Theodore> Hence, to gain full functionality of a new accelerated
Theodore> board, *two* things have to happen. (1) we need to have a
Theodore> new Linux driver written, and (2) we need a new X server
Theodore> that can take advantage of the new GGI ioctl's. Contrast
Theodore> this with the existing method, where we just need (1) a
Theodore> new X server that takes advantage of the features of the
Theodore> new board.
New ioctls only need writing if a new board provides a feature that
really is different to all the others so far. I don't expect that to
happen too often -- surely all board manufacturers will be aiming
towards whatever works well with Direct3D or OpenGL.
So, for most new cards: new GGI driver, same X server.
Even when a new feature is available, the older X server will happily
run with the new GGI driver. Kernel drivers tend to be developed much
more quickly than new versions of XFree86 are released, so this is just
as well. (I know, it should be easy for anyone to add a driver to
XFree86, but it's somehow so much easier to put a kernel module
together).
-- Jamie