xserver on OpenGL

[Kendall Bennett]

Keith Packard <keithp@keithp.com> wrote:

> It may turn out that the kernel will end up supporting Int10 calls
> from protected mode much as Windows did, in which case we may want
> to leverage that for some of this functionality as well.  

Windows doesn't call the Int 10 BIOS from protected mode primarily 
because the VBE 3.0 protected mode functions were stupidly made optional 
by VESA. That combined with the need to allocate selectors, and M$ didn't 
want to tell people how to create selectors from Windows kernel drivers 
(you can do it, but it is undocumented and it could break in future 
releases).

Basically no-one uses VESA VBE 3.0 protected mode support, and the few 
vendors that did implement it (ie: NVIDIA) screwed it up majorly and it 
crashed anyway ;-).

> Using "real" real-mode instead of vm86 will work better with video
> cards anyway. 

What do you mean by "real" real-mode? The only options you have are 
virtual 86 mode or an x86 emulator. You cannot put the CPU into real mode 
unless you want the entire kernel to come to a screeching halt.

Regards,

---
Kendall Bennett
Chief Executive Officer
SciTech Software, Inc.
Phone: (530) 894 8400
http://www.scitechsoft.com

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