Re: SVGA kernel chipset drivers.

Albert Cahalan (albert@ccs.neu.edu)
Thu, 6 Jun 1996 05:25:17 -0400 (EDT)


> On Wed, 5 Jun 1996, Albert Cahalan wrote:
>
>> One problem with usermode graphics is the kernel oops while in
>> graphics mode. If the problem is at all disk related, then you will
>> never see the oops.
>
> you can make "Oops" fall back to textmode (well if this fails then
> we are in deep trouble :)

Yes, but only if the kernel knows how to switch back to textmode.
Knowing how to do that means knowing the state of the card and
how to set up the registers for textmode. That means you need
GGI to be able to see an oops while in graphics mode. (either
you stay in graphics mode or switch out, but you still need the
kernel support)

Sometimes people post "it crashes while running X" to linux-kernel.
It is difficult to debug these problems when there is no oops data.