>(Aside, is this because X uses keyboard in raw mode? would be nice to
>still be able to ctrl-alt-del to rebood from console) Anyone know about
>using alt-sysrq to restore console?
>
>So, if the kernel had a card specific module that just knew enough
>to put the card back into text mode, or if it used the card's bios
>to do it like the int10.a module in XFree 4.0, we would lack for nothing.
>(hmm vesafb could be extended?)
Working on it. I already have it so you can go from vgacon to /dev/fb and
back to vgacon. It is in the works to have vgacon restore the text mode,
palette and fonts when switching away from the X server. One of the
problems I have seen is under heavy load switching away from X often
doesn't restore the text console properly. Vgacon could. This is also
handy when the X server dies :-) As for using the card's BIOS. Yuck yuck!!
We have other platforms to consider like PPC. PPC is a pretty popular platform.