Messages in this thread | | | Date | Tue, 7 Apr 1998 16:29:26 -0400 (EDT) | From | MenTaLboY <> | Subject | Re: Can't we all just get along? (Re: GGI/fbcon/X flamewar) |
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On Tue, 7 Apr 1998, Brian Gerst wrote: > I have had about all I can take of this pointless flame war about the > various methods of doing console graphics on linux. I see the linux > developers split three ways here: fbcon, KGI, and user space. I've seen > people complain about the GGI folks being fanatics. IMHO, there are > fanatics on all three sides. We are getting zilch done by sitting here > and arguing. It's time to bury the hatchet and start working together > at producing something that's not KGI, not fbcon, not user space, but > the best of all three.
GGI offers what amounts to a superset of the functionality of the other two approaches: fbcon+userspace = KGI+LibGGI
The main practical difference is that LibGGI is a user library instead of a trusted server (so the graphics operations don't need to span processes), and KGI protects any security-sensitive aspects of the hardware.
If I remember correctly, KGI deals with the shared framebuffer by unmmapping it for all the VTs but the active one, and I think the userspace end is notified and is responsible for saving the state of the framebuffer if it needs to (either that, or it at least provides a memory area for the framebuffer to be saved in if it wants to -- I can't remember which) -- in any case, I think the framebuffer is erased on VT switch...
> Another thing I wish people would get over is the misconception that > kernel level video drivers are supposed to replace X. They only replace > a part of the X server, that part which deals with the card directly. > This would relieve the burden of supporting the video drivers inside the > server from the XFree86 developers and will allow them more time to fix > the outstanding bugs and implement better features.
Exactly.
-=MenTaLboY=-
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