On Thu, 12 Aug 1999 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Hi !
>
> > > Is anyone working on a wrapper that will allow XFree86 4.0 drivers to be
> > > built from the existing KGIcon interface?
>
> I am still waiting for volunteers. The Xfree people have kindly invited us
> to do the several interoperability projects I proposed, so I really need some
> people that do it.
>
> I expect Marcus to want to do the LibGGI XFree module, but the other tasks
> are still open.
>
> Jon - is that a raised hand I see there ? ;-)
Um... perhaps. I will not become an XFree86 registered developer,
as I do not support their closed development and mailing list policies.
But I have no problem with taking their publically-available documentation
and sources and hacking something together based on that.
I have done some reading of the new XFree86 4.0 driver interface
documentation, and it appears that there are two main tasks: writing an
unaccelerated linear framebuffer driver and writing a XAA-on-GGI driver.
The first should be quite easy - copy the existing fbcon/fbdev driver and
tweak it to use LibGGI. The second task will probably also not be very
hard, but I don't know for sure yet.
> > The wrapper would probably go around SUID-KGI, not KGIcon. KGIcon
> > is meant for wrapping the _fbdev_ interface around KGI drivers, and as
> > such is heavily kernelspace-dependent.
>
> Ahem ... it would go around KGI I'd say, maybe making use of SUIDKGI as a
> code base and I am also willing to assist, as writing KGI wrappers is
> something I seem to do on a regular basis.
This could be done, but why? Why not use LibGGI? The 2D XAA
functions should map to LibGGI's API (perhaps LibGGI2D in some cases), and
GLX should be implemented using GGIMesa. I really do not see a reason to
talk directly to KGI.
Anyway, as soon as we have the above issue worked out I'll take a
crack at it. In the meantime, I'll have a go at downloading and building
the newest XFree86 3.9.x beta sources and I''ll get the fbcon/fbdev driver
module up and running. That'll give me a better idea of how difficult all
of this will be.
Jon
---
'Cloning and the reprogramming of DNA is the first serious step in
becoming one with God.'
- Scientist G. Richard Seed
