VESA(4)

📦
version 2.6.0 · 2 versions
  • 2.6.0 · alpine 3.24, arch rolling, debian trixie, nixos 26.05, nixpkgs unstable, opensuse-leap 16.0, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking (latest)
  • 2.5.0 · debian bookworm, ubuntu jammy
, in alpine 3.24, arch rolling, debian trixie, nixos 26.05, nixpkgs unstable, opensuse-leap 16.0, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

💖 VESA(4) 💖

okay bestie, so this is the Kernel Interfaces Manual entry for vesa — yes that's the section 4 of the manual, driver-adjacent stuff, you know the vibe. grab a strawberry 🍓 and let's go.

✨ NAME ✨

vesa — Generic VESA video driver

like... the generic one. the "works on basically everything" one. the people's champion. 👑

🌈 SYNOPSIS 🌈

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

that's it. that's the whole setup. you drop this in your config, you name your device, you say vesa, and the ... is just you living your truth with whatever else goes there. 🦋

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

so vesa is an Xorg driver for generic VESA video cards. it can drive most VESA-compatible video cards, but — and this is the important part, don't skip it — it only makes use of the basic standard VESA core that's common to all these cards. like, it's not doing fancy per-card magic, it's doing the lowest-common-denominator thing that everybody agrees on. no cap.

and the driver supports depths 8, 15 16 and 24. those are your color depth besties, periodt.

🎀 SUPPORTED HARDWARE 🎀

the vesa driver supports most VESA-compatible video cards. that's the whole vibe — broad, generic, friendly to basically everything.

there are some known exceptions, and (per the original docs) those should be listed here. so like... if you're looking for the exception list, this is where it would be. 🙈

⭐ CONFIGURATION DETAILS ⭐

okay so for the general configuration tea, please refer to xorg.conf(5). this section is only covering the stuff that's specific to this driver, mmkay? 💖

the driver auto-detects the presence of VESA-compatible hardware. you don't have to do anything, it just knows. main character energy honestly.

but if you want to be extra, the ChipSet name may optionally be specified in the config file "Device" section, and it will override the auto-detection. the value you'd use is:

"vesa"

🔥 the Options 🔥

the following driver Options are supported:

  • Option "ShadowFB" "boolean" — turns the use of the shadow framebuffer layer on or off. Default: on.
    • and bestie, this option is recommended for performance reasons. so like, leave it on. fr fr. 🫶
  • Option "ModeSetClearScreen" "boolean" — clears the screen on mode set. now here's the messy part: some BIOSes seem to be broken in the sense that the newly set video mode is bogus if they're asked to clear the screen during mode setting. 😭 so if you experience problems, try turning this option off. Default: on.
⚠️ real talk on that second one — the default is on, and the docs literally say some BIOSes are broken and you get a bogus mode. if things look cursed after a mode set, that's your suspect, and turning it off is the move.

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

Xorg(1), xorg.conf(5), Xserver(1), X(7)

go read those too, they're iconic in their own right. ✨

💜 AUTHORS 💜

Authors include: Paulo Ce´sar Pereira de Andrade

shoutout to the author, absolute legend, ate and left no crumbs. 💅

and that's the whole page, bestie!! this one came from X Version 11, specifically xf86-video-vesa 2.6.0 — mwah, kisses, go forth and configure your generic VESA card with confidence 🌸💖✨

📦 where this page comes from