[Xorg] The big multiconsole nasty

[Keith Packard]

Around 13 o'clock on Jul 12, Egbert Eich wrote:

> We are talking about different things here. If code in user land locks up
> the bus the same code in the kernle will certainly have the same effect.
> It certainly will not just produce a 'benign oops'.

I think we're just agreeing that it doesn't matter where the code runs, 
the results will be the same.  

The operations that need to be run in kernel mode are those which interact
with other operations within the kernel or where kernel services can make
the code safer -- like the ability to ensure that certain pages are in
physical memory or the ability to lock out interrupts temporarily.  And, of
course, sometimes it's hugely faster to run some code in kernel mode.

I don't think any of this is true of video mode selection code, at least 
not on cards that I'm familiar with.  But, I certainly wouldn't proscribe 
certain device driver architectures at this point; it may well be 
necessary for some cards to have more kernel-level interactions.

-keith


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