From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu
From: "Douglas A. Gwyn" <DAGwyn@null.net>
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References: <3D48F0AF.8090806@mac.com>, <3D49E652.663771F6@null.net>, <3D4A5C6F.957DEDD0@biochem.uni-erlangen.de>
Subject: [9fans] Re: only old hardware supported?
Date: Mon,  5 Aug 2002 17:19:23 +0000
Topicbox-Message-UUID: d852c4d8-eaca-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025

petra wrote:
> How do other OSs (e.g. the various BSDs) overcome this problem? Do they
> build their own drivers? How diffcult is this on Plan9?

Generally there are four possibilities:
(1) They don't support the card.
(2) They support the card in standard "VGA" or a "VESA" mode.
(3) The vendor supports the platform (usually just Linux these days)
    by providing a driver.
(4) The legion of platform users includes somebody who has access to
    the necessary technical information (often not easy to get) and
    puts in the work to create a driver.

Plan 9 doesn't allow options (2) or (3).  Option (2) is eliminated
because the current implementation requires hardware cursor support.
Option (3) is eliminated because card vendors don't see Plan 9 as a
mass market that would repay driver development expenses.