A Preview Of Kernel-Based Mode-Setting

[ Thanks to Michael Larabel for this
link. ]

“There are many new and innovative features brewing within the
X.Org development community right now–among the many are
Gallium3D, the TTM memory manager, and MPX (Multi-Pointer X)–but
one of the features that has risen towards the top of the list and
delivers visible benefits to the end-user is kernel-based
mode-setting. As implied by its name, kernel mode-setting involves
moving the mode-setting code for video adapters from the user-space
X server drivers into the Linux kernel. This may seem like an
uninteresting topic for end-users, but having the mode-setting done
in the kernel allows for a cleaner and richer boot process,
improved suspend and resume support, and more reliable VT switching
(along with other advantages). Kernel mode-setting isn’t yet in the
mainline Linux kernel nor is the API for it frozen, but Fedora 9
shipping next month will be the first major distribution carrying
this initial support. In this article we’re looking more closely at
kernel mode-setting with the Intel X.Org driver as well as showing
videos of kernel-based mode-setting in action…”

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