Any Outlook for Broadwell graphics support?

[Ben Woods]

On Wednesday, 3 February 2016, Bob Willcox <bob at immure.com> wrote:

> Hi Ben,
>
> Thanks for your reply and suggestion to use scfb. However, I am not able to
> get it to work. When the X server starts up it isn't switching to graphics
> mode and winds up spewing a bunch of ASCII characters on the screen. I
> tried a
> couple of variations of the xorg.conf file with the same results. I've
> attached the trivial xorg.conf file and the Xorg.0.log file that was
> created.
>
> Any idea what I may be missing or doing wrong? Note that I'm not running
> this
> on a laptop but an i7 NUC (Broadwell CPU) and the display is a 2560x1440
> resolution LCD connected via DisplayPort.
>
> Any suggestion as to what to try would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks again,
> Bob
>
> On Tue, Feb 02, 2016 at 09:48:34PM +0100, Ben Woods wrote:
> > On 2 February 2016 at 17:30, Bob Willcox <bob at immure.com <javascript:;>>
> 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 <javascript:;> | 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 <javascript:;>
>
> --
> Bob Willcox    |
> bob at immure.com <javascript:;> | Entropy isn't what it used to be.
> Austin, TX     |
>

Hi Bob,

Sorry, I forgot to mention you have to boot using the new vt(4) (aka
newcons) for the scfb framebuffer driver to work. This is the default if
you boot using UEFI, but not if you boot using (legacy) BIOS mode.

You can check which console you are using using:
$ sysctl kern.vty

On my laptop, I have to boot using UEFI mode to get this to work at all; if
I try to boot using BIOS mode but with that sysctl manually set to use
vt(4) it doesn't work on my laptop. Your Intel NUC may be the same.

https://man.freebsd.org/vt
https://wiki.freebsd.org/Newcons

Regards,
Ben


-- 

--
From: Benjamin Woods
woodsb02 at gmail.com