From: James Simmons <jsimmons@edgeglobal.com>
  To  : ggi-develop@eskimo.com
  Date: Mon, 9 Aug 1999 10:01:32 -0400 (EDT)

Re: Accels and /dev/gfx.

> You'll still be able to switch between VCs, just when you open the 
> /dev/fb file to run a graphic mode app the VC is frozen and you
> cannot switch from it.  You can still use fbset to torque up the
> refresh rate on the VC's, since it closes /dev/fb when it is done.
> 
> The frozen VC stuff is going to get on my nerves rather fast,
> but it's a good way to simplify development and focus on the drivers
> for now.

No. That not why VC is disabled.  Its just to impractical to store a mmap
image of /dev/fb on a VT switch. The example I gave was the FireGL 5000
card. It has 56 Meg of RAM on the card. Now on a multiheaded linux box
with say 8 cards and plus in the future linux kerneles their going to
allocated 32 consoles per head. Now that 8*32*56 Meg =~ 14 Gigs of free
space needed to store all those mmap images. Yes not being able to do VT
switching in graphics mode is going to a pain. Thats why I'm pushing for
multiheadedness. I have a descent card and a junking card to work on. I
display the graphics program on the good card and write teh code on the
sucky card.