Linux-kernel mailing list archive 1999-37,: Re: New Idea? Capture video settings details in Win98/etc. for XFree86

# Re: New Idea? Capture video settings details in Win98/etc. for XFree86

Jeff Garzik (jgarzik@pobox.com)
Mon, 13 Sep 1999 19:14:04 -0400

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Jens Benecke wrote:
>
> On Mon, Sep 13, 1999 at 01:25:57AM +0000, Stephen D. WIlliams wrote:
>
> > It occurred to me that it is probably possible to write a Win98/NT
> > program that can grab those settings from a running system (configured
> > with card vendor supplied BIOS/drivers) and save them to a floppy for use
> > in installing Linux on that box.
>
> There was once a (Perl IIRC) Script that extracted this information from
> the registry files, from a mounted (V)FAT partition. I think it was
> mentioned on Freshmeat (a year ago, or something).

Buried deep within a patch[1], there exists a Perl script which will
input a description of [generally VGA-based] graphics hardware, and a
set of register states, and output a C header file. Currently this C
header is only included into a 'genfb' module, which generically
supports any video device listed in that header. However it will in the
future interface to a dump program I wrote which builds under cygwin32.
So that you can use that to steal Win9x video mode info to build a basic
fbcon driver.

Jeff

[1]
http://gtf.org/garzik/kernel/files/UNTESTED/2.3.13-cvs-fb-19990815.patch.gz

    --
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- Maybe in reply to: Stephen D. WIlliams: "New Idea? Capture video settings details in Win98/etc. for XFree86"