Re: Status of vbe and vesa implementation

[Yoshinori K. Okuji]

On Thursday 30 October 2003 09:59, Durand Miller wrote:
> So what I've done is add two more functions to builtins.c and modified the
> boot procedure to check to for vbe request in the multiboot header, set the
> correct or close-enough mode and pass this information along in the
> multiboot information structure.  It all works and it's only a few lines of
> code.

That's great. When will we be able to use your code? :)

> I just wanted to know if there is any point in submitting a patch if the
> VBE support is possibly going to change.

No decision has been made. It is uncertain if it is really necessary to change 
the specification. That should be determined by those who use the support 
actually in their OSes.

AFAIK, there are few people who are really interested in the VBE support. So 
if you think it is good, let's keep it as it is.

BTW, in your code, how did you implement the support? Does it change the video 
mode as soon as it is requested? If this is yes, it's not good. As GRUB does 
not support arbitrary modes, it cannot display correctly once the video mode 
is changed. This affects the command-line interface significantly. So GRUB 
should only save which mode should be used when requested, and should change 
the video mode to the selected mode just before booting an OS.

Okuji