> 
> > From: kpneal@unity.ncsu.edu
> > Date: Wed, 24 Jan 1996 00:49:23 -0500 (EST)
> 
> > > Matthew green wrote (in his message from Mon 22)
> > > 
> > > Yes. root is basically needed to get access to i/o operations on the
> > > VGA cards. This is very difficult to suppress. It would mean:
> > > 
> > > 1. Write a device driver for each different graphic board on the
> > >    market (it should probably implement the mi level of the Xserver to
> > >    be safe)
> > > 2. Have XFree86 (and the other available servers) use them.
> > > 
> > 
> > Which would mean that NetBSD would have exactly 1 Xserver program
> > that would run on all supported platforms, where these devices exist.
> 
> In a Perfect World, the kernel should take care of the actual low-level
> device-driving, not the X server. Kernel bloat might be avoided by
> having a basic VGA driver in the kernel, and loading an LKM for the
> right video card once you need to get more out of it.
> 
> The problem is, that it would be a big effort to keep track of all available
> cards. Currently, the XFree86 folks do it for us, I am not complaining ;-)
> 

So you are saying that if we had people to maintain it, you would be
agreeable to a kernel-mode low-level graphics subsystem?

Hmmm.... I do have that Senior design class coming up after a
couple of classes.....(No I'm not getting ahead of myself,
the computer science students here are just wimpy. One
guy's official senior design class was a web page.)

XCOMM --------------------------------------------------------
XCOMM Kevin P. Neal, Sophomore CSC/CPE     kpneal@eos.ncsu.edu 
XCOMM North Carolina State University      kevinneal@bix.com
XCOMM --------------------------------------------------------