kernel/linux.git/drivers/video/console, branch v7.2-rc1

console: mdacon: remove this obsolete driver

2026-05-20T18:23:32+00:00

The mdacon driver supports using ISA MDA or Hercules-compatible display adapters as a secondary text console. This was commonly used in the 1990s and earlier for debugging software which took over the primary display. It is highly unlikely anyone is doing so nowadays because serial consoles and much better methods of debugging exist. The driver is not enabled by any defconfig, nor any of the dozens of distro configs collected at [1]. It has been relegated to VTs 13-16 since commit 0b9cf3aa6b1e ("mdacon messing up default vc's - set default to vc13-16 again") in Linux 2.6.27 (and before Linux 2.5.53 - see the link in the message of the above commit). The change in 2.6.27 was done because it was incorrectly detecting non-MDA adapters as MDA and taking over all VTs, rendering them unusable. Furthermore, vgacon supports using MDA/Hercules-compatible adapters as the primary text console, so any systems with only one of these adapters were already using vgacon and will not experience any loss in functionality from the removal of this driver. Given all of these factors, the mdacon driver is likely entirely unused. Remove it. [1] https://github.com/nyrahul/linux-kernel-configs/tree/f0bee86a135a0406ea427855f52702dd00d770f9 Signed-off-by: Ethan Nelson-Moore Signed-off-by: Helge Deller

lib/fonts: Create font_data_t from struct console_font with font_data_import()

2026-03-09T14:47:21+00:00

Add font_data_import() and update consoles to use it. The implementation of font_data_import() is based on code from fbcon, which supports overflow checks and crc32 checksums. Fbcon uses the crc32 checksum. Newport_con now implements the same overflow checks as fbcon. As before, this console does not support checksums, which are optional. Newport_con can now also handle input font data with a vertical pitch other than 32 bytes. (The vertical pitch is the offset between two glyphs in the font data.) As an internal change, remove the const qualifier from the data field if struct font_data. This allows font_data_import() to write the data without type casting. For all users of the font data via font_data_t, the stored data is still read only. v3: - fix typos Signed-off-by: Thomas Zimmermann Signed-off-by: Helge Deller

lib/fonts: Compare font data for equality with font_data_is_equal()

2026-03-09T14:47:21+00:00

Add font_data_is_equal() and update consoles to use it. Font data is equal if it has the same size and contains the same values on all bytes. Only fbcon uses a crc32 checksum. If set in both operands the checksums have to be equal. The new helper also guarantees to not compare internal fonts against fonts from user space. Internal fonts cannot be ref-counted, so making them equal to user-space fonts with the same byte sequence results in undefined behavior. The test only compares data buffers. Their interpretation is up each console. Therefore remove a width test in fbcon_set_font(). v3: - rebase onto font_data_{get,put}() Signed-off-by: Thomas Zimmermann Signed-off-by: Helge Deller

lib/fonts: Manage font-data lifetime with font_data_get/_put()

2026-03-09T14:47:21+00:00

Add font_data_get() and font_data_put(). Update consoles to use them over REFCOUNT() and plain kfree(). Newly allocated font data starts with a reference count of 1. Loading the font puts the previously loaded font. If the reference count reaches zero, font_data_put() frees the font data. The kernel stores a refcount of zero for internal font data. Invoking font_data_get() and font_data_put() tests this internally and returns success without further operation. From the caller's perspective, getting and putting works the same for all font data. Fbcon used the userfont flag distinguish between internal fonts and fonts loaded by user space. Only the latter where refcounted. With the new helper's automatic handling of internal font data, remove the userfont flag from fbcon. Newport_con uses a default font, FONT_DATA, until user space loads custom font data. Remove all special cases for FONT_DATA, as the get and put calls' read-only handling also covers this case. v3: - fix module linker error wrt font symbols (Nathan, Arnd) - fix typos Signed-off-by: Thomas Zimmermann Signed-off-by: Helge Deller

lib/fonts: Read font size with font_data_size()

2026-03-09T14:47:20+00:00

Add font_data_size() and update consoles to use it. Signed-off-by: Thomas Zimmermann Signed-off-by: Helge Deller

lib/fonts: Store font data as font_data_t; update consoles

2026-03-09T14:47:20+00:00

Store font data as pointer to font_data_t instead of unsigned char. Update consoles. Pointers to font data refer to the raw data. There is a hidden header before the data that contains additional state. Document the existing layout and semantics of font_data_t. The data field in struct vc_font can be used by any console. Therefore it still points to plain data without the additional header. Fbcon sets its value from struct fbcon_display.fontdata. Hence, update the size test in fbcon_resize() to use struct fbcon_display.fontdata instead of struct vc_font.data. v3: - fix typos (Helge) v2: - 'Font lookup' -> 'Font description' in Signed-off-by: Thomas Zimmermann Signed-off-by: Helge Deller

lib/fonts: Remove FNTCHARCNT()

2026-03-09T14:47:20+00:00

The character count in the font data is unused. The internal fonts also do not set it. Remove FNTCHARCNT(). Signed-off-by: Thomas Zimmermann Signed-off-by: Helge Deller

Convert 'alloc_obj' family to use the new default GFP_KERNEL argument

2026-02-22T01:09:51+00:00

This was done entirely with mindless brute force, using git grep -l '\

treewide: Replace kmalloc with kmalloc_obj for non-scalar types

2026-02-21T09:02:28+00:00

This is the result of running the Coccinelle script from scripts/coccinelle/api/kmalloc_objs.cocci. The script is designed to avoid scalar types (which need careful case-by-case checking), and instead replace kmalloc-family calls that allocate struct or union object instances: Single allocations: kmalloc(sizeof(TYPE), ...) are replaced with: kmalloc_obj(TYPE, ...) Array allocations: kmalloc_array(COUNT, sizeof(TYPE), ...) are replaced with: kmalloc_objs(TYPE, COUNT, ...) Flex array allocations: kmalloc(struct_size(PTR, FAM, COUNT), ...) are replaced with: kmalloc_flex(*PTR, FAM, COUNT, ...) (where TYPE may also be *VAR) The resulting allocations no longer return "void *", instead returning "TYPE *". Signed-off-by: Kees Cook

newport_con: depend on LOGO_LINUX_CLUT224 instead of LOGO_SGI_CLUT224

2026-02-14T10:09:46+00:00

newport_show_logo() is only activated if CONFIG_LOGO_SGI_CLUT224 is set (otherwise it is a NOP). This configuration item will be removed in an upcoming change so instead, make it depend on LOGO_LINUX_CLUT224. Signed-off-by: Vincent Mailhol Signed-off-by: Helge Deller