Messages in this thread |  | | Date | Tue, 4 Jun 96 14:17 BST | From | Jamie Lokier <> | Subject | Re: SVGA kernel chipset drivers. |
| |
>>>>> "Theodore" == Theodore Y Ts'o <tytso@mit.edu> writes:
Theodore> If you make the routines VESA complaint, then they can't Theodore> take advantage of any of the card-specific accelerated Theodore> features. This means that performance of the X server Theodore> will go *down* as a result.
Yes, but at least you can run X at all. I have an nfsroot setup here at the office, where any of the other PCs can run Linux using mine as the server, using a 16kB DOS program. This serves as a nice introduction to Linux for those who want to play, without installing it. Unfortunately, I can't impress everyone with a nice X setup because there is no X server available for about half of the video cards :-(.
That said, VESA _could_ be done in user mode using vm86, the way dosemu does it.
I'd like to see VESA SVGALIB and X support, just so that graphics can be done on practically all Intel machines that run Linux. I'd also like to see a VM simulated framebuffer for the same reason as DirectX: so that programs can be written assuming modern video hardware, but be sure to run with old hardware, even slowly.
-- Jamie
|  |