Re: Dynamically loaded fbcon drivers?

David Woodhouse (David.Woodhouse@mvhi.com)
Fri, 28 Aug 1998 10:18:13 +0100

Jes.Sorensen@cern.ch said:
> "Kendall" == Kendall Bennett <KendallB@scitechsoft.com> writes:
> > However when does the fbcon stuff get initialised, and Kendall> can it
> > be initialised late enough in the bootup sequence such Kendall> that
> > the device drivers for the console can be loaded from Kendall> the
> > file system? What sort of problems are we going to have Kendall> to
> > face getting our driver loading code working in the Kendall> kernel?

> Start by taking a look at Geert's abscon page:
> http://www.cs.kuleuven.ac.be/~geert/Console/

> It is possible to do loadable frame buffers.

It's possible to do loadable filesystems, but we still can't have our root
filesystem as a module.

For framebuffers, it's not quite so difficult, though - you can, I believe, use
a generic framebuffer to boot with, and load the specific driver for your card
afterwards. As long as your card can manage either text modes or a VESA mode
with linear framebuffer, you can use the existing support at boot time, and
load your new driver immediately afterwards.

I think.

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