RE: XFree over Cygwin (Win9x, NT, Win2K)

[Mike MacDonald <mmacdonald at tsi dot gte dot com>]

Thank you for the info!!  I'll try that!  I'm stuck on NT here for now, and
it sucks!

-----Original Message-----
From: Andy Isaacson [mailto:adisaacs@mr-happy.com]
Sent: Monday, December 27, 1999 2:28 PM
To: Mike MacDonald
Subject: Re: XFree over Cygwin (Win9x, NT, Win2K)


On Mon, Dec 27, 1999 at 02:01:22PM -0500, Mike MacDonald wrote:
> Thanx huge!!
> 
> I'm writing a direct X windows server..  I just want to take an existing
> Xserver, with no hardware acceleration, and set it up to use DX to set the
> mode, and return a frame buffer.
> 
> Later I want to add in DX and GDI accel functions..  Prolly blt first,
then
> whatever is most used, and on down from there..
> 
> I know what code to change to make it work, I just have to figure out what
> to copy over to make a new XServer, with no hw accel functions.

OK, I have at least a slight idea of what to do here.  You want to
make a new driver.  Look in hw/xfree86/drivers; make a new directory
(win32dx perhaps?); use mga as a template perhaps for which files you
need to copy.  At the least you'll need Imakefile (this is used to
make the Makefile) and some source.  Then add the appropriate stuff to
drivers/Imakefile and xc/config/cf/xfree86.cf (you need to add a
directory to XF86CardDrivers).

Make sure you support ShadowFB.  MGA does, so use that for a template.
ShadowFB keeps a copy of the framebuffer in system memory, and uses
the CPU to do everything, simply writing the updated pixels to the
video memory.  I understand it's fairly speedy (but it does suck down
an extra 4MB or so of RAM).  That way you'll get a "fast enough" X
server with a minimum of work.

When you start working on acceleration, be aware that Win32 and X11
disagree on what a line looks like, so you can't just map X11's Line
onto Win32's Line.  (But I think XAA can use Win32 lines if you set
the appropriate flag.)

Good luck... I guess I'll be spending some time on NT boxes in the
near future so I have a vested interest in helping you get this done
soon. :)

-andy
-- 
Andy Isaacson  http://web.mr-happy.com/~adisaacs/   Fight Spam, join CAUCE:
adi@acm.org adisaacs@mr-happy.com isaacson@cs.umn.edu   www.cauce.org