On Thu, 2020-03-05 at 07:16 -0500, Jude DaShiell wrote: > If dummy was used for monitor type, the screen reader could come up > talking without any monitor attached. Many linux distros including > debian can get a monitor turned on and off during operation and don't > let a screen reader know now we have a working monitor and now we don't > have a working monitor.
Most display controllers that are designed to allow hotplugging monitors, can report hotplug events to the driver. Where there is a native kernel mode-setting (KMS) driver for the controller, it should report hotplug events to user-space. So a screen reader could (in principle) react to these. However, the generic drivers for firmware-configured frame buffers or VGA-compatible display controllers don't have this functionality, and the installer usually uses one of those generic drivers. > I'm thinking along these lines to attempt to > make installations bulletproof. On the debian-user list earlier someone > had a monitor that required firmware to run it and debian wouldn't > install without that firmware. I'm not sure with that radeon monitor if > vga normal could have been run on boot to eliminate the firmware > complaint. [...] Linux doesn't have drivers for specific monitors. "radeon" is the kernel driver for older ATI/AMD GPUs and display controllers, and regrettably it does need firmware to set up some of those display controllers. The generic VGA driver should be able to set up these display controllers without firmware, but won't be able to configure high resolutions, hotplug reporting, or other advanced features. GNOME and other desktop environments using Wayland won't work with the generic VGA driver. Ben. -- Ben Hutchings I haven't lost my mind; it's backed up on tape somewhere.
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