[ale] thinking about switching away from ubuntu

Brian Pitts brian at polibyte.com
Wed Apr 14 11:28:16 EDT 2010


On 04/14/2010 10:53 AM, Greg Freemyer wrote:
> btw: if anyone knows a simple answer, what is KMS?

"Kernel-based mode setting, instead, is meant to get user-space code out
of the business of messing around directly with the hardware. Putting
the kernel in charge of the configuration of the video adapter has a
long list of advantages. Suspend and resume have a much better chance of
working, for example. Once the X server stops accessing hardware
directly, it no longer needs to run as root; having that much untrusted
code running with full privileges has made people nervous for many
years. In the current scheme, the kernel cannot change the graphics mode
if it needs to; that means that, for example, if the system panics, a
graphical user will never see the message. With kernel-based mode
setting, the kernel can switch to a different mode and allow the user to
frantically try to read the message before it scrolls off the screen.
Kernel-based mode setting will also make fast user switching work much
better, without the need to use a separate virtual terminal for each
user session."

http://lwn.net/Articles/300066/

"It has now been a year since kernel mode setting (KMS) went into the
mainline... Initially only the Intel driver supported KMS, but it has
found its way into the Radeon and Nouveau drivers. Now developers are
beginning to talk about eliminating user-space mode setting support
entirely."

http://lwn.net/Articles/369706/

-- 
All the best,
Brian Pitts


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