Messages in this thread | | | Date | Sat, 2 Jan 1999 18:27:10 -0800 (PST) | From | Linus Torvalds <> | Subject | Re: short display with 2.1.132-ac3, matroxfb and XF86_SVGA 3.3.3 |
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On Sat, 2 Jan 1999, Geert Uytterhoeven wrote: > > The main difference between an accelerated frame buffer device based X server > and a `classical' X server is that video mode programming and colormap > updates are now handled by the kernel. The X server still has to take care of > acceleration engine setup and accelerated operations. If there's a clean > separation between these two functionalities (video mode programming vs. > acceleration), this is a question of some `if (use_fbdev)' statements.
Yes, this is the kind of approach I was after. Not a new X server, but rather a straightforward extension to existing ones.
The video mode programming issue is already black magic, and totally separate from actually drawing stuff on the screen. I can't for the life of me imagine that there would ever be an excuse to make a completely new X server just because the mode programming changed.
That's like separating the S3 X server into ten different X servers depending on which clock chip is on the board. That would just be silly and stupid, wouldn't it? But it's really almost exactly the same issue: the fact that the kernel handles mode switching could just be considered "a software clock chip" kind of thing. No?
Linus
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