From owner-freebsd-hackers Sun Aug 17 20:26:17 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id UAA16898 for hackers-outgoing; Sun, 17 Aug 1997 20:26:17 -0700 (PDT) Received: from nico.telstra.net (nico.telstra.net [139.130.204.16]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id UAA16892 for ; Sun, 17 Aug 1997 20:26:11 -0700 (PDT) Received: from freebie.lemis.com (gregl1.lnk.telstra.net [139.130.136.133]) by nico.telstra.net (8.6.10/8.6.10) with ESMTP id NAA12063; Mon, 18 Aug 1997 13:25:06 +1000 Received: (grog@localhost) by freebie.lemis.com (8.8.7/8.6.12) id MAA10115; Mon, 18 Aug 1997 12:55:04 +0930 (CST) Message-ID: <19970818125502.35086@lemis.com> Date: Mon, 18 Aug 1997 12:55:02 +0930 From: Greg Lehey To: Terry Lambert Cc: Michael Smith , hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: reset screen hardware? References: <199708171009.TAA04212@genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au> <199708171949.MAA07244@phaeton.artisoft.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 0.81e In-Reply-To: <199708171949.MAA07244@phaeton.artisoft.com>; from Terry Lambert on Sun, Aug 17, 1997 at 12:49:09PM -0700 Organisation: LEMIS, PO Box 460, Echunga SA 5153, Australia Phone: +61-8-8388-8250 Fax: +61-8-8388-8250 Mobile: +61-41-739-7062 WWW-Home-Page: http://www.lemis.com/~grog Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk On Sun, Aug 17, 1997 at 12:49:09PM -0700, Terry Lambert wrote: >> That's _right_. But it achieves this by knowing, in fact having >> _been_told_ in advance what the hardware is, and thus having >> hardware-specific intelligence. The point is that this intelligence >> is foreign to the kernel, unmaintainable in the kernel environment, >> and _inevitably_ will lag, often indefinitely, behind hardware >> development. > > 1) Make X use the kernel driver. Period. This is necessary > whether the driver is card-specific, generic BIOS-based, > or generic VGA (and BIOS) based. > > 2) Default to a generic VGA driver. This is your fallback > position for "anything which works is better than anything > which doesn't". > > 3) If there is a card specific driver and you have the card, > load the LKM for it at boot time after the FS's are mounted > and the driver code can be located. Use the LKM driver in > place of the generic driver from then on. So far, so good. Pretty much my position... > 4) If you are running an ELF/OLF kernel, and the VM system > supports section attribution and section naming, discard > the "generic VGA" section after loading the LKM. > > 5) If you are running an ELF/OLF kernel, and you have a > section archiver available, you may (at your option), > take the generic kernel, dearchive the section(s) > containing the generic VGA driver, and replace them > with the section(s) for the card specific driver. > > 6) If you are running an ELF/OLF kernel, and you have a > section archiver available, you may "tune" the kernel > down to the point where it contains *only* drivers > for existing hardware and reasonably expected expansion > hardware. > > 7) ...ROM that kernel! (And other nifty things...). I think we need to sell them on the first three points first. Greg