From owner-freebsd-hackers Tue Feb 18 03:02:28 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id DAA26126 for hackers-outgoing; Tue, 18 Feb 1997 03:02:28 -0800 (PST) Received: from casparc.ppp.net (mail.ppp.net [194.64.12.35]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id DAA26119 for ; Tue, 18 Feb 1997 03:02:20 -0800 (PST) Received: from ernie by casparc.ppp.net with uucp (Smail3.1.28.1 #1) id m0vwnJN-000IIGC; Tue, 18 Feb 97 12:02 MET Received: by ernie.kts.org via sendmail with stdio id for joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de; Tue, 18 Feb 1997 11:03:54 +0100 (MET) (Smail-3.2.0.91 1997-Jan-14 #2 built 1997-Feb-8) Message-Id: From: hm@kts.org (Hellmuth Michaelis) Subject: Re: pcvt/132 columns To: ccsanady@nyx.pr.mcs.net (Chris Csanady) Date: Tue, 18 Feb 1997 11:03:54 +0100 (MET) Cc: joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de, FreeBSD-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG In-Reply-To: <199702180638.AAA05778@nyx.pr.mcs.net> from "Chris Csanady" at Feb 18, 97 00:38:42 am Organization: Kitchen Table Systems Reply-To: hm@kts.org X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24] Content-Type: text Sender: owner-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk Chris Csanady wrote: > There would be a generic graphics driver of sorts, that is primarily > concerned with setting the state of the graphics board. I dont know the > specifics, but what I see is a kernel module for each of the cards that > implements a certain set of functions that set the state. These would > be well defined by the generic driver interface, and called when > necessary to switch resolutions, etc. In the PC world, there is already a generic graphis driver for setting the state of the board available, its called BIOS. The only problem the free BSD's have, is to access it. If we could access the BIOS, it would be responsible for switching back and forth into the card-supported video modes, and neither the console driver nor the X server would have to care anymore about it. hellmuth -- hellmuth michaelis hm@kts.org hamburg, europe