radeon driver heading in wrong direction :-(.

[Suvayu Ali]

On Saturday 06 February 2010 01:39 PM, Bruno Wolff III wrote:
> On Sat, Feb 06, 2010 at 13:26:12 -0800,
>    Suvayu Ali<fatkasuvayu+linux at gmail.com>  wrote:
>>
>> A bit OT, but what is the difference/pros-cons between User Mode and
>> Kernel Mode Setting? Can anyone refer me to some _not too technical_
>> resource?
>
> User mode is the old way of doing things. The only reason to want to use it
> is when there is a problem with kernel mode. Eventually user mode support
> is going to go away upstream, but probably not for a couple of years.
>
> The fedora feature page
> (http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/KernelModesetting) lists the
> following benefits:
>      * Improved Graphical Boot
>      * Faster fast user switching
>      * Seamless X server switching
>      * Graphical panic messages
>
> Also KMS is a prerequestite for being able to run X not as root. That is still
> a long ways out, but should eventually happen.

Thanks Bruno for the explanation. On a bit more searching I found this,

" ... One other audience member asked about running X without root
privileges: that does work now, and Moblin is doing it. There are some
problems remaining, though, especially with fast user switching. In
the absence of a revoke() system call, there's no way to guarantee
that one user isn't listening in on another. Since revoke() is known
to be a hard problem, it's not clear how this issue will be resolved."[1]

That seems quite interesting. ;)

[1]http://lwn.net/Articles/371276/

-- 
Suvayu

Open source is the future. It sets us free.