Re: [Dri-devel] Re: [Linux-fbdev-devel] DRM and pci_driver conversion

[Jon Smirl]

--- Linus Torvalds <torvalds@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Quite frankly, I'd much rather see a low-level graphics driver that does
> _two_ things, and those things only:
> 
>  - basic hardware enumeration and setup (and no, "basic setup" does not
>    mean "mode switching": it literally means things like doing the 
>    pci_enable_device() stuff.
> 
>  - serialization and arbitrary command queuing from a _trusted_ party (ie
>    it could take command lists from the X server, but not from untrusted
>    clients). This part basically boils down to "DMA and interrupts". This 
>    is the part that allows others to wait for command completion, "enough 
>    space in the ring buffers" etc. But it does _not_ know or care what the 
>    commands are.
> 
> Then, fbcon and DRI and X could all three use these basics - and they'd be
> _so_ basic that the hardware layer could be really stable (unlike the DRI
> code that tends to have to upgrade for each new type of command that DRI
> adds - since it has to take care of untrusted clients. So DRI would
> basically use the low-level driver as a separate module, the way it
> already uses AGP).
> 

Linus, why don't you refuse updates from these projects until this is sorted
out? Your proposal is exactly what it needed. For a year now I have been poking
at these issues and making very little progress. I do know that all of the
pieces needed already exist; but without some incentive there is very little
reason to rearchitect the existing code. 

Personally I'm working on a standalone version of Mesa (OpenGL). This would
allow us to write a 3D hardware based windowing system in response to the ones
on the Mac and MS Longhorn. But instead of working on a windowing system I've
spent all of my time trying to help sort out the video device drivers.


=====
Jon Smirl
jonsmirl@xxxxxxxxx

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