Confusion about linux

[Guest BigLew5k99]

kay I'm new to this whole kernel programming thing so my questions may seem to be a little retarded but just bare with me.

 

1)how can I make the linux kernel compile text-mode without any specialised hardware such as My Nvidia, Sis900, Soundblaster etc basically linux with no OpenGL acceleration etc just linux (this needs to be like this for the next part

 

2)Is there a way to get linux to execute PE files as well as ELF files wthout using X or making fake drives etc like a console-mode Virtualiser but with full hardware access because linux will not have any drivers running.

 

4) Any help links Etc for projects on non X GUI's for linux mandrake especially if they look as good as CDE(Damn Motif).

 

5)Any help on running file differencing from a fat32 source. how would I go about creating symbolic links only if a file does not exist

 

Basically this is my new pet project as now mandrake supports all of my hardware, I have cedega and am not pleased with it because everything runs too slow so If I can get or write a PE executer that can execute MS-DOS and then run a windows 9x shell or WinXP/2000 will not need to use linux drivers, directx, or any other compatibility software and I think I can accept a 10% instead of 50% reduction in speed. all opinions are welcome but I will start a debate to anything I don't like the sound of. Furthermore reasons for doing this is VMWare BOCHS etc won't let me have FULL hardware access to my pehiperals because they only run in X which is why they don't play top spec PC games or CAD software which Is why I don't like them if anybody knows how to get bochs working in text-mode non X linux then I may just modify the source although having had a look at it I don't think it's possible

 

thanx for any help

[Cannonfodder]

You might want to move this whole concept to the Workbench forum where a "large" project can be managed and organized separate from the daily questions. I may be able to make a subfolder project in the workbench forum so you can organize your concepts and queries on an ongoing basis. Let me know what you think..

[arthur]

1) i'm not sure, but have you ever looked at the kernel options? if you have't compiled a kernel yet, look at the Tips n Tricks section, there are a lot of posts on that.

 

2) refer to 1) above. the kernel can be configured to run ELF binaries. actually, it's the default. I haven't heard of PE files...are these windows executables?

 

3) no idea, next question

 

4) creating a symbolic link is easy, but how would you create one ONLY if a file does not exist? well, you must have a list of files you want to check for first. FAT32 is only a file system, diff operates on the files themselves. anyway, are the files in only one or two directories, or spread out all over a tree? after getting all this info, writing a bash script to do this would be easy. if not, we can always call Aru ;)

[Dyslexic]

1) when you make xconfig you can disable whatever you want. Things like opengl aren't compiled into the kernel. Video drivers are usually loaded as external modules. You can remove any framebuffer devices if that affects whatever you're doing.

 

2) No, Linux will not run Win32 files natively. As for the driver issue, how are you going to run virtualized executables that access hardware without drivers in the kernel? You've got a paradox there.

 

4) I think all GUIs use the X11 protocol. Even DirectFB based GUIs.

 

5) Mounting Fat32 is easy enough. Mandrake can do that automatically. You can use a simple bash script for the symlink. if [test -f .file.txt]; then ln -s...

 

Emulating hardware is very slow, and will not be nearly as fast as translating the API into native calls. If Cedega was too slow for you, hardware emulation and virtualization is the wrong solution. To do what you want to do isn't a question of simply running PE files under Linux. You need to reverse engineer the windows kernel, the driver layer, the messaging system (Windows is a micro/monolithic hybrid if i recall), and the API. The performance penalty for doing this under another kernel will be high. Also, the reason for a 50% performance loss in Cedega is if you have a game that thinks your hardware doesn't support vertex shading. It's a not problem with API translation, it's just a bug in Cedega with that particular game.