> Maybe I'm missing something here (probably so ;-), but couldn't we simply
> pass resolution and color-depth to the Xserver as arguments?  Perhaps
> number the resolution modes to simplify things a bit.  Say you want
> 640x480 (mode 1?) and 8-bit color (which is the best my current setup can
> do anyway ;-) :

This is sort of the way Linux-pmac handles things. I'd like to support
something like this since pre-configured modes are nice. However,
I find that sometimes the video hardware can do better than the
modes listed.

Good example, my monitor can do 1600x1200 at 60 but the stinkin' modes
only do 1600x1200 at 75! The monitor also does 1152 at a much better
refresh than is offered via the fixed modes.

For this reason, I think it would be nice to be able to tune these
values yourself *IN ADDITION* to being able to use the fixed modes. 

> Of course, I don't know how well on-the-fly resolution/bit-depth changes
> would work while in X, tho...

The XFree stuff should deal with it well. The iX86 port does switching
on the fly. No reason why we can't. :-)