From: Geert Uytterhoeven <Geert.Uytterhoeven@cs.kuleuven.ac.be>
  To  : ggi-develop@eskimo.com
  Date: Tue, 9 Feb 1999 16:27:19 +0100 (CET)

Re: LibGGI on Frame Buffer (Permedia 2)

On Tue, 9 Feb 1999, Marcus Sundberg wrote:
> Geert Uytterhoeven wrote:
> > On Tue, 9 Feb 1999, Marcus Sundberg wrote:
> > > Considering how hard it seems to be getting updates into the Linux
> > > kernel I don't understand why people want their fbdev drivers in
> > > the kernel. Wouldn't it be better to have all fbdev drivers distributed
> > > separately, and made available from a central place - one where they
> > > can be updated as necessary?
> > 
> > Because we want to have _usable_ kernels on our systems? We don't have a
> > fallback called VGA text mode.
> 
> Sorry, what I meant to write was actually: fbdev drivers for cards
> that are VGA compatible.

Even then it makes sense: e.g. all Amiga video boards produced during the last
few years use standard PCI video chips, with a Zorro-PCI bridge implemented in
FPGA. Adapting the driver to make the normal PCI incarnation work usually takes
about 10 lines of additional code.

And if you use a so-called `VGA compatible' PCI board on a non-Intel box,
chances are high the firmware puts it in graphics mode too. So you do need the
driver anyway. Then why not make it work on Intel-boxes too?

Greetings,

						Geert

--
Geert Uytterhoeven                     Geert.Uytterhoeven@cs.kuleuven.ac.be
Wavelets, Linux/{m68k~Amiga,PPC~CHRP}  http://www.cs.kuleuven.ac.be/~geert/
Department of Computer Science -- Katholieke Universiteit Leuven -- Belgium