Mario Goebbels wrote:
> What's SUNWxwmod? What do these kernel modules do? Xorg seems to run fine
> without them.
The hardware cursor kernel module. Xorg doesn't actually use it yet, but
porting the code to do so from Xsun to Xorg is on our todo list.
On systems with in-kernel fb drivers (i.e. SPARCs) that support the right
ioctls, Xsun will push the hwc streams module onto the stream coming out
of /dev/mouse - this module will then take all mouse movements and translate
them into instructions to the fb driver to update the cursor location on
screen - without waiting for the Xsun process to be scheduled, the system
to context switch from kernel to Xsun user space, Xsun to get back to it's
main event loop, select() the mouse device and process the input from it.
On the SPARC workstations of the 90's, this made cursor response much smoother
and gave users more natural feeling feedback.
Whether we'll get x86 kernel graphics drivers like nvidia or DRI to support
similar ioctls is another open question. One of this year's X.Org projects
for Google Summer of Code involved investigating solutions to smoother cursor
response for modern graphics hardware/software that may result in a different
solution as well.
--
-Alan Coopersmith- alan.coopersmith at sun.com
Sun Microsystems, Inc. - X Window System Engineering
