Re: [Gnu-darwin-distribution][XonX-Users] Re: X11 and opendarwin 7. 2.1 ppc and gd 1.1 and no luc
Brought to you by:
torrey
From: Torrey L. <to...@mr...> - 2004-09-21 21:44:31
|
At 3:57 PM -0400 9/21/04, pr...@gn... wrote: >On 21 Sep, Torrey Lyons wrote: >> No. xf86cfg is not useful for XDarwin. > >Thank you Torrey! > >>>I wonder if copying /System/Library/Extensions/ATI* from MacOS X into >>>opendarwin's filesystem would allow opendarwin to use ati's drivers. > > > > Yes. This is often a good way to make sure you have the full working > > drivers. Unfortunately, due to licensing constraints, some necessary > > drivers can not be redistributed by anyone besides Apple. > >I have the prototype GNU-Darwin free version for PPC running on my >cube G4 at home. It has an Apple distributed ATI Rage Pro video card, >and the system seems to be working quite well with all the proprietary >drivers stripped out (Disc production soon I promise! ;-). Can we >modify the statement above to say that newer cards can be supported by >modifying the free parts of the OS, or by adding novel free drivers? >IMHO, this is a requirement for a free OS, and it appears to be at >least doable if not fun, just like Darwin Free Audio. Yes, I'd really like to see an open source IOKit video card driver instead of just the ndrv shim. In any case, it is unfortunate that some video hardware currently relies on closed source drivers not written by Apple. I should note that XDarwin in IOKit mode does not really make many demands on the video drivers as it does not rely on any hardware acceleration features. (Well, it does use a hardware cursor if that counts.) Thus a driver that supports only the rudimentary features is good enough. --Torrey |