From owner-freebsd-current Mon Mar 23 23:39:42 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id XAA10865 for freebsd-current-outgoing; Mon, 23 Mar 1998 23:39:42 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from sos.freebsd.dk (sos.freebsd.dk [195.8.129.33]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id XAA10851; Mon, 23 Mar 1998 23:39:31 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from sos@sos.freebsd.dk) Received: (from sos@localhost) by sos.freebsd.dk (8.8.8/8.8.8) id IAA02215; Tue, 24 Mar 1998 08:38:46 +0100 (MET) (envelope-from sos) Message-Id: <199803240738.IAA02215@sos.freebsd.dk> Subject: Re: BIOS calls In-Reply-To: <199803240532.VAA15384@dingo.cdrom.com> from Mike Smith at "Mar 23, 98 09:32:46 pm" To: mike@smith.net.au (Mike Smith) Date: Tue, 24 Mar 1998 08:38:46 +0100 (MET) Cc: doconnor@cain.gsoft.com.au, mike@smith.net.au, doconnor@gsoft.com.au, abial@nask.pl, sos@FreeBSD.ORG, jlemon@americantv.com, current@FreeBSD.ORG From: Søren Schmidt Reply-to: sos@FreeBSD.ORG X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL30 (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG In reply to Mike Smith who wrote: > > > Just bolt it into syscons instead of the current mode changing. Much > > > more orthogonal. But one thing at a time - this code needs testing and > > > cleaning. Start there. > > Hmm.. wouldn't this end up kind of fat? If you make it a seperate LKM, then > > you can recompile it with different code for different cards.. Of course you > > could make syscons an LKM, and do the same thing, but I've never tried to get > > _that_ working... > > Uh, the whole point is that you use the VESA BIOS, so there's nothing > to "get fat". It's all on the card already. Exactly, I'm working on putting support for it into syscons, so just stay calm, we will have that functionality... > > > > > Gee.. Lets just port the GGI API.. They are working on an X server which us > > > > GGI.. Mmm, no more unreadable kernel messages when your X server crashes.. > > > *Yawn* The GGI stuff hasn't exactly impressed anyone with the speed > > > with which it (hasn't) improved recently. I can't see it congealing > > > into anything really useful before GLiDE completely obsoletes it. 8) > > Hmm.. well I can't say I ever looked at its speed :) > > But it did have several advantages in my mind in that it was in the kernel so > > it fixes the annoying "Oh dear my X server just died" problems (mostly), and > > That's what calling the VESA BIOS gets us. Without having to have a > single line of hardware-specific code in the kernel, we can call the > card's BIOS which knows all about the hardware. I have had contacts from the GGI group lately, but to be honest I dont se how they can succed, progress on the hardware level is much too fast to have a small group of coders catch up with drivers, heck ask the Xfree folks on that one if in doubt. When we have prober & stable support of this, I'm sure we will have a X server that can use it, its just a matter of pulling most of the servers guts out (ie all the cardspecific code)... Accelerated cards are a matter of concern here ;) -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Søren Schmidt (sos@FreeBSD.org) FreeBSD Core Team Even more code to hack -- will it ever end .. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message