Re: svgalib and dual monitor systems

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From: Dr. Michael Weller (eowmob@exp-math.uni-essen.de)
Date: Tue 04 Aug 1998 - 13:18:50 IDT


On 31 Jul 1998, Lukasz Wiechec wrote:

> 	I'm using svgalib for quite a long time, and I'm very pleased
> with it. Normally, it works smoothly; there's hangs etc.
> 
> 	Lately, I began using Zachary Amsden's multimon kernel patch,
> which enables using VGA and HGC adapters at the same time. Then I
> observed occsional hangs, basically when one process was writing
> something to HGC monitor, and other, by svgalib, writing something
> else in graph mode to VGA monitor.
> 
> 	I know that there are very few configurations like mine, but
> do you will to get into this problem in you work with development of
> svgalib ? Or maybe give me some hints to work on my own --- maybe I'll 
> try to find some solution.

Well, lacking a similar hardware and not having written the plain VGA 
parts of svgalib myself, I don't really see what I could do.

>From a theoretical point of view, I'm not too surprised. Basically, every
VGA is also a HGC. When checking out capabilities of the VGA, svgalib may
easily switch it to HGC for a short moment. This might also happen when
moving fonts in and out of the card. It is quite obvious that there might
be collisions, although I don't have a specific point in mind where I
could point you to a sourceline and say: Well, look here, this makes the
VGA turn into a HGC too. (Which will then result in unpredictable
behaviour)

Another point is, the kernel's VC switching is not only a pain, but also
very sensitive. I don't know this patch and how it works, but if it even
slghtly interfere's with VC switching it may easily cause problems with
putting a VC in graphics mode (do you have any experience with X, by
chance?)

Michael.

--

Michael Weller: eowmob@exp-math.uni-essen.de, eowmob@ms.exp-math.uni-essen.de,
or even mat42b@spi.power.uni-essen.de. If you encounter an eowmob account on
any machine in the net, it's very likely it's me.


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