From owner-freebsd-hackers Tue Feb 18 05:45:08 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id FAA04416 for hackers-outgoing; Tue, 18 Feb 1997 05:45:08 -0800 (PST) Received: from ravenock.cybercity.dk (ravenock.cybercity.dk [194.16.57.32]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id FAA04408 for ; Tue, 18 Feb 1997 05:45:04 -0800 (PST) Received: (from sos@localhost) by ravenock.cybercity.dk (8.8.5/8.7.3) id OAA06809; Tue, 18 Feb 1997 14:45:29 +0100 (MET) From: Søren Schmidt Message-Id: <199702181345.OAA06809@ravenock.cybercity.dk> Subject: Re: pcvt/132 columns In-Reply-To: from Hellmuth Michaelis at "Feb 18, 97 11:03:54 am" To: hm@kts.org Date: Tue, 18 Feb 1997 14:45:19 +0100 (MET) Cc: ccsanady@nyx.pr.mcs.net, joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de, FreeBSD-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL30 (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Sender: owner-hackers@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk In reply to Hellmuth Michaelis who wrote: > Chris Csanady wrote: > > > There would be a generic graphics driver of sorts, that is primarily > > concerned with setting the state of the graphics board. I dont know the > > specifics, but what I see is a kernel module for each of the cards that > > implements a certain set of functions that set the state. These would > > be well defined by the generic driver interface, and called when > > necessary to switch resolutions, etc. > > In the PC world, there is already a generic graphis driver for setting the > state of the board available, its called BIOS. The only problem the free > BSD's have, is to access it. > > If we could access the BIOS, it would be responsible for switching back and > forth into the card-supported video modes, and neither the console driver > nor the X server would have to care anymore about it. Right, then we only need to worry about how to set/get a pixel, how to do banking/linear framebuffer, how to use eventual accellerator functions, how to handle the palette chip, and god knows what I have forgotten... This is a maze that magically grows on you on entrance. And now that the first real 3D cards are going to hit us, I'm sure the HW guys has a new load of fun stuff for us :( :( There is work for plenty of KNOWLEDGEABLE people full time here... -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Søren Schmidt (sos@FreeBSD.org) FreeBSD Core Team Even more code to hack -- will it ever end ..