Re: [Dri-devel] Re: DRM and pci_driver conversion

--- Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org> wrote:

Quite frankly, I'd much rather see a low-level graphics driver that does
_two_ things, and those things only:

 - basic hardware enumeration and setup (and no, "basic setup" does not
   mean "mode switching": it literally means things like doing the 
   pci_enable_device() stuff.

 - serialization and arbitrary command queuing from a _trusted_ party (ie
   it could take command lists from the X server, but not from untrusted
   clients). This part basically boils down to "DMA and interrupts". This 
   is the part that allows others to wait for command completion, "enough 
   space in the ring buffers" etc. But it does _not_ know or care what the 
   commands are.

Then, fbcon and DRI and X could all three use these basics - and they'd be
_so_ basic that the hardware layer could be really stable (unlike the DRI
code that tends to have to upgrade for each new type of command that DRI
adds - since it has to take care of untrusted clients. So DRI would
basically use the low-level driver as a separate module, the way it
already uses AGP).

Linus, why don't you refuse updates from these projects until this is sorted
out? Your proposal is exactly what it needed. For a year now I have been poking
at these issues and making very little progress. I do know that all of the
pieces needed already exist; but without some incentive there is very little
reason to rearchitect the existing code. 

Personally I'm working on a standalone version of Mesa (OpenGL). This would
allow us to write a 3D hardware based windowing system in response to the ones
on the Mac and MS Longhorn. But instead of working on a windowing system I've
spent all of my time trying to help sort out the video device drivers.


=====
Jon Smirl
jonsmirl@yahoo.com

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