Version:
~
[ 2.3.5 ] ~
[ 2.3 ] ~
1 Plex86/Bochs VGABios
2 --------------------
3
4 The goal of this project is to have a LGPL'd Video Bios in plex86,
5 Bochs and qemu.
6 This VGA Bios is very specific to the emulated VGA card.
7 It is NOT meant to drive a physical vga card.
8
9
10 Cirrus SVGA extension
11 ---------------------
12
13 The Cirrus SVGA extension is designed for the Cirrus emulation in Bochs and
14 qemu. The initial patch for the Cirrus extension has been written by Makoto
15 Suzuki (suzu).
16
17
18 Install
19 -------
20 To compile the VGA Bios you will need :
21 - gcc
22 - bcc
23 - as86
24 - ld86
25
26 Untar the archive, and type make. You should get a "VGABIOS-lgpl-latest.bin"
27 file. Alternatively, you can use the binary file "VGABIOS-lgpl-latest.bin",
28 i have compiled for you.
29
30 Edit your plex86/bochs conf file, and modify the load-rom command in the
31 VGA BIOS section, to point to the new vgabios image file.
32
33
34 Debugging
35 ---------
36 You can get a very basic debugging system: messages printed by the vgabios.
37 You have to register the "unmapped" device driver in plex86 or bochs, and make
38 sure it grabs port 0xfff0.
39
40 Comment the #undef DEBUG at the beginning of vgabios.c.
41 You can then use the "printf" function in the bios.
42
43
44 Testing
45 -------
46 Look at the "testvga.c" file in the archive. This is a minimal Turbo C 2.0
47 source file that calls a few int10 functions. Feel free to modify it to suit
48 your needs.
49
50
51 Copyright and License
52 ---------------------
53 This program has been written by Christophe Bothamy
54 It is protected by the GNU Lesser Public License, which you should
55 have received a copy of along with this package.
56
57
58 Reverse Engineering
59 -------------------
60 The VGA Bios has been written without reverse-engineering any existing Bios.
61
62
63 Acknowledgment
64 --------------
65 The source code contains code ripped from rombios.c of plex86, written
66 by Kevin Lawton <kevin2001@yahoo.com>
67
68 The source code contains fonts from fntcol16.zip (c) by Joseph Gil avalable at :
69 ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/msdos/screen/fntcol16.zip
70 These fonts are public domain
71
72 The source code is based on information taken from :
73 - Kevin Lawton's vga card emulation for bochs/plex86
74 - Ralf Brown's interrupts list avalaible at
75 http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/user/ralf/pub/WWW/files.html
76 - Finn Thogersons' VGADOC4b available at http://home.worldonline.dk/~finth/
77 - Michael Abrash's Graphics Programming Black Book
78 - Francois Gervais' book "programmation des cartes graphiques cga-ega-vga"
79 edited by sybex
80 - DOSEMU 1.0.1 source code for several tables values and formulas
81
82
83 Feedback
84 --------
85 Please report any bugs, comments, patches for this VGA Bios to info@vruppert.de
86 You can find the latest release at : http://www.nongnu.org/vgabios/
87 For any information on bochs, visit the website http://bochs.sourceforge.net/
88 For any information on qemu, visit the website http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/
89
90
91 History
92 -------
93 vgabios-0.6a : Aug 19 2006
94 - Volker
95 . added minimal support for the video parameter table (VPT)
96 . Cirrus SVGA now supports the "no clear" bit in Cirrus and VESA mode
97 . Bochs VBE protected mode interface improved
98 . save/restore video state support for Bochs VBE and standard VGA added
99 . generate vbetables.h dynamicly
100 . VBE video memory increased to 8 MB (VBE dispi ID changed to B0C4)
101 . lots of 4bpp VBE fixes (all 4bpp VBE modes now enabled)
102 . VGA compatible setup for VBE modes added
103
104 vgabios-0.5d : Dec 29 2005
105 - Volker
106 . Bochs VBE protected mode interface added (based on a patch by malc@pulsesoft.com)
107 . biossums utility now supports VGABIOS sizes up to 64 kBytes
108 . VGA mode 0x11: all color planes must be enabled in this 2-color VGA mode
109
110 vgabios-0.5c : Jul 07 2005
111 - Volker
112 . BIOS configuration word usually reports initial mode 80x25 color text
113 . vgabios function 0x0e (write teletype): linefeed (0x0a) only increments the
