Switching from X-Window to VT

[sdrb]

John Tapsell wrote:
> 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
> )

Yes, I heard about GEM, but I'm very interested in what cause this 
effect. Is it possible to read more details (even low-level details) 
about this problem?

Thank you rapid answer.

sdrb