On Wed, 2003-04-23 at 07:54, Jo Dillon wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 23, 2003 at 01:42:47AM -0500, Ron Johnson wrote:
> >
> > This is why I don't understand the desire for DRI/frame buffer. When
> > "regular" X hangs, I Ctrl-Break and restart X, but when using the fb,
> > one must reboot the box.
>
> Well, DRI needs a kernel module because it does DMA to the card and
> needs access to graphics card interrupts. It's a pretty minimal module
> that does just that and leaves the complicated stuff to the userspace driver.
> The framebuffer is necessary on non-x86 hardware, since non-VGA graphics
> cards don't support text mode so you /need/ something in the kernel to get
> a console at all.
Ah, didn't know that.
> On x86 it's useful since it centralises control of basic
> graphics card state, so if your X server crashes, for example, it won't leave
> you with a hosed console showing random blips of graphics instead of the
But then if X crashes, you must reboot. I guess I've never had XFree
crash so weirdly as to hose the console, since that also would take a
reboot to fix, I guess.
> text you were expecting. Unfortunately, since actual hardware acceleration
> lives in userspace whether you use the fb or not, it can still wedge the
> display...
Since I'm now using the nVidia binary drivers, maybe I'll see my
console hosed the next time X crashes...
-- +-----------------------------------------------------------+ | Ron Johnson, Jr. Home: ron.l.johnson@cox.net | | Jefferson, LA USA http://members.cox.net/ron.l.johnson | | | | An ad currently being run by the NEA (the US's biggest | | public school TEACHERS UNION) asks a teenager if he can | | find sodium and *chloride* in the periodic table of the | | elements. | | And they wonder why people think public schools suck... | +-----------------------------------------------------------+ ___________________ Nolug mailing list nolug@nolug.orgReceived on 04/23/03
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