Messages in this thread |  | | | Date | Tue, 19 Oct 2004 23:48:18 +0200 | | From | Pavel Machek <> | | Subject | Re: [Linux-fbdev-devel] Generic VESA framebuffer driver and Video card BOOT? |
| |
Hi!
> > Its a sad fact though that we are (x86 anyway) dependant on some > > amazingly fragile, stupid, usually binary only, legacy bloated, and > > quite often buggy, 16-bit realmode video init code that should have > > been put to pasture many years ago. > > Actually there is nothing wrong with the x86 BIOS from the perspective of > functionality and useability (or bloat for that matter). It contains all > the functionality we need and armed with something like the x86 emulator > we can use it for what we need on any platform. > > Open Firmware may be a 'nicer' solution, but I guarantee that if the > vendors started supporting that it would be just a bug ridden as any 16- > bit real mode BIOS code. For the Video BIOS the code always works for > what it is tested for. Some vendors spend more time testing the VBE BIOS > side of things fully (if they are smart they have licensed our VBETest > tools for this purpose). Unfortunatley some vendors do not test this > stuff thoroughly and it has problems. But the same testing issues would > exist whether the firmware was written as a 16-bit x86 blob or as an Open > Firmware blob.
Actually that 16-bit x86 blob can access any PC hardware, and that's where the stuff gets hard. Pavel -- People were complaining that M$ turns users into beta-testers... ...jr ghea gurz vagb qrirybcref, naq gurl frrz gb yvxr vg gung jnl! - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
|  |