On Wed, 2003-08-06 at 18:27, Frank Murphy wrote: > > > >> and ideally also the framebuffer ones? > > > > > > > > Option "UseFBDev" does that. > > > > > > OK, I thought about that after hitting the send button. But > > > then again, at the moment the X drivers seem to be more developed than > > > the kernel ones. I guess eventually the kernel drivers should achieve > > > parity, and then we'd have a radical simplification. > > > > I don't see Linus accepting video drivers of the X calibre in his > > kernel... > > Any idea why that is? Just that he wants the kernel drivers to be small and > foolproof and leave the fancy acceleration to programs that want it (like X)?
I can't speak for him, but I guess those are important points. > > > In other words, I guess FBDev at the moment isn't practical, > > > meaning, won't usually give same performand and (or) features? > > > > People keep confusing Option "UseFBDev" and the fbdev driver. The former > > basically provides the same features as the driver it's used with does > > without, the latter is a generic driver and hence can't provide any > > hardware specific features. > > I don't totally follow you here. The fbdev driver is what can be specified in > the Device section by 'Driver "fbdev"' but just uses the "bare metal" linux > fbdev driver, with no 2D or 3D acceleration. Using 'Option "UseFBDev"' would > be an option in a Device section which was configured with 'Driver "ati"' or > some other driver. But I don't understand the benefit. The benefits are e.g. better cooperation between X and console (in fact, you may lose console display without it in some cases) and sometimes easier access to some features, e.g. backlight control on Apple laptops. -- Earthling Michel Dänzer \ Debian (powerpc), XFree86 and DRI developer Software libre enthusiast \ http://svcs.affero.net/rm.php?r=daenzer
