LCA: Two talks on the state of X [LWN.net]

LCA: Two talks on the state of X

Posted Feb 14, 2008 11:36 UTC (Thu) by etienne_lorrain@yahoo.fr (subscriber, #38022)
In reply to: LCA: Two talks on the state of X by flewellyn
Parent article: LCA: Two talks on the state of X

 Another solution is to keep the video mode set by the bootloader, using the manufacturer
BIOS, before switching to protected mode.
 The video manufacturer can do whatever he likes at init in his BIOS, the kernel just manages
framebuffers, the X server just enables optimisations over framebuffer once it has recognised
the hardware - if X does not recognise the hardware it still works - but slower.
 Another advantage for CRT users (vs LCD screen) is that parameters like screen size/position
do not change depending on the operating system.

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LCA: Two talks on the state of X

Posted Feb 21, 2008 15:49 UTC (Thu) by lgb (guest, #784) [Link]

Nice, but user may want to alter video mode without reboot :) However video card vendor would
ship cards with data tables on their video BIOS to explain register settings for video modes
and likes. Please note that it's possible to use 'int 10h' (real mode) interrupt service to
set up video mode even from Linux with some kind of emulation. Also video bios may contain
code can be used from protected mode directly as well?