> On Thu, 6 Jun 1996, Jon M. Taylor wrote:
>
> > > This keeps getting mentioned, but I'm not sure all the pieces are in
> > > place. Yes, VESA 2.0 is "32-bit". Does that actually mean it's usable from
> > > within Linux?
> >
> > 32-bit protected mode? I don't see any reason why not. It works
> > in Win95 (which, IIRC, was the reason for making it 32-bit).
>
> That's piece of information is hardly useful. Linux could be doing any
> number of things that Win95 that would prevent VESA 2.0 calls from
> working.
I'm gonna have to back off on the VESA 2.0 thing here. I think
that maybe it would be better to leave it alone, given that we are going
to be duplicating its functionality anyway.
> > > More importantly, do _any_ cards have VESA 2.0 information
> > > built into the ROM? I hope I don't need to point out that a DOS VESA TSR
> > > (32-bit or not) is quite useless to Linux.
> >
> > *All* the new ones do. The one I'm using right now (~3 months old)
> > does, for example.
>
> I'm seeing conflicting information on this. And the Hercules Dynamite card
> I purchased not _that_ long ago doesn't have VBE 1.2, let alone 2.0, in
> the ROM.
Hm. Well, I guess I was wrong. I still am pretty sure that most
new cards will support 2.0 in ROM, but perhaps all of that isn't as far
along as I had thought. Oh well.
Jon Taylor = <taylorj@gaia.ecs.csus.edu> | <http://gaia.ecs.csus.edu/~taylorj>
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Everything in excess! To enjoy the flavor of life, take big bites.
Moderation is for monks." - Lazarus Long