Any Outlook for Broadwell graphics support?

Ben Woods woodsb02 at gmail.com
Tue Feb 2 20:48:37 UTC 2016


On 2 February 2016 at 17:30, Bob Willcox <bob at immure.com> wrote:

> On Mon, Dec 21, 2015 at 01:20:06AM +0100, Jean-Sébastien Pédron wrote:
> > Le 16/12/2015 09:00, Graham Perrin a écrit :
> > > HP EliteBook 850 G2; IntelCorei7-5500U with Intel HD Graphics 5500.
> Lumina.
> >
> > Hi!
> >
> > i7 5xxx is Broadwell. Unfortunately, this generation is not supported by
> > FreeBSD, not even by the upcoming i915 update which is included in the
> > PC-BSD December snapshot AFAIK.
>
> Hi,
>
> Is there any outlook on when/if Broadwell support might be added?
>
> I have an Intel NUC5i7RYH which has an i7-5557 with a 6100 integrated GPU
> and
> would really like to be able to run X on it. I'm currently running:
>
> FreeBSD yoda.immure.com 10.3-PRERELEASE FreeBSD 10.3-PRERELEASE #0
> r295134: Mon Feb  1 20:56:12 CST 2016     bob at yoda.immure.com:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC
> amd64
>
> on it, but unable to configure X due to the GPU:
>
> vgapci0 at pci0:0:2:0:     class=0x030000 card=0x20578086 chip=0x162b8086
> rev=0x09 hdr=0x00
>     vendor     = 'Intel Corporation'
>     device     = 'Broadwell-U Integrated Graphics'
>     class      = display
>     subclass   = VGA
>
> Thanks,
> Bob
> --
> Bob Willcox    |
> bob at immure.com | Entropy isn't what it used to be.
> Austin, TX     |
>


Hi Bob,

Whilst broadwell support still appears to be some way off, you should be
able to use the scfb framebuffer driver in the mean time. It does not
provide accelerated graphics, and is missing some features like brightness
adjustment and support for external displays, but it works just fine on
built-in laptop displays for simply desktop use and even playing videos.

To get it working:

1. Boot to a console (ensure X is installed as per the handbook, but not
running)

2. Install the x11-drivers/xf86-video-scfb port/package:
    # pkg install xf86-video-scfb

3. Remove the x11-drivers/xf86-video-intel port/package:
    # pkg remove xf86-video-intel

4. Unload the i915 and i915kms kernel modules:
    # kldunload i915
    # kldunload i915kms

5. Edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf to remove anything related to intel graphics.
The only section of the file you should need is the following:
    Section "Device"
        Identifier    "Card0"
        Driver        "scfb"
    EndSection

6. Start X and enjoy your laptop graphical display (even if it is not
accelerated).

Refer to the scfb X11 framebuffer driver man page here:
https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=scfb&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=FreeBSD+10.2-RELEASE+and+Ports&arch=default&format=html

Good luck!

Regards,
Ben

--
From: Benjamin Woods
woodsb02 at gmail.com


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