On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 23:17:59 +0000, der Mouse wrote:

>> If it doesn't, aren't any GTK2 apps quite slow at text rendering?
> 
> Quite possibly - though, again, I don't know.  However, if the
> framebuffer can't do it in hardware or firmware, it makes little odds
> whether the software rendering is done in a server software RENDER
> implementation or elsewhere.

If it is done on client side, there are much more data flowing between the
server and client. I recall remote GTK2 apps displayed on a
Solaris Xserver were horribly slow (over local network with ssh2). I don't
know if this (lack of RENDER) was the reason, but I strongly suspect it.

>> Also, how do I exit the Xserver, if it is not run from xinit?
> 
> You normally don't.  Aside from deliberate by-hand runs, there are

What's wrong with by-hand runs? This is good for testing, and also for
converting a slow Sparc box (a 20 MHz Sparcstation SLC in my case) to a X
terminal: X -query <xdm server> . It is really lame if I have to jump to
DDB and kill the Xserver from there just to be able to use the console.

> really only three ways to start the server: xinit, xdm, and ttys, and of
> those, xinit is the only one that makes much sense to "exit".  The
> server normally runs until it resets upon losing its last client, or (if
> using xinit) until xinit sees the client script exit and kills the
> server.

How to make the client script exit if gnome-session, kde or some other
desktop monster just hangs?

>> I recall that Ctrl-Alt-Backspace didn't work (I don't have any Sparc to
>> try now).
> 
> No, it probably won't; that is another x86ism.  Most of the reasons for
> wanting to forcibly kill off the server on peecees are unlikely or
> invalid on SPARCs anyway (such as wanting the text console back - SS20
> framebuffers don't have "text mode" and "graphics mode" the way peecee
> framebuffers do).

But, if the Xserver is running, there is no way to use the console, even
if there is no difference between text mode and graphics mode.

What I'm generally trying to say here is that there are many often
useful features in XFree86 (and many other will probably come with
the new X.org Xserver) which are not related to x86 hardware, so wanting
to have XFree86 on non-x86 platforms is quite reasonable.

Bye	Pavel