Date: Tue, 14 Dec 1999 07:54:00 -0500 From: Donn Miller <dmmiller@cvzoom.net> To: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@zippy.cdrom.com> Cc: freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: syscons extension: "propellers" Message-ID: <38563DE8.3494309F@cvzoom.net> References: <12445.945172604@zippy.cdrom.com>
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"Jordan K. Hubbard" wrote: > Indeed, so I'd also suspected and more the reason to do so, > right? It would make possible many other types of "dashboard" > controls as well. Skins for syscons! I can see it now! Haha! > [he laughs hysterically as several burly guys in white medical > gowns leap out of a panel van, wielding hypodermic needles > and various restraints]. Actually, that's not a bad idea. One idea I had was combining syscons with XFree86 server code, so you always have a crippled X server running without the bloat of a full-blown X server running. That way, you could just type "xclock", and an xclock would pop up right on your syscons screen (without formally starting X ;-). Well, the idea would be to somehow integrate the driver portion of XFree86 into a new console driver package. You would have your video card type entered in /etc/rc.conf (or some other place, such as /etc/syscons.conf). Then, you could have the option of loading this "enhanced" version of syscons at boot time. Each video driver would be loaded as a KLD. Then, we could do something like run X apps at the virtual console without X running. For example, you want to run netscape without firing up X. You would just type "netscape", and netscape would display right on your syscons virtual console without having to start X proper. What this would give us is a way to run X11 apps as console graphics applications. You would lose window management, however, because the idea is to run the apps as if they were console graphics (e.g. svgalib) apps. One potential drawback is that it would probably bloat the syscons code slightly. - Donn To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message
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