Table of Contents

## Name

vga - Generic VGA video driver

## Synopsis

    Section "Device"
      Identifier "devname"
      Driver "vga"
      ...
    EndSection

## Description

vga is an XFree86 driver for generic VGA video cards. It can drive most VGA-compatible video cards, but only makes use of the basic standard VGA core that is common to these cards. The driver supports depths 1, 4 and 8. All relevant visual types are supported at each depth. Multi-head configurations are supported in combination with some other drivers, but only when the vga driver is driving the primary head.

## Supported Hardware

The vga driver supports most VGA-compatible video cards. There are some known exceptions, and those should be listed here.

## Configuration Details

Please refer to XF86Config(5) for general configuration details. This section only covers configuration details specific to this driver.

The driver auto-detects the presence of VGA-compatible hardware. The ChipSet name may optionally be specified in the config file "Device" section, and will override the auto-detection:

"generic"

The driver will only use 64k of video memory for depth 1 and depth 8 operation, and 256k of video memory for depth 4 (this is the standard VGA limit).

When operating at depth 8, only a single built-in 320x200 video mode is available. At other depths there is more flexibility regarding mode choice.

The following driver Options are supported:

Option "ShadowFB" "boolean"
  Enable or disable use of the shadow framebuffer layer. Default: off.

  This option is recommended for performance reasons when running at depths 1 and 4, especially when using modern PCI-based hardware. It is required when using those depths in a multi-head configuration where one or more of the other screens is operating at a different depth.

## See Also

XFree86(1) , XF86Config(5) , xf86config(1) , Xserver(1) , X(7)

## Authors

Authors include: Marc La France, David Dawes, and Dirk Hohndel.

Table of Contents

- Name
- Synopsis
- Description
- Supported Hardware
- Configuration Details
- See Also
- Authors