What else would we talk about other than the massively [popular|controversial] article about X.org last week. We try and address a number of concerns about the article and common lines of reasoning / misunderstanding. Lastly, we move onto something completely different with topics on Google Chrome on Linux, IE6 and the two details we know about RockMelt: Rock. Melt.
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Member since:2008-03-17
AFAIK only mode setting and the memory managers are going to be in the kernel, everything remains in user space.
Granted mode setting is probably an area that is hugely problematic for x atm and it's good to see it going where it belongs.
So a graphics driver still could potentially crash x. Also it does not mean that it has to be a graphics driver that crashes X even if it is the most common reason.
"It isn't x's job to worry about whether the driver crashed or restarted". THAT is the whole point, it shouldn't worry about it and it shouldn't take the graphical system down either. We are not talking about it maintaining display, but the apps that are running shouldn't be taken down even if you can't see them whilst the gfx driver restarts.
Edited 2009-08-21 11:09 UTC
Member since:2009-05-06
Member since:
2009-05-06
Ok, yes crash X. But that's because X is doing stuff it shouldn't be. It's doing things the kernel should. Making it more complex then it should be. The graphics drivers are being moved out of X into the kernel, at least that's what's happening with the open drivers. The kernel should cope as best it can with any driver crash. It's not X's place to worry about driver crashes. Ideally, X shouldn't even know a driver has crashed and been restarted. As all this happens, X will shrink, and that will make there less to work on and make it all much more maintainable. We don't want to build up X, but strip it down. There is more X implimentations than Xorg, X doesn't have to be the monster Xorg is, but Xorg is such a monster because it's doing so much, i.e. drivers, then other X implimentations.