Re: GGI, EGCS/PGCC, Kernel source

Jon M. Taylor (taylorj@ecs.csus.edu)
Wed, 25 Feb 1998 14:46:50 -0800 (PST)


[cc: trimmed]

On Wed, 25 Feb 1998, Alan Cox wrote:

> > > drivers/hw/fbdev/fbdev.c is about all IIRC.
> >
> > KGI/m68k runs on top of fbcons.c. KGI exists in part because
> > fbcons.c was never ported to VGA-style hardware.
>
> Thats a good start. Cos fbcon exists for vga text mode now,

When did this happen? This is good. Now we can potentially make
the textmode-only KGI in-kernel mini boot display driver run completely on
top of fbcons.c, which in theory would port KGI to any Linux/xxx which has
fbcons support! Of course there is some other VGA-specific stuff in KGI
but that can be gotten around with #defines or what have you.

[snip]

> You've got #1 and half of #2 - thats why I think sticking
> these two together is the right thing to do.
> I've actually been poking at
> a dumb svga fbcon for a few chipsets btw - not to the point of working code
> but to see whats involved - its becoming very apparent several windows 98
> era chipsets are not going to have any backward text mode hardware or
> quite likely emulation.

VGA-style textmodes are a historical anomaly. Better to design
around software textmodes as an abstraction and just map it onto whatever
HW you have.

---
'Cloning and the reprogramming of DNA is the first serious step in 
becoming one with God.'
	- Scientist G. Richard Seed

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