On Mon, 10 Mar 2003, Holden Hao wrote: .. > What is a frame buffer device?
it's a virtualization of your video card. your video card appears to be an area of memory. so by writing to that memory (e.g. you can define a pointer to point to the address, so simply by using indirection) you can draw graphics in a sort-of system-independent way, without using X. if you remember the old CGA graphics card, di ba 0xb800:0000 yung address nun? and if you write data into that area, it will show up on-screen? that's how the frame-buffer works. of course the address is DYNAMIC -- it is determined by the Linux kernel (there is a function call which will return the frame-buffer address). > What is its use? for really lightweight, platform-independent graphics. the disadvantages are.. 1) no (or little..) hardware 2D acceleration 2) no 3D hardware acceleration or.. a quick answer.. it lets you have a neat graphical Tux in the upper-left corner of the screen when your kernel is booting :) --- Orlando Andico <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Mosaic Communications, Inc. _ Philippine Linux Users Group. Web site and archives at http://plug.linux.org.ph To leave: send "unsubscribe" in the body to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fully Searchable Archives With Friendly Web Interface at http://marc.free.net.ph To subscribe to the Linux Newbies' List: send "subscribe" in the body to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
