OK. Mandrake 7.1. Kinda pretty. Some odd dependancies and
package categorizations, some of which I can think of
explanations for. Their XFree86 4.0 configure program is a
little on the pathetic
side, but then again it's very new. (It wouldn't believe my
32MB
TNT2 Ultra could do 1280x1024x32, when it actually goes way,
way beyond that.)
XFree86 4.0 is a little different and a little broken.
Changing back
to text VCs doesn't (fortunately, changing back from that to
X does), and I've had to tweak my DPI settings again. Does
anyone know if the VESA DDC standards include a way for the
monitor to
tell the system its physical size? mail cpw at catenoid dot
com if you know the answer (or just to say 'Hi!').
Fortunately, this appears to be 4.0, so maybe I'll get VCs
back if I can upgrade to 4.0.1.
I still think that the kernel should be able to arbitrate
access to
the video hardware, so you can run multiple buggy graphics
systems and have the kernel wrest the video hardware from
one
and give it to the other. I suspect the GGI people said
similar things, though, and Linus didn't like it much.
Clearly he needed to play more svgalib games, which would
quite frequently do nasty things if
you tried to change VC while they were running.