New video BIOS for bhyve

[Paul Webster]

Great work Henrik

On Thu, 1 Aug 2019 at 18:19, Rodney W. Grimes <freebsd-rwg at gndrsh.dnsmgr.net>
wrote:

> > On 7/19/19 3:02 AM, Henrik Gulbrandsen wrote:
> > > In the last few months, I have been extending the video support in
> bhyve
> > > to allow booting from live ISO images, which sometimes lack UEFI
> > > loaders.
> > > There was already a video BIOS with dormant support for VGA, but I
> could
> > > not use that, because the X11 int10 module runs a real-mode x86
> emulator
> > > that aborts when it tries to enter the C code running in protected
> mode.
> > >
> > > Instead, I added support for PCI Expansion ROMs to bhyve and wrote a
> new
> > > SVGA video BIOS from scratch in 8086 assembly code. The current
> features
> > > include VGA modes 3 and 12h, 24-bit and 32-bit VESA modes from 640x480
> > > to
> > > 1920x1200, and enough BIOS functions to boot a typical Linux desktop.
> > >
> > > At this point, I think it's good enough for a preliminary release, so
> if
> > > you are interested, you will find all patch files at the following URL:
> > >
> > >      https://www.gulbra.net/freebsd-bhyve/
> > >
> > > My apologies for the 15-year-old web layout, which will probably break
> > > horribly on modern smartphones. Also, I hope I have not duplicated the
> > > work of someone else. I didn't want to announce this before it worked.
> >
> > This is pretty impressive work!  Would you be able to post these patches
> to
> > a public repository, e.g. on github or gitlab or some such?  That would
> > really help with review and allow others to assist with the work as well.
>
> I let this fall through my cracks as well while busy with
> other things.  I too would like to see this work moved
> forward.  I see that your patches are against an 11.3
> system, and can appreciate that not everone has resources
> to run -head, how can we assist in getting these patches
> moved forward to head?
>
> Regards,
> --
> Rod Grimes
> rgrimes at freebsd.org
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