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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!nntp.coast.net!news.sgi.com!swrinde!howland.erols.net!surfnet.nl!swsbe6.switch.ch!news.belnet.be!news.vub.ac.be!chaos.kulnet.kuleuven.ac.be!idefix.CS.kuleuven.ac.be!mercator.cs.kuleuven.ac.be!geert From: geert@cs.kuleuven.ac.be (Geert Uytterhoeven) Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.development.apps,comp.os.linux.development.system,comp.os.linux.x,comp.os.linux.hardware,comp.os.linux.setup,comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,misc.consumers Subject: Re: Why not buy Matrox Millennium Date: 13 Aug 1996 16:23:05 GMT Organization: Department of Computer Science, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium Lines: 39 Sender: geert@mercator.cs.kuleuven.ac.be (Geert Uytterhoeven) Distribution: world Message-ID: <4uqa59$gn6@idefix.CS.kuleuven.ac.be> References: <4j21ph$crr@slappy.cs.utexas.edu> <8720hb712j.fsf@xeno.xinside.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: mercator.cs.kuleuven.ac.be Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.development.apps:20315 comp.os.linux.development.system:29696 comp.os.linux.x:37893 comp.os.linux.hardware:47413 comp.os.linux.setup:68500 comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc:1040 comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc:4603 comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc:4389 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:25421 misc.consumers:94316 In article <8720hb712j.fsf@xeno.xinside.com>, roell@xinside.com (Thomas Roell) writes: |> In article <4uopgf$si4@cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu> jmcc@m5.vi.ri.cmu.edu (Jason Mcmullan) writes: |> |> > * Make sure user has the 'FooBar' chipset like he told me.. |> |> That code is alredy in place. |> |> > * Do the X thang... |> > - VT Switch TIME! |> > * What size of screen did the user tell me he used? (XxY) |> > * Set card to that screen mode if possible, 80x25 otherwise |> > * ioctl(vt_Device,VT_RESIZEX,..) /* See include/linux/vt.h */ |> |> I am thinking along this line ;-) However the code the sets a text |> mode would really belong into a kernel device driver. LINUX right now |> uses a dirty hack to abuse the normal BIOS to set the text mode |> initially during the boot phase. All you need is a frame buffer device, like in Linux/m68k! Only the kernel needs to know how to play with the graphics hardware. No user program ever has to care about this. |> Actually given the upper idea about moving stuff like this into a |> kernel driver anyway raises the question for me, why to use a textmode |> at all. Why not simply switch into a graphics mode, and draw bitmap |> characters directly. Sun SPARC is doing that, all the PowerPCs are |> doing that as well ... Yes, Amiga/Atari do the same under Linux/m68k because they don't have a real textmode. Greetings, Geert -- Geert Uytterhoeven Geert.Uytterhoeven@cs.kuleuven.ac.be Wavelets, Linux/m68k on Amiga http://www.cs.kuleuven.ac.be/~geert/ Department of Computer Science -- Katholieke Universiteit Leuven -- Belgium