114 cursor row value
115
116 vgabios-0.5b : May 24 2005
117 - Volker
118 . fixed return value for the default case in the VBE section (non-debug mode)
119 . removed unused stuff
120
121 vgabios-0.5a : Mar 07 2005
122 - Volker
123 . Cirrus SVGA extension (initial patches from Makoto Suzuki, improvements
124 from Fabrice Bellard)
125 . vgabios image size is now exactly 32k with a checksum
126 . a lot of vgabios and vbe functions rewritten in assembler
127 . dynamicly generated VBE mode info list
128 . write character function for CGA and LINEAR8 modes
129 . read/write graphics pixel for some graphics modes
130 . text scroll feature for some graphics modes
131 . VBE 8-bit DAC support
132
133 vgabios-0.4c : Nov 06 2003
134 - Christophe
135 . fix font problem on initial screen of NT4 Loader
136
137 vgabios-0.4b : Nov 04 2003
138 - Volker
139 . fix offset of character tables
140 . optimizations of CRT controller accesses
141 . VBE i/o registers changed to 0x01CE/CF
142 (suggestion from Daniel Gimpelevich)
143 . "noclear" flag stored in BIOS area
144 . fix character height returned by get_font_info function
145
146 vgabios-0.4a : Aug 17 2003
147 - Volker
148 . VBE mode search rewritten (VBE modes with LFB bit removed)
149 . many bugfixes and optimizations
150 . write character function implemented for graphics modes
151 . support for 15bpp, 16bpp, 24bpp and 32bpp VBE modes added
152 . SVGA mode 0x6A added
153 . VBE modes 0x102, 0x117, 0x118 and 0x142 (Bochs specific)
154
155 vgabios-0.3b : Nov 23 2002
156 - Christophe
157 . added lfb-mode numbers (patch from mathis)
158 . updated the Makefile
159 . removed display of copyrights.
160 . changed the Copyright string to "LGPL VGABios developers"
161 - Volker
162 . set the cursor shape depending on the current font height
163 . clear BL before calling int 0x10 function 0x1103 in vgabios_init_func
164 . added some text font functions
165 - Jeroen
166 . Forced to new DISPI (0xb0c1) interface (requires latest bochs vbe code)
167 . Added multibuffering support
168 . Added new DISPI interface for: virt width, height, x offset, y offset
169 . Added LFB modes (to be used with the vbe-lfb patch in bochs)
170 see VBE_HAVE_LFB in vbe.c (currently default enabled)
171 . updated TODO & docs for changes after bochs 1.4
172
173 vgabios-0.3a : Mar 10 2002
174 - Christophe
175 . Fixed bug in function ah=13
176 - Jeroen
177 . updated vbebios implementation to new api
178 . added vbe_display_api documentation
179 . added 640x400x8, 640x480x8, 800x600x8, 1024x768
180 (>640x480 needs a special bochs patch atm)
181 . added 320x200x8 vbe support (uses the standard 320x200x8 vga mode to
182 display, this allows for testing & having something on screen as well,
183 at least until bochs host side display is up & running)
184 . adding lfbprof (vbe) testprogram (+some small fixes to it)
185 . merging with vbebios 0.2
186
187 vgabios-0.2b : Nov 19 2001
188 - Christophe
189 . Fixed bug in function ah=13
190
191 vgabios-0.2a : Nov 09 2001
192 - Christophe
193 . Included bugfix from techt@pikeonline.net about grayscale summing
194 . Added the "IBM" string at org 0x1e as Bart Oldeman suggested
195 . Fixed DS and ES that where inverted in the int10 parameters list!
196 . The following have been implemented :
197 - function ax=1a00, ax=1a01, ah=1b
198 - function ax=1130
199 . Added debug messages for unimplemented/unknown functions
200 Must be compiled with DEBUG defined. The output is trapped
201 by the unknown-ioport driver of plex/bochs (port 0xfff0 is used)
202
203 vgabios-0.1a : May 8 2001
204 - Christophe
205 . First release. The work has been focused only on text mode.
206 . The following have been implemented :
207 - inits
208 - int 10 handler
209 - functions ah=00, ah=01, ah=02, ah=03, ah=05, ah=06, ah=07, ah=08
210 ah=09, ah=0a, ah=0e, ah=0f, ax=1000, ax=1001, ax=1002, ax=1003
211 ax=1007, ax=1008, ax=1009, ax=1010, ax=1012, ax=1013, ax=1015
212 ax=1017, ax=1018, ax=1019, ax=101a, ax=101b, ah=12 bl=10,
213 ah=12 bl=30, ah=12 bl=31, ah=12 bl=32, ah=12 bl=33, ah=12 bl=34
214 ah=13
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