Richard Smith wrote:
need to contain the code needed to load the driver to start up the
graphics card. Such systems probably wouldn't even have a VGA/VESA
Video BIOS.
Early on I was asked what my specific concerns were...
I've been a bit busy this week and lost track of this thread but....
As a LinuxBIOS developer and embedded system firmware developer my
main concerns are ones of software complexity. Equipment with complex
setup requirements are fine from userspace but really suck at the BIOS
level. Especially if you are trying to use them with no RAM
available.
Although from the looks of the rest of the thread it appear too bad.
A small ROM table is easily loaded.
I'm assuming from context that that is "... doesn't appear too bad".
Currently in LinuxBIOS the 2nd hardest thing to do is enable Video.
The 1st is get RAM up and going.
But most people who try to use Linuxbios never see the RAM part as its
already working and they don't have to touch it. Very few of us have
the right docs and are qualified to mess with that code when it
breaks.
The video however is a major stumbling block. I see it over and over
on the LinuxBIOS list. Video is so hard in linuxBIOS because we live
in protected mode and pretty much all video bios is in 16-bit mode.
So we have to emulate it and they do all sorts of crazy things. And
there are many video cards/chipsets to deal with.
_Some_ of those crazy things may also have to be done by OG* to be
able to have a card that acts like what a user expects from a video
card.
All this is just the "way it is" in video land right now..
So, from a LinuxBIOS developers point of view, what would you like the
card to provide? Would it be sufficient to have a raw frame buffer and
a set of library routines that blt'd text onto it? This is your
opportunity to perhaps change "the way it is" in video land. I for one
would like to here the requirements from the LinuxBIOS team for their
"dream" video card. No guarantees, but input is always good.
Patrick M
_______________________________________________
Open-graphics mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.duskglow.com/mailman/listinfo/open-graphics
List service provided by Duskglow Consulting, LLC (www.duskglow.com)
