Refactor frame buffer driver to direct rendering manager (DRM)

[frno7]

Frame buffer device drivers are no longer accepted in the kernel. Write a direct rendering manager (DRM) device driver instead.

This is required for #1.

[frno7]

@FlyGoat, this issue is registered for the refactoring to the DRM.

[frno7]

Relevant comments in #10 are #10 (comment), #10 (comment) and #10 (comment).

See also the DRM section on the wiki.

The most grave problem is the apparently significant user space breakage with the generic DRM frame buffer subsystem.

[frno7]

@FlyGoat, what’s your take on the recent possibility of merging new fbdev drivers? You previously posted that by policy it wouldn’t be accepted. The new maintainer Helge Deller recently announced that among his goals was

• to include new drivers (for old hardware) if they arrive (probably happens rarely but there can be). I know of at least one driver which won't be able to support DRM.... Of course, if the hardware is capable to support DRM, it should be written for DRM and not applied for fbdev.

@mirh, perhaps there’s some hope for having a good text console after all! The Graphics Synthesizer uses a lot of fbcon acceleration methods, and I’m happy to see that Helge Deller is about to reinstate them.

[FlyGoat]

Yes I guess it is possible for now? The previous policy was no new driver will be accepted. The new maintainer Helge Deller had a demonstrated histrory on working with retro computing so I guess he knows our situation :-)