> fbinfo->fbops = &fbops;
>
> fbinfo->node = 0; /* ?int */
> fbinfo->device = &pdev->dev;
> fbinfo->flags = FBINFO_DEFAULT; /* */
> fbinfo->var.xres = DISPLAY_WIDTH; /* visible resolution */
> fbinfo->var.yres = DISPLAY_HEIGHT; /* visible resolution */
> fbinfo->var.xres_virtual = DISPLAY_WIDTH; /* virtual resolution */
> fbinfo->var.yres_virtual = DISPLAY_HEIGHT; /* virtual resolution */
> fbinfo->var.bits_per_pixel = 1; /* bits per pixel */
> fbinfo->var.activate = FB_ACTIVATE_NOW; /* set values immediately (or vbl) */
> fbinfo->var.sync = 0; /* ?see FB_SYNC_* */
> fbinfo->var.vmode = FB_VMODE_NONINTERLACED; /* non interlaced, see FB_VMODE_* */
> fbinfo->var.left_margin = 0;
> fbinfo->var.right_margin = 0;
> fbinfo->var.upper_margin = 0;
> fbinfo->var.lower_margin = 0;
> fbinfo->var.red.offset = 0;
> fbinfo->var.red.length = fbinfo->var.bits_per_pixel;
> fbinfo->var.green = fbinfo->var.red;
> fbinfo->var.blue = fbinfo->var.red;
> fbinfo->var.grayscale = 1;
> strcpy(fbinfo->fix.id, "testfb"); /* identifier, 16 byte */
> fbinfo->fix.type = FB_TYPE_PACKED_PIXELS; /* pack pixels to avoid overhead */
> fbinfo->fix.visual = FB_VISUAL_MONO10; /* Monochr. 1=Black 0=White */
> fbinfo->fix.line_length = DISPLAY_WIDTH/8; /* length of a line in bytes */
> fbinfo->fix.accel = FB_ACCEL_NONE; /* no hardware accelerator */
> fbinfo->fix.xpanstep = 0;
> fbinfo->fix.ypanstep = 0;
> fbinfo->fix.ywrapstep = 0;
>
> if (register_framebuffer(fbinfo) < 0) {
> pr_err("testfb: registering framebuffer failed\n");
> kfree((void *) fbinfo->fix.smem_start);
> framebuffer_release(fbinfo);
> return(-1);
> }
> else
> pr_debug("testfb: registered framebuffer\n");
>
> platform_set_drvdata(pdev, fbinfo);
>
> return 0;
> }
>
> static int testfb_remove(struct platform_device *pdev) {
> struct fb_info *fbinfo = NULL;
>
> fbinfo = platform_get_drvdata(pdev);
>
> if (!fbinfo) {
> pr_err("testfb: unable to get fbinfo from pdev\n");
> return(-1);
> }
>
> if (unregister_framebuffer(fbinfo) < 0)
> pr_err("testfb: unregistering framebuffer failed\n");
> else
> pr_debug("testfb: unregistered framebuffer\n");
>
> kfree((void *) fbinfo->fix.smem_start);
>
> framebuffer_release(fbinfo);
>
> return 0;
> }
>
> static struct platform_driver testfb_driver = {
> .probe = testfb_probe,
> .remove = testfb_remove,
> .driver = {
> .name = "testfb",
> },
> };
>
> static int __init testfb_init(void)
> {
> int ret;
>
> ret = platform_driver_register(&testfb_driver);
> if (!ret) {
> testfb_device = platform_device_register_simple("testfb", 0,
> NULL, 0);
>
> if (IS_ERR(testfb_device)) {
> platform_driver_unregister(&testfb_driver);
> ret = PTR_ERR(testfb_device);
> } else {
> pr_info("testfb: platform_device registered\n");
> }
>
> }
>
> pr_info("testfb: module loaded\n");
>
> return 0;
> }
>
> static void __exit testfb_exit(void)
> {
> platform_device_unregister(testfb_device);
> platform_driver_unregister(&testfb_driver);
>
> pr_info("testfb: module unloaded\n");
> }
>
> module_init(testfb_init);
> module_exit(testfb_exit);
>
> MODULE_LICENSE("GPL v2");
> MODULE_ALIAS("testfb");
> MODULE_AUTHOR("Brian Fonfara");
> MODULE_DESCRIPTION("Ein Modul zum Test der Linux Framebuffer-Programmierung");
> MODULE_DESCRIPTION("version 0.1");
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