Re: arch/i386/boot rewrite, and all the hard-coded video cards

Rene Herman
2007-05-01T21:03:34Z

On 05/01/2007 10:32 PM, Rene Herman wrote:

> On 05/01/2007 04:43 AM, Linus Torvalds wrote:
>
>> Doubtful. The Tseng ET4000 cards may have been the gold standard in
>> 1991, but I don't think most people even _remember_ them. And if they
>> have them in their machines, they probably tend to run a Linux-1.2
>> kernel, or at least not care a lot about graphics (ie they may have an
>> old card in the machine just because they need VGA to boot, rather
>> than because they care about Tseng).
>
> My 386 has an ET4000. An ET4000AX/W32 even. And you bet it's because
> it's nifty! Okay, I'll admit the thing doesn't currently run a 2.6
> kernel...
>
> The answer will probably be "no", but would this be a good point to ask
> if this would be a good time to not bother with the mode switching code
> at all anymore? I'm generally rather appreciative of old gunk but I
> haven't cared for that specific feature for ages now. I personally don't
> use framebuffer, but I would if I wanted more than the plain VGA my BIOS
> sets up.

Confusingly put; please consider a "If the switching code in itself is still
considered relevant, " to be present here. But rip it all out, I'd say...

> I'd consider keeping anything but VESA 1.2 (which that ET4000 and most
> all other Super VGA cards of the era also do!) nonsensical and as far as
> I'm concerned this includes all the VGA modes with the strange number of
> lines; a 43/60-line VGA screen is too horrible to look at anyway...

Rene.