Switching from X-Window to VT

[John Tapsell]

2009/1/13 sdrb <sdrb at onet.eu>:
> Hi,
>
> I have a question regarding switching from X-Window to virtual terminal.
> Usually I use both of them and I very often switch between of them.
> The switching process usually takes 3-8 seconds (X11 -> VT).
>
> I have Intel E8400 processor and GF7600GT and I wonder why does the
> switching from X11 to VT take so much time, while switching in opposite
> direction is done almost immediately.
> The switching time even grows when I have firefox running with many of tabs.
> Could anyone explain what's going on?

Because xorg has drivers for setting up the video card, and so does
the kernel. So switching to a VT requires un-setting up the video card
by Xorg, then setting up the video card by the kernel.

You'll be happy to know, however, that this will hopefully soon(ish)
be fixed.  The idea is to move all of this to the kernel.
The first steps have already been done  ( 2.6.28 kernel, out on
christmas day, came with GEM -
http://kernelnewbies.org/Linux_2_6_28#head-b957b19f6139b6bbbfabaf790bf643b1746985d6
)

John