Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1762408AbXEVA0w (ORCPT ); Mon, 21 May 2007 20:26:52 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1757349AbXEVA0d (ORCPT ); Mon, 21 May 2007 20:26:33 -0400 Received: from wr-out-0506.google.com ([64.233.184.226]:36110 "EHLO wr-out-0506.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1756895AbXEVA0b (ORCPT ); Mon, 21 May 2007 20:26:31 -0400 DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; b=nLC30hNdL++jtRTAT5OI3XH7/pys/7thZL6++CWKP3yKkmiuYmyIjjwsbNoKUrjbUYp3lykSlC9nFiwmo7DsvNrkiYcP32z+K5grWp5XuLMvYeCtGlR0M4pxygEqStsAiomkrWgwYiRBWM70emWO259bTLXngzZo3CmWqhijyik= Message-ID: <9e4733910705211726q38be6843ndac49f8adc25aad0@mail.gmail.com> Date: Mon, 21 May 2007 20:26:30 -0400 From: "Jon Smirl" To: "Jeff Garzik" Subject: Re: [RFC] enhancing the kernel's graphics subsystem Cc: "Jesse Barnes" , "Jesse Barnes" , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, "Antonino A. Daplas" In-Reply-To: <465228E2.1030405@garzik.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline References: <200705171423.46748.jesse.barnes@intel.com> <9e4733910705210901v5996cacas640f211404c519c6@mail.gmail.com> <200705210914.22663.jbarnes@virtuousgeek.org> <200705210934.58559.jbarnes@virtuousgeek.org> <9e4733910705211005k761c976o1a6b270d87b49589@mail.gmail.com> <465228E2.1030405@garzik.org> Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 2296 Lines: 58 On 5/21/07, Jeff Garzik wrote: > Jon Smirl wrote: > > 2) Address the long outstanding issue of multi-seat at the console > > level. My solution to this is the one device per CRTC model. > > This is very very low priority. Pretty much nobody besides you is > clamoring for it. > > > > 3) Eliminate the need for a root priv controlling process. Get rid of > > the potential for a security hole. > > Agreed. > > > > 4) OOPS should always display even if in a graphics mode > > Agreed, and this was in the list that Jesse(?) posted. > > > > 8) Allow multiple user space graphics systems to run. These user space > > Another very very low priority item. > > There are a lot more important things to work on. Linux is about what > people need -right now-, not what you think Linux might need in the > future; not what you think might be nice to have. I am not asking that these features be implemented today. I am asking that enough planning go into the architecture today to make sure that these features can be built in the future without tearing up the graphics system for a third time. This is the essence of my complaint about this patch. The patch introduces a new low level graphics API to the kernel. Once we put an API in it is basically impossible to get it back out. I am not convinced that enough planning has gone into this API yet. I'm also not convinced that there is a transition plan in place to ensure that all drivers get updated to this new API. The last thing we want is to maintain two parallel sets of video drivers forever into the future. V4L2 did something similar to this and orphaned a lot of drivers that the distributions were forced into updating later. Mode setting is intimately intertwined with the console. VT swapping adds another messy layer which can and should be eliminated in a redesign. Multi-seat and unicode add more complexity. All of this needs to be designed as a unified system. Satisfying the needs of the X server is the easiest piece of the puzzle. -- Jon Smirl jonsmirl@gmail.com - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/