From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Aug 29 18:34:32 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 39F66106564A for ; Fri, 29 Aug 2008 18:34:32 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from peter@wemm.org) Received: from yx-out-2324.google.com (yx-out-2324.google.com [74.125.44.29]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EDA498FC16 for ; Fri, 29 Aug 2008 18:34:31 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from peter@wemm.org) Received: by yx-out-2324.google.com with SMTP id 8so531728yxb.13 for ; Fri, 29 Aug 2008 11:34:31 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.142.225.11 with SMTP id x11mr1074945wfg.101.1220034870784; Fri, 29 Aug 2008 11:34:30 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.142.76.14 with HTTP; Fri, 29 Aug 2008 11:34:30 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2008 11:34:30 -0700 From: "Peter Wemm" To: "Alexander Churanov" In-Reply-To: <3cb459ed0808290636r5eb389c8y6d4aafae1b8001cf@mail.gmail.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline References: <3cb459ed0808250952j572dfc35j2feb852a73de5ace@mail.gmail.com> <200808281718.m7SHISGL067492@lurza.secnetix.de> <3cb459ed0808290636r5eb389c8y6d4aafae1b8001cf@mail.gmail.com> Cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org, olli@lurza.secnetix.de, Tz-Huan Huang Subject: Re: Unicode-based FreeBSD X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2008 18:34:32 -0000 On Fri, Aug 29, 2008 at 6:36 AM, Alexander Churanov wrote: .. > 2) Non-X console in graphical mode (like Linux). This is not present in > FreeBSD. .. > Probably, all three solutions should be implemented in ideal. And (1) > plain-text console would be used only if running (2) is not possible. > However, implementing (2) is a very expensive task. ... syscons does operate in graphics mode. The problem is how to get into graphics mode in the first place. On i386, it is done with vesa bios calls. We don't have a way to do this on amd64 systems. It can be done but is Very Difficult in kernel mode like on i386. What I think would be a far better option would be to port XF86/Xorg's 'int10' module for mode setting. It runs the video card bios in an interpreter, even on non-x86 systems. We could then have a userland 'modeset' utility that interprets the bios calls and then hand over the results to the syscons driver. That would clear the way for doing syscons in graphics mode for all platforms that can have vga cards shoved in, but can't run the bios code natively. Another option is to have loader do the mode switch before handing over to the kernel. It might be able to pass through the register settings to enable syscons to change modes on the fly. Anyway, there are options for non-i386 systems.... -- Peter Wemm - peter@wemm.org; peter@FreeBSD.org; peter@yahoo-inc.com; KI6FJV "All of this is for nothing if we don't go to the stars" - JMS/B5 "If Java had true garbage collection, most programs would delete themselves upon execution." -- Robert Sewell