[GLLUG] Re: Booting into text mode

[Matt Graham]

On Thursday 14 February 2002 14:49, Melson, Paul wrote:
> No, but the S3 chipset will display VESA framebuffer modes.  Anything
> that doesn't have GL support of one form or another is better off,
> IMHO, if it's used in vfb mode - both for the kernel and X display. 

I'm afraid I can't agree with that.

The main problem is that the VESA framebuffer is *unaccelerated*.  
Every bit that you bang into the framebuffer has to be handled directly 
by the CPU.  Doing something as simple as dragging a window around in X 
(when "display window contents while dragging" is on) will slow the 
system to the point of unusability on a K6-2 400 with an ATi Mach64 
card if you're trying to use the framebuffer.  And even if you're not 
doing much, your GUI will feel like it's on a tranquilizer overdose.  
Nobody likes that.

> This solves many problems like switching between graphics modes,
> using undocumented/unsupported monitors, and color map conflicts.

I've never had a problem with switching between/among the "standard" 
resolutions in X.  Even weird homegrown things like 320x240 Doublescan 
work.

As for monitors, the only things you need to know are the Hsync and 
Vsync ranges, which X 4.x can detect directly from the monitor.  
Fixed-freq monitors can be more of a problem, but then using really old 
equipment always presents special difficulties.

I've never seen a color map conflict, since I said goodbye to 8-bit 
color when my Powerbook 180c bit the dust.  When video cards with 1M of 
VRAM are available in the junk store for $5, there's no reason for 
anyone on a desktop machine to be using 8-bit color these days.

> That's just my opinion, but as long as you're not playing Quake or
> doing rendering/modeling with the machine, vfb is a good (and easy)
> choice.

Just make sure you know what you're getting into when you choose it.  
It is at best a stopgap measure while real video support is developed.

(good sigmonster!)

-- 
   "Unfortunately, men befriend women in futile attempts to get a 3d
   accelerated video card thingy..." 
    -- Megahal (trained on asr), 1998-11-05
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