Re: [Linux-fbdev-devel] 2 pm3fb questions/problesm ...

[<dol...@cl...>]

> > Given I understand almost nothing in those bits, I assume it's
> > the VGA cruft I don't want to understand :-)
> 
> Correct! But you should understand how VGA works. How you can
> program text mode without VGA knowledge?!

I can't, which is fine because I don't want to :-)

That's the point of fbdev + fbcon: use modern hardware at what they are
best, full graphic mode (with fbdev), then add a layer (fbcon) to allow
emulation of a text console.

#pragma rant on

Keeping old cruft like VGA text mode in modern hardware is one of the
reason I despise x86 boxes. Supporting _old_ hardware is fine with me (I
would have a hard time saying otherwise, given the pile of old junk
lying around :-), but designing _modern_ hardware with old useless junk
like text mode is really, really dumb IMHO.

OpenFirmware works just fine with purely graphical head, and is a lot
more powerful that the old crappy junk (I love that word, junk :-) that
is the BIOS, and also works on purely non-graphical head like serial
port, possibly avoiding the need for a graphic head on server. And it's
the same on both Apple and Sun hardware, and other.

x86 hardware just plain [censored].

#pragma rant reset

-- 
Romain DOLBEAU
ENS Cachan / Ker Lann
Thesard IRISA / CAPS
dol...@cl...