How exactly do the Linux display device files work? [closed]

I don't really understand how the Linux display device files work and interact together. What files in the /dev tree need to go where and where do they need to connect/point to, in order to show a basic text console on my screen? Are there any resources that provide the equivalent of 'the hip bone connects to the knee bone ...', but for Linux graphics device files? I have searched the web and found surprisingly little information about this topic.

Please note that I am not looking for anything to do with X - I'm referring to a system that just has a basic text console. Also, this question is focused on using the framebuffer for text/graphics display - I'm not looking for anything involving DRM.

Edit:

It was suggested in the comments that providing a general answer to this may be too long for the SE format. Therefore, can anyone point to any external resources (website or printed) for me to understand this?

edited Jan 14 at 21:35

Rui F Ribeiro

39.7k1479132

asked Jan 14 at 14:06

Time4Tea

1,094322

closed as too broad by Thomas Dickey, Stephen Harris, Mr Shunz, Christopher, Rui F Ribeiro Jan 15 at 17:44

Please edit the question to limit it to a specific problem with enough detail to identify an adequate answer. Avoid asking multiple distinct questions at once. See the How to Ask page for help clarifying this question. If this question can be reworded to fit the rules in the help center, please edit the question.

1

Not sure if it's related, but on several MacBook Pro's I've access to the second (Radeon) graphics card failed recently (using the original Mac OS). If I've more time, I'm going to try a Linux install; so far I just booted from various pre-made distros. Symptoms are similar to yours: Under both Mac OS and various Linux distros, text mode boot works, but it crashes (black screen) when it tries to enable graphics. Do you have a second in-built graphics card on your Macbook? What happens if you remove the radeon drivers from your distro?

– dirkt
Jan 14 at 14:16

1

@dirkt no, this particular MacBook (2,1) has just an onboard intel graphics chip, no second graphics card. As I mentioned in the question, I have removed the i915 and drm kernel modules (for GPU acceleration), but I still get the black screen problem on boot.

– Time4Tea
Jan 14 at 14:21

1

Can you ssh into the booted system and inspect logs, dmesg etc.? This should show you what it's loading - it will be difficult to guess what goes wrong, as you built the LFS system.

– dirkt
Jan 14 at 14:25

1

@dirkt I can access the log files from a different Linux distro that I have installed on another partition (which is also suffering from some annoying display glitches). However, with this question, really I am looking for a general explanation of how the graphics device files work (or at least, are supposed to), as opposed to trying to troubleshoot my specific problem. Perhaps I could ask about the specific problem in a separate question, so as not to confuse things?

– Time4Tea
Jan 14 at 14:30

1

@dirkt I have split the issue-specific question into a separate one here. As for this general question: do you know of any external resources that might help me understand better how the display device files work? Thanks for your input.

– Time4Tea
Jan 14 at 16:57

|
show 7 more comments

Edit:

edited Jan 14 at 21:35

Rui F Ribeiro

39.7k1479132

asked Jan 14 at 14:06

Time4Tea

1,094322

closed as too broad by Thomas Dickey, Stephen Harris, Mr Shunz, Christopher, Rui F Ribeiro Jan 15 at 17:44

1

Not sure if it's related, but on several MacBook Pro's I've access to the second (Radeon) graphics card failed recently (using the original Mac OS). If I've more time, I'm going to try a Linux install; so far I just booted from various pre-made distros. Symptoms are similar to yours: Under both Mac OS and various Linux distros, text mode boot works, but it crashes (black screen) when it tries to enable graphics. Do you have a second in-built graphics card on your Macbook? What happens if you remove the radeon drivers from your distro?

– dirkt
Jan 14 at 14:16

1

@dirkt no, this particular MacBook (2,1) has just an onboard intel graphics chip, no second graphics card. As I mentioned in the question, I have removed the i915 and drm kernel modules (for GPU acceleration), but I still get the black screen problem on boot.

– Time4Tea
Jan 14 at 14:21

1

Can you ssh into the booted system and inspect logs, dmesg etc.? This should show you what it's loading - it will be difficult to guess what goes wrong, as you built the LFS system.

– dirkt
Jan 14 at 14:25

1

@dirkt I can access the log files from a different Linux distro that I have installed on another partition (which is also suffering from some annoying display glitches). However, with this question, really I am looking for a general explanation of how the graphics device files work (or at least, are supposed to), as opposed to trying to troubleshoot my specific problem. Perhaps I could ask about the specific problem in a separate question, so as not to confuse things?

– Time4Tea
Jan 14 at 14:30

1

@dirkt I have split the issue-specific question into a separate one here. As for this general question: do you know of any external resources that might help me understand better how the display device files work? Thanks for your input.

