how to use wsfb and non-root?

[Matthieu Herrb]

Jeremy C. Reed wrote:
> I asked about a week ago about a list or documentation of known X drivers 
> that do not need root.
> 
> Anyways, I am using wsfb on NetBSD/i386 3.99.20. It is uses NetBSD's 
> wsdisplay(4) which "an abstraction layer for display devices within the 
> wscons(4) framework." I am using my wsdisplay on vesafb which is a 
> NetBSD-current-only graphics driver.
> 
> I created the autoconf files for driver/xf86-video-wsfb (and one patch for 
> VERSION to WSFB_VERSION). I plan on committing them unless someone says 
> no.
> 
> So I hear that some people run X as non root. I have even heard this for 
> i386 systems.
> 
> How is this done?
> 
Normally beside specigying a different log file so that you don't need 
root to access it, nothing should be needed.

But the X server has also to be built in a way to not require root. For 
now on the BSD, this is far from perfect, because the X server always 
tries to probe for VGA registers and a PCI bus (on i386 at least) and 
access errors there are fatal.

This should be fixed of course. It's on my TODO list for the next weeks 
too. If you have patches, don't hesitate to show them...

On other architectures (sparc, zaurus, where there's no legacy VGA and 
not PCI, things are a bit easier, but some patches may be needed too).
-- 
Matthieu Herrb