[Xorg] Kdrive

[Chris Debenham]

> Hi list,
> 
> First of all how did I find out about Kdrive? I was testing some real
slick and small distro DamnSmallLinux. Now, after booting it up, 
> I couldn't believe my eyes. It was X, but no? What are those Xfbdev
> or Xvesa? Most surprising for me was the speed, that is primary
> my concern. I'm trying to get rid of any X at all, I simply don't need
it except... yes, it is Firefox which unfortunately doesn't run on
> frame buffer. After trying Kdrive, I'm about to wipe my system clean
> and install it ( no, xorg is a branch of Xfree and I'm not going to try
> it, I'm pretty sure it is the same bloat as all those KDE, Gnome, etc.)

Info about kdrive can be found at http://xserver.freedesktop.org/

> 
> Now, when I'm finished with my rant ( sorry ), I have a few questions
before I'll take a plunge.
> 
> 1) The difference between Xfbdev and Xvesa is that Xfbdev needs Xfree
> working tree and Xvesa is self-contained?

Xfbdev is designed to run on top of the linux kernels framebuffer device
(ie the kernel takes care of the actual drawing) while with Xvesa it
looks after drawing itself by using a video standard known as VESA
(which most cards handle)
In general usage there isn't much difference but Xfbdev requires your
linux to be setup with framebuffer enabled (which is not always the case)

> 
> 2) Is this correct that compiled Xvesa Kdrive will be under 700K?

Yep, that is about so for both Xvesa and Xfbdev

> 
> 3) Will kdrive works well with XFS file system?

I've tried it before and had no problems

> 
> 4) Does Firefox runs good on top of it?

Firefox (and any other X-app) will run fine.

> 
> 5) In Gentoo portage, I have the following compile options:
> cjk, fbdev, freetype, fs, IPv6, speedo, truetype, type1, 
> xinerama, xv.
> >From all those compile option I have only xv ( I don't know
> why gentoo developers decided that I need This graphic
> view; I'll go with xzgv) and truetype. What options are really
> needed beside that it depends on my needs? I know that I don't need
> xinerama and fbdev ( which requires X? ), but what with others?
> What are they? What does type1 ( font?) does? What is fs? Is that
> the font too? Never mind IPv6, I probably need it, but all others?

Firstly 'xv' is not the image viewer it is "XVideo" a xserver extension
for accellerated video scaling etc (mostly used for displaying
fullscreen video)
You probably will want fs, truetype and xv. include fbdev if you want
Xfbdev, xinerama is for spanning dual-head display. cjk, type1 and
speed1 are all font related but you can pretty  safely ignore them.

> 
> 6) How many people using Kdrive and what tips they can kindly provide?

This one I have no idea of but most of the very-small linux live-cds etc
use it so there are a fair number out there.

> 
> Thanks for your attention.
> 
> Mas.

No worries,
   Chris