Have you ever been annoyed by Linux' lack of a coherent graphical boot process? Graphics hardware causing problems during sleep/wake cycles? Problematic virtual terminal switches? Kernel-based mode-setting, a new feature of Xorg still in heavy development aims to solve many of these problems by moving the mode-setting code from the user-space X driver into the Linux kernel. Phoronix takes a look at this new feature.
Currently, the only driver that supports kernel-based mode-setting is a special branch of the open source Intel video driver, and the only distribution that supports this new method of mode-setting is Fedora 9, of which a peview has been released (review). There is an effort under way to port the Radeon driver to kernel-based mode-setting too.
Phoronix explains the benefits of kernel-based mode-setting:
Suspend and resume support is improved with kernel mode-setting as the kernel no longer relies upon external resources for restoring the graphics adapters. With the process now being in-kernel, it's able to restore the mode automatically and more quickly. Likewise, virtual terminal switching is also improved as a result.
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