> > There is a solution.
> > Put the bare essentials into the kernel so that
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Exactly. And KGI isn't bare essentials.
> > Xservers can be written which don't crash systems.
>
> So what do you need in the kernel?
>
> - support for text mode on graphics boards that support text mode
> - support for text mode on graphics boards that don't support text mode
> (perhaps with some basic support for rectangular blits, to speed up
> scrolling)
> - support for setting a specific video mode
- support for mapping the video memory into the appspace
> Yep, that's all. Graphics acceleration should be done in user space, just mmap
> the acceleration registers.
Everything else can be done in user space, including access to the video
hardware registers. And the kernel should only take care of protection of the
vulnerable registers responsible for timings and memory organization - some
cards implement such protection in the hardware itself. All the application
needs is to be able to draw to the video memory as fast as it is possible and
to know what that memory organization is. It would also need to be able to set
the video palette. Nothing else. The bank switching (if it's needed) can be
done by kernel by emulating a linear buffer with booby traps at appropriate
places (it has been done by SciTech in their svgalib for DOS looong time ago).
All that should follow some standard - so why not to use VESA?
l8r, marek
---
If a guru falls in the forrest with no one to hear him, was he really a guru
at all?
Strange de Jim, "The Metasexuals"
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