– Time4Tea
Jan 14 at 16:57

|
show 7 more comments

Edit:

edited Jan 14 at 21:35

Rui F Ribeiro

39.7k1479132

asked Jan 14 at 14:06

Time4Tea

1,094322

Edit:

devices console display framebuffer

edited Jan 14 at 21:35

Rui F Ribeiro

39.7k1479132

asked Jan 14 at 14:06

Time4Tea

1,094322

edited Jan 14 at 21:35

Rui F Ribeiro

39.7k1479132

asked Jan 14 at 14:06

Time4Tea

1,094322

edited Jan 14 at 21:35

Rui F Ribeiro

39.7k1479132

edited Jan 14 at 21:35

Rui F Ribeiro

39.7k1479132

edited Jan 14 at 21:35

Rui F Ribeiro

39.7k1479132

asked Jan 14 at 14:06

Time4Tea

1,094322

asked Jan 14 at 14:06

Time4Tea

1,094322

asked Jan 14 at 14:06

Time4Tea

1,094322

closed as too broad by Thomas Dickey, Stephen Harris, Mr Shunz, Christopher, Rui F Ribeiro Jan 15 at 17:44

1

Not sure if it's related, but on several MacBook Pro's I've access to the second (Radeon) graphics card failed recently (using the original Mac OS). If I've more time, I'm going to try a Linux install; so far I just booted from various pre-made distros. Symptoms are similar to yours: Under both Mac OS and various Linux distros, text mode boot works, but it crashes (black screen) when it tries to enable graphics. Do you have a second in-built graphics card on your Macbook? What happens if you remove the radeon drivers from your distro?

– dirkt
Jan 14 at 14:16

1

@dirkt no, this particular MacBook (2,1) has just an onboard intel graphics chip, no second graphics card. As I mentioned in the question, I have removed the i915 and drm kernel modules (for GPU acceleration), but I still get the black screen problem on boot.

– Time4Tea
Jan 14 at 14:21

1

Can you ssh into the booted system and inspect logs, dmesg etc.? This should show you what it's loading - it will be difficult to guess what goes wrong, as you built the LFS system.

– dirkt
Jan 14 at 14:25

1

@dirkt I can access the log files from a different Linux distro that I have installed on another partition (which is also suffering from some annoying display glitches). However, with this question, really I am looking for a general explanation of how the graphics device files work (or at least, are supposed to), as opposed to trying to troubleshoot my specific problem. Perhaps I could ask about the specific problem in a separate question, so as not to confuse things?

– Time4Tea
Jan 14 at 14:30

1

@dirkt I have split the issue-specific question into a separate one here. As for this general question: do you know of any external resources that might help me understand better how the display device files work? Thanks for your input.

– Time4Tea
Jan 14 at 16:57

|
show 7 more comments

1

Not sure if it's related, but on several MacBook Pro's I've access to the second (Radeon) graphics card failed recently (using the original Mac OS). If I've more time, I'm going to try a Linux install; so far I just booted from various pre-made distros. Symptoms are similar to yours: Under both Mac OS and various Linux distros, text mode boot works, but it crashes (black screen) when it tries to enable graphics. Do you have a second in-built graphics card on your Macbook? What happens if you remove the radeon drivers from your distro?

– dirkt
Jan 14 at 14:16

1

@dirkt no, this particular MacBook (2,1) has just an onboard intel graphics chip, no second graphics card. As I mentioned in the question, I have removed the i915 and drm kernel modules (for GPU acceleration), but I still get the black screen problem on boot.

– Time4Tea
Jan 14 at 14:21

1

Can you ssh into the booted system and inspect logs, dmesg etc.? This should show you what it's loading - it will be difficult to guess what goes wrong, as you built the LFS system.

– dirkt
Jan 14 at 14:25

1

@dirkt I can access the log files from a different Linux distro that I have installed on another partition (which is also suffering from some annoying display glitches). However, with this question, really I am looking for a general explanation of how the graphics device files work (or at least, are supposed to), as opposed to trying to troubleshoot my specific problem. Perhaps I could ask about the specific problem in a separate question, so as not to confuse things?

– Time4Tea
Jan 14 at 14:30

1

@dirkt I have split the issue-specific question into a separate one here. As for this general question: do you know of any external resources that might help me understand better how the display device files work? Thanks for your input.

– Time4Tea
Jan 14 at 16:57

Not sure if it's related, but on several MacBook Pro's I've access to the second (Radeon) graphics card failed recently (using the original Mac OS). If I've more time, I'm going to try a Linux install; so far I just booted from various pre-made distros. Symptoms are similar to yours: Under both Mac OS and various Linux distros, text mode boot works, but it crashes (black screen) when it tries to enable graphics. Do you have a second in-built graphics card on your Macbook? What happens if you remove the radeon drivers from your distro?

– dirkt
Jan 14 at 14:16

@dirkt no, this particular MacBook (2,1) has just an onboard intel graphics chip, no second graphics card. As I mentioned in the question, I have removed the i915 and drm kernel modules (for GPU acceleration), but I still get the black screen problem on boot.

– Time4Tea
Jan 14 at 14:21

Can you ssh into the booted system and inspect logs, dmesg etc.? This should show you what it's loading - it will be difficult to guess what goes wrong, as you built the LFS system.

– dirkt
Jan 14 at 14:25

@dirkt I can access the log files from a different Linux distro that I have installed on another partition (which is also suffering from some annoying display glitches). However, with this question, really I am looking for a general explanation of how the graphics device files work (or at least, are supposed to), as opposed to trying to troubleshoot my specific problem. Perhaps I could ask about the specific problem in a separate question, so as not to confuse things?

– Time4Tea
Jan 14 at 14:30

@dirkt I have split the issue-specific question into a separate one here. As for this general question: do you know of any external resources that might help me understand better how the display device files work? Thanks for your input.

– Time4Tea
Jan 14 at 16:57

|
show 7 more comments

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