Mike 'b0mbtraq' Kabata wrote:
> > > I tried to use driver for my chipset but it's "pre-alpha
> > > version", so you understand it gives just seg. fault.
> >
> > This is going to be an inevitable problem with SVGAlib. X is used by
> > (virtually) all Unix-like OSes, on a wide variety of hardware
> > platforms. SVGAlib is specific to Intel-Linux. Consequently, there are
> > many more people working on X than on SVGAlib (the ratio could easily
> > be as high as 100:1).
>
> hmm... i see, but any ideas why my friend can get let's say 640x480x256
> on normal VGA driver and i can't on same driver... can't get it, i'm not
> used to graphics...
640x480x256 is an SVGA mode; the driver needs to know how to obtain
this mode on your particular chipset. You may need to specify the
graphics chipset and/or the clock chip. Even then, it may be that
SVGAlib just doesn't support modes beyond VGA on your hardware.
> > If you want direct screen access, you might be better off using the
> > DGA extension of the XFree86 servers. The main disadvantage of DGA is
> > that you can't perform mode changes on the fly.
>
> well... if i wanted direct screen acces wouldn't it be better to use
> assembler ? :]
Not necessarily. The optimum machine code to implement a particular
algorithm depends upon the processor in question. If you write the
code in C, you can recompile with -m486, -mpentium, -mpentiumpro etc
to get machine code optimised for a particular processor. If you write
it in assembler, it will only be optimal for a particular processor.
Furthermore, if you write it in C and use X/DGA rather than SVGAlib,
the code should run on any system with X and the DGA extension.
--
Glynn Clements <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
