On Sat, 19 Mar 2011 12:20:24 +0100 Geert Uytterhoeven <geert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > As noone responded to my question in > http://www.spinics.net/lists/dri-devel/msg08851.html > (yes, it was a bit hidden in a thread), I'm asking it here again (and > also on the Wayland > mailing list). > > Basically I'm still puzzled about this KMS thing. If the name "Kernel > Mode Setting" > covers it, then how does it compare to plain fbdev? Just additional frame buffer > memory management? > Also, some people may remember we did have kernel messages (e.g. oops, panic) > on graphical consoles with fbdev, until people started not liking them > showing up > on their X desktops... We support panic these days as well, but people still don't like seeing them. :) The DRM KMS APIs provide everything fbdev provides, plus memory management, a way to expose acceleration (via GEM or TTM), and a way to manage multiple outputs reasonably. > Furthermore, everybody states that "future desktop" (that's > http://wayland.freedesktop.org/) > will require KMS drivers. > How do/will we handle this on dumb frame buffers? It's not like we can't do > "advanced" things like compositing using the CPU. Transparency may stretch > it a bit on lower end CPUs, but you don't always need that. There's nothing in DRM that precludes doing simple fbdev-like drivers as well, though for many embedded uses I wouldn't expect it to provide a whole lot of benefit. -- Jesse Barnes, Intel Open Source Technology Center _______________________________________________ dri-devel mailing list dri-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/dri-devel
