why is vesafb not a module?

Thomas Pornin (pornin@bolet.ens.fr)
Sat, 23 Jan 1999 09:46:17 +0100

In article <36A90777.80279E78@quark.vpplus.com> you write:
> Because the VESA framebuffer uses the VESA 2.0 BIOS, it can only be
> called from real mode. Therefore, it must be done at boot time, before
> the kernel enters protected mode. This means that it cannot be compiled
> as a module (unless somebody wants to hack vm86 support so that it can
> be used _inside_ the kernel).

It could be done with a simple dosemu trick I think. Back to
dosemu-0.66.7, I could run Warcraft 2 under dosemu, which initiates a
non-standard 640x480x256 video mode. Most vendors have some msdos tsr
program on their website, that would run on dosemu+freedos, provided
access to the video card ports is granted via the dosemu.conf.

If I find some time, I'll try it. Could be fun.

Moreover, both FreeBSD and Minix386 can access bios functions with vm86.
This shows that it can be done under Linux (although a REAL solution
should always be preferred).

--Thomas Pornin

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