Dieter wrote:
Okay, I'm confused.
Why is the above X11 server not complex but my audio/video server box
idea complex?
Is there a significant difference in complexity between an X11 server
and a television server? I was thinking the same server could do both.
Pretty much.
Television is more difficult than CRT, IMO, so an embedded X11 solution
would be easier than TV, I feel.
By "Television", do you mean composite/s-video/component interface?
By "CRT", do you mean a RGBHV (and sync variations) interface?
Yes to both.
X11 server in PROM is very nice, it allows using the X terminal as a
RS-232 console for headless computers without a catch-22 of needing the
computer to be up to serve the X-server code to the X terminal and needing
the X terminal up to see why the computer will not boot. If you have a
problem booting the computer, you can use X's cut-and-paste to capture
the messages.
In the South, we call this "going around your elbow to get to your
thumb." Anyone who needs an RS-232 console isn't going to bother with
this, there are tons of existing solutions on the market.
What bother? Plug the RS-232 cable into the port on the X-terminal.
Done. It works very nicely.
Yes it works, but you didn't address my point? Who in the heck buys an
entire X terminal just for an RS-232 console? Almost nobody, I would bet.
An X terminal is a very expensive serial console, and a one-to-one
connection you describe scales poorly. Nobody is going to buy one X
terminal for each server.
RS-232 concentrators and KVM-over-IP products mean you can manage a ton
of headless machines. Heck, that's the whole point of headless. With
one X terminal per RS-232 console, you're no longer headless :)
Such a terminal would probably find the most use with kernel developers
(like myself) and similar engineers, who do debugging type applications
over RS-232.
Even better are the "ethernet console" devices, which translate
video/mouse/keyboard signals into packets sent over a network to the
remote administrator's console.
a) What makes you think that a headless computer *has* video/mouse/keyboard
signals?
Most servers do in my experience. Embedded, perhaps not. The server
makers seem to love the on-board graphics/mouse/keyboard since they're
so damn cheap, and customers like that too...
b) The video/mouse/keyboard to Ethernet boxes I've seen are absurdly
expensive. If they were reasonably priced I'd look into them.
There are plenty of KVM-over-IP type products for under US$150 each,
some under US$100 each.
Jeff
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