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From: Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org>
Message-Id: <199604231936.MAA20121@phaeton.artisoft.com>
Subject: Re: request for a new "feature" as regards DDB
To: bde@zeta.org.au (Bruce Evans)
Date: Tue, 23 Apr 1996 12:36:03 -0700 (MST)
Cc: lehey.pad@sni.de, smpatel@umiacs.UMD.EDU, current@FreeBSD.ORG,
        hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
In-Reply-To: <199604230928.TAA12645@godzilla.zeta.org.au> from "Bruce Evans" at Apr 23, 96 07:28:35 pm
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> >why ddb shouldn't understand enough about generic VGA to be able to
> >put it back in 25x80 mode.  Somewhere I have a little program which I
> >used to do this under BSD/386 0.3, where the X server wasn't always
> >successful.  It's only a few lines.  I'm sure somebody's going to come
> >up with "yes, but that's not completely generic", but I don't think
> >this is an adequate argument.  Make it a config option for ddb, and
> 
> "yes, but that's not completely generic" :-).

I can't tell if Bruce is making fun of me or not.  8-).

But that's not completely generic.


> >it'll handle 98% of all hardware.  If somebody with the other 2%
> >wants, they can do it for that hardware as well.
> 
> It'll only handle 98% of all hardware that is running in a VGA compatible
> mode.  I guess most X modes aren't VGA compatible.

They aren't.  Anything which programs the clocks not through a kernel
model is not state-recoverable by kernel code (like DDB).  The kernel
debugger was almost the primary reason for suggesting a kernel DDX.

Now that Plan 9 has abstracted the card specific drivers into the
kernel (/dev/vga, /dev/bitblt, etc.) and the Linux community has
a "GGI" project in the works, FreeBSD has less and less of an excuse.


					Terry Lambert
					terry@lambert.org
---
Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present
or previous employers.