From owner-freebsd-hackers Tue Feb 18 21:13:07 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id VAA03015 for hackers-outgoing; Tue, 18 Feb 1997 21:13:07 -0800 (PST) Received: from nyx.pr.mcs.net (nyx.pr.mcs.net [204.95.55.81]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id VAA03010 for ; Tue, 18 Feb 1997 21:13:01 -0800 (PST) Received: from nyx.pr.mcs.net (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by nyx.pr.mcs.net (8.8.5/8.8.4) with ESMTP id XAA08828; Tue, 18 Feb 1997 23:09:46 -0600 (CST) Message-Id: <199702190509.XAA08828@nyx.pr.mcs.net> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.0beta 12/23/96 To: Terry Lambert cc: dawes@rf900.physics.usyd.edu.au (David Dawes), hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: pcvt/132 columns In-reply-to: Your message of Tue, 18 Feb 1997 09:40:05 -0700. <199702181640.JAA11183@phaeton.artisoft.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Tue, 18 Feb 1997 23:09:46 -0600 From: Chris Csanady Sender: owner-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk >> A large proportion of the hw-specific code is required precisely for >> initialising the state of the graphics card. From our (XFree86's) >> experience, this is the hard part. The rest is relatively easy. > >[ ... ] > >> >>Have a look at /usr/src/usr.sbin/pcvt/set2061/, just to get the >> >>feeling for _one_ (now already fairly aged) piece of hardware that >> >>needs to be supported, the ICD2061A clock synthesizer. >> >> And the exact details of programming a chip like this depends on the >> card it is on. The version in pcvt/set2061 only deals with S3 cards. > >And initialization code can be thrown away after use, so there is no >reason not not mark the segment as "init, discardable", or if you >need to use the code again "preload, pageable". > >In point of fact, if the code gets into a signle object module segment, >there is no reason that it can't be used to replace the object module >segment for the default video driver it is replacing, in the kernel >image itself. This would provide an easy way of "building" a "new" >kernel, without needing to actaully relink anything at all. I was just browsing through some of the linux groups and noticed that Metrolink donated their dynamic object loading system to the XFree86 project. Perhaps once this gets integrated, it would not be nearly as much trouble to implement a generic graphics driver of sorts in the kernel.. Chris > > > Regards, > Terry Lambert > terry@lambert.org >--- >Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present >or previous employers.