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-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Brough, Tom wrote: > These are just some of my thoughts on the subject of X > Even to myself it seems a poor show if you need to download source, compile > your own kernel and additional drivers in order to get a GUI interface. Is > it just me, or are we complacent people who tell others to go and Read The > Manual or say "well it works ok on my machine" ? It isn't just you. Xfree86 is pretty smart now(!) if you use it's own configuration tools, but it is the hardest part of getting a working Linux box if your graphics driver is not well supported. I have three PC's with Linux and modern distros all recognise and configure the graphics hardware correctly on all but my laptop (where I have to manually disable the ATI acceleration). Using older distro's is asking for trouble in this area. > Is there anything we can do to make X "smarter" ? Okay I will add "debug the ATI driver" to my to-do list, as I think acceleration will be good for the xanim, but these things are complex to code/debug, and it is hard for 3rd party coders to test changes across all ATI hardware. > Do we need to lobby Graphics Cards Manufacturers ? Yes, but do it through XFree86 http://www.xfree86.org/ . > Is it time to admit that X configuration is a serious problem that (while > improving) needs to be resolved ? I don't think it is that serious a problem these days. The newest graphics cards, and the minority graphics cards (without manufacturer support) are usually the problem. Many problems are known to the Xfree86 team, and you should read the notes for the cards manufacturer if you get stuck. > I only ask these questions because while I know that linux is not just about > GUI interfaces, to many users thats what they want, without any fuss. It was more an an issue in the past, definitely only a minority of PC's are an issue these days, and I haven't ever had to recompile the kernel for a graphics driver. So yes it is an occasisonal pain, but might be worth checking how you are trying to troubleshoot the problems. For ordinary business use you can usually bypass the fancy drivers with generic VGA / frame buffer support or whatever, it is mostly the games and video that demand a bit more from the drivers. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQE+lG6MGFXfHI9FVgYRAoJaAKDWarJoWzFIvrc2hrmkUPidwwiSrwCguo4b 2MfmehIsa9zfKs99J6ZtohQ= =Hy2h -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG Mail majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe list" in the message body to unsubscribe.