X Server setup on ARM Board with PCI VGA card

[Jesse Barnes]

On Thursday, November 01, 2007 3:32 Rupesh Kumar wrote:
> > > Does this mean that X Server runs the BIOS of the VGA Cards if
> > > the card
> >
> > is
> >
> > > secondary display adapter.
> >
> > In some cases it will do so yes via the int13 hooks.
>
> Can VGA Cards work without running VGA BIOS at all (like the way
> network cards and some other pci cards  work).Whether those kind of
> cards exist how can i find out information about those cards.
>
> You said For some video chipsets Documentation is in the public
> domain for a lot of others it is not.
>
> How can i find information about those cards. Can you please help me
> find any such card.

I think VIA devices are fully initialized by LinuxBIOS w/o using the 
video BIOS.  IIRC the Linux kernel has some code for bringing up radeon 
chips to a certain extent.  The Intel driver (with associated Linux 
kernel DRM suspend/resume support) is complete enough that it *should* 
be able to come up without POSTing, though this isn't tested.

If you're doing custom board development though, you should ask the OEMs 
you're purchasing from for video BIOS free device initialization code.  
They should be able to provide it for you.

Jesse