Re: Why is Device3Dfx driver (voodoo1/2) not in the kernel?

[James Simmons <jsimmons@transvirtual.com>]

> 	Mode changing - Now there I can get into an argument. I
> still (after all these years) feel that the Kernel is the best
> place to put video mode control. That way 'killall -9 X' isn't
> nearly as nasty... The kernel could at least get you back to
> a text console.

Can we say framebuffer devices. As graphics cards are placed into more 
and more different types of systems we need to have a way to make these
cards workable on different platforms. This requires us to write
drivers that can initialize a mode without firmware. I have reworked the
console layer to deal with this and with allowing different modes on
different VCs. The current system allows it too but it is more of a later
add on hack. I have a much cleaner implementation which does what you ask 
of the above.         
 
> 	And now that XFree86 4 has a vm86 system to 'run the
> Video BIOS' for certain cards, it shouldn't be to hard to 
> emulate the old OS/2 system - in a vm86 session, use the BIOS
> to switch to all the supported modes, and record (via vm86
> io traps) everything the BIOS does. Then, in the driver,
> just 'play back' the scripts... Worked beatifully for OS/2
> back in the day for 2D framebuffers...

Really. I have my own personal compain to make all the graphics drivers
firmware independent. I even like to see the VGA console driver also
firmware independent.