Re: [linux-fbdev] Re: [PATCH] updated Mips Magnum frame buf

From: James Simmons (jsimmons@acsu.buffalo.edu)
Date: Sat May 20 2000 - 08:46:08 EST


> And how do you set tty2 to 800x600-60, when tty1 is foreground and you
> _don't_ want to switch consoles?

   The first question you have to ask yourself is does such functionality
exist now. The answer is no. You can use the trick Petr posted but their
is no other way. With this trick you still have to start the program on
tty1 with a delay and then switch to tty2. Without using the VT_ACTIVATE
ioctl call as chvt does then /dev/fb will change the resolution on the
active VT. So this requires a VT switching to do so.
   So we know that /dev/fb doesn't provide such functionality. The next
question is does the console system provide this. The answer is again no.
Their exist the VT_RESIZE ioctl call but if you look at the code it sets
the resolution for ALL consoles. As for colormaps again their exist no
real functionality to change the color palette on a non visible VT as
well.
   So as you can see we lack this functionality. The next question is
where and how do we add it. I believe the answer is to the console system.
Add ioctls that add this functionality. Why do I think this is the best
approach. One /dev/fb != /dev/tty. If this where the case we have
/dev/ttyFB but we don't. Second in the not so distant future video cards
will have full acceleration and no longer support a framebuffer. Think
about it. Having full accel is much much faster then doing software
rendering in the framebuffer. Graphics and video games are going to push
video cards in this direction. So we will have a graphical console system
functioning on just accels in the future. So this mean we will have other
types of video hardware that can change video modes besides fbdev. This
hardware will most likely use a different interface then /dev/fb so its
better that we develope a interface in the console system that works with
framebuffer and non framebuffer devices.

Q: Why did they deprecate a.out support in linux?
A: Because a nasty coff is bad for your elf.

James Simmons [jsimmons@linux-fbdev.org] ____/|
fbdev/gfx developer \ o.O|
http://www.linux-fbdev.org =(_)=
http://linuxgfx.sourceforge.net U

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