VESA mode Hi,

If you use VESAaccepted, or just edit the 'vesa' file that's located in ~/config/settings/kernel/drivers/ you can set a VESA mode that gets activated on the next BeOS boot. Most people report that a higher screen resolution also improves speed.

An example 'vesa' file is located in the folder 'sample' that you'll find in the above mentioned folder BTW. (VESA accepted will setup this file also.)

On boot, while still in realmode, BeOS checks if this file exists and if so, it will try to do a VBE2 (VESA Bios Extensions version 2) call to your cards BIOS to activate the requested mode. If your card only supports VBE1.x it will not work. Your only hope then will be installing a TSR program in DOS that adds VBE2 support for the card (or to upgrade the cards BIOS to include VBE2 support). Installing a TSR program means you first have to boot into DOS, start that program, and then 'loadbeos' the way you can do with 5PE.

If your card supports VBE3 then it also supports the VBE2 stuff so it will work by default. (Be sure to read Eugenia's comments on VesaAccecpted talkback page BEFORE you try VBE3! SEE below)

If you are sure your card supports at least VBE2 and it still does not work, it might be you requested a mode your card does not support. Most cards will support 640x480x8, 640x480x16, 800x600x8 and 800x600x16 mode. 32bit mode is not always supported for instance. If you are trying to enable vesa support, make sure you start with 640x480x8 mode, as this mode has the highest chance of being supported on your card...

BTW: If you have setup the 'vesa' file BeOS will always setup the requested vesa mode on boot before switching to protected mode. This is also true if you do have a 'real' driver installed for your card. You'll see your Icons screen change resolution/colordepth on the exact moment the VBE call is done. The real driver will kick in later: at the moment the Desktop appears (as soon as the icons screen disappears). This fact should not create trouble however UNLESS:

If you want to use VESA mode because you have a driver that's giving you trouble (like hanging your system). In this case you need to remove the offending driver from your system. Otherwise VESA mode _will_ kick in, but shortly after that the driver that you are trying to circumvent will come up and do it's thing anyway!

Rudolf.

and some small edits.

Reference at VESA.ORG http://www.vesa.org/vbe3.pdf

This is a copy of a note on the vesa page at bebits.com "Warning about VESA 3.0 By Eugenia - Posted on June 7, 2002 - 21:45:56 (#1724) Current version when comment was posted: 1.1 BTW, to use these VESA 3.0 utilities, make SURE you are under *100% clean* DOS, not Windows or Windows-to-Dos restart. Running these graphics drivers under a Windows session, might end up destroying your board or your Windows. If you do not know how to load a clean DOS, then do not bother with this advanced tip at all, just use the plain VESA 2.0 extensions that 'VESA Accepted' supports, at 60 Hz, and do not bother further.

Change your refresh rate with VESA By Eugenia - Posted on June 7, 2002 - 21:42:04 (#1723) Current version when comment was posted: 1.1 You all know that VESA 2.0, the standard that BeOS supports, only allows 60 Hz of refresh rate on the monitors. But 60 Hz is not good for your eyes if you are using a CRT monitor.

You might want to try one of these MS-DOS utilities out *as long* your (unsupported by BeOS) graphics card is VESA 3.0 compatible: http://www.informatik.fh-muenchen.de/~ifw98223/vbehz.htm http://unirefresh.demonews.com/

Tell BeOS to use VESA by using 'VESA Accepted', install one of these utilities under DOS, switch the resolution and refresh rate you want, and then load BeOS through DOS, via the C:\BeOS\loadbeos.com application (you will be able to load with that either BeOS PE or PRO). Now BeOS will use the refresh rate you told DOS to use! "