Re: liveDVD

[Robert Luciani <rluciani@xxxxxxxxx>]

>     The screen-shot looks very cool!  I've got one question re: X...
>     is there a video setup step that we need to do to get the video
>     driver operational ?
> 
> 					-Matt
> 					Matthew Dillon 
> 					<dillon@backplane.com>

No video setup is required. Right now the LiveDVD only uses the vesa driver, and
together with the new xrandr tool in xorg, it actually has remarkably good
display detection.

The problem with `X` driver detection is the following: Say for instance that a
relatively new cheap laptop has a VIA chipset and the LiveDVD thinks "oh we've
gotta use the unichrome driver" right... except not, because that specific
graphics card is a `wrong/tooNew/buggy` version. All of a sudden we have a
LiveDVD that doesn't get to the X desktop anymore. Even the most advanced Linux
distros like Ubuntu and Fedora can't really get it right.

I don't think we really need sophisticated `X` driver detection right now
because it would only be for the sake of 3D. Todays processors are so fast that
the 2D rendering acceleration advantage that comes with selecting the correct
driver is negligible, especially for the purpose of our LiveDVD. IMO anyways. :)

Good job on the LiveDVD Louisa!!! :)
It's really easy to build a DVD from scratch now, and it's cool with the
multiple kernels available at boot. Not even the PCBSD guys have a nice LiveCD
that you can install from. DragonFly is a spearhead for the BSDs ;D haha...

I think a cool addition to the CD would be to port tmpfs to DF. (which I'd like
to do soon if time permits) Also the installer is in need of a touch up (in
multiple areas). A welcome addition would be to allow for post-installation
scripts to be "plugged in". So if we build a LiveDVD for example we could plug
in a post-install script that takes away the install icons from the desktop and
perhaps does some other maintenance tasks unique to the LiveDVD.

-- 
Robert Luciani
Chalmers University of Technology, SWE
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
http://www.rluciani.com/rluciani@gmail.com.asc