Re: GGI Project Unhappy On Linux

Alex Priem (alexp@sci.kun.nl)
Sat, 28 Mar 1998 16:11:44 +0100

Chris Evans writes:
>On Sat, 28 Mar 1998, Alex Priem wrote:
>
>> > There is a solution.
>> > Put the bare essentials into the kernel so that
>> > Xservers can be written which don't crash systems.
>>
>> Yup. Instead of crashing Xservers, now you have crashing kernels.
>> Big improvement.
>
>Alex,
>
>Please don't be so damn ignorant on the topic. Go do some background
>reading. "The basics" the previous poster was talking about includes mode
>switching. With this in the kernel, we are set to be able to recover
>console textmode if/when X dies. The general design principle of having
>processes clean up for themselves is broken. Currently, X is responsible
>for "cleaning up" back to the original state of textmode.

This has nothing to do with ignorance, but with common sense. Of course,
mode switching in the kernel is better.[+] But if there are bugs in
the code, or bugs in somebody else's code thrashing your carefully
restored video registers, or some weird interaction you haven't thought of,
be prepared to get a lot of *very* negative reactions. Swapping X-servers
isn't much of a hassle. Recompiling kernels is.

Alex

[+] reloading SVGAtexmode's fonts because they're corrupted isn't exactly
ideal, for instance.

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