Re: PCI amiga's..

[Michael S. <sc...@zi...>]

> > > Just look at the PPC PCI code, that works fine without /proc/pci - tested
> > > on APUS.
> > 
> > Does it also work without PCI hardware?
> 
> Yes, I had to add fbdev probing code to the glint driver though which is still
> considered a hack.

Fine, that could be a starting point.  

> > It's not about the convenient API for PCI but about the convenient API for
> > mapping IO and memory of the graphics hardware plus the fbdev ioctls to
> > set video modes, color entries and more. fbdev has been in the official
> > kernel for quite a while now.
> 
> Yes, in the official _Linux_ kernel. What about all the BSDs, Solaris (I know
> that also has some kind of framebuffer device, but nobody has bothered to add
> code for that), the various System V flavours, OS/2, ... ?

I was talking about Linux here. Obviously, on systems without a sane
method to access the display, the low level hacks^H^H^H^Hooks have to be
used. 

> > I do know that the option UseFBDev will make XFree use the kernel fbdev
> > API _once the card has been detected_. What I complain about is the lack
> > of a mechanism to tell XFree 'don't touch this card, the kernel fbdev
> > driver at /dev/fb<index> knows how to handle it' already at the probe stage.
> 
> If you provide the bus ID, the X server won't mess with the device if the
> memory regions etc. are sane. Development is taking place to automate the

Nothing in Apple space has ever been 'sane'. And in the case of the Rage
Pro, the card design isn't sane to begin with (regardless where you map
the MMIO regions in PCI config space, they always show up at the end of
both little and big endian video RAM apertures). The kernel (Linux, that
is :-) fbdev driver just uses the 

> (non-trivial) assignment fbdev <-> pcidev . If you know how to do it easily,
> patches go to pa...@XF... or fi...@XF..., design suggestions to
> xp...@XF... :)

Add a fbdev->private field to hold PCI/Zorro/ISA/whatever dependent
framebuffer information, and an ioctl to retrieve that bit. That's only my
.01 Euro, and Geert may have reasons not to implement this. 

WRT X: I have a hard time to grok the convoluted structure of the X code.
Easier to work around such X quirks, f.e. in the kernel (I tried to
somehow keep X from messing with my PCI config to no avail). Don't look
for any X patches of mine. 

	Michael