Re: Kernels - What's in and what's out.

Alan Cox (alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk)
Sun, 12 May 1996 15:20:34 +0100 (BST)


> We need at least two things: an event queue and a framebuffer.

X has an event queue. It has synthesized events. It asks the
kernel nicely to put the keyboard into keycode mode. It gets direct video
access for performance reasons.

> SVR4 and SunOS both provide an event queue. Most Unix clones
> seem to provide framebuffers, even Linux on some architectures.

Not all PC video cards have a frame buffer so your abstraction is broken.

> control of the keyboard. Any setup with suid root software that
> gets IO privileges is broken. Any setup that lets the user jam

No its a performance reality with the intel hardware and control setup.
Performance realities are very hard to fix. Being able to get back
out to default tty/video mode is something post 2.0 we HAVE to address
no argument on that bit.

Alan