Re: replacing X Window System !

[Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu]

On Wed, 17 May 2006 16:53:35 +0200, linux cbon said:

> It is already happening today with X, because :
> X runs as root - ouch.
> X can write into kernel memory - ouch.
> X can mess with clocks - ouch.
> X can mess with PCI bus - ouch.

You're confusing "X" with "One misdesigned implementation of X".  If
you actually checked the list archives, you'll see that there are steps
underway to drastically reduce the amount of stuff that X does...

> We dont need 2 kernels like today.
> All "dangerous code" should be in kernel.

Erm. No.  Dangerous code should remain out in userspace where it can't
cause as much damage.

> > Do you really want to put all that complexity into
> > the kernel?
> 
> Kernel is already complex, that wouldnt affect it.

% size /usr/src/linux-2.6.17-rc4-mm1/vmlinux /lib/modules/2.6.17-rc4-mm1/kernel/drivers/video/nvidia.ko
   text    data     bss     dec     hex filename
3681149  893719  316992 4891860  4aa4d4 /usr/src/linux-2.6.17-rc4-mm1/vmlinux
2910736 1299276   10388 4220400  4065f0 /lib/modules/2.6.17-rc4-mm1/kernel/drivers/video/nvidia.ko

Wow, that one module is 75% of the size of my kernel...

OK.. Maybe I run a lot of modules?

% lsmod | grep -v nvidia | wc
     43     143    1793
% lsmod | grep -v nvidia | awk '{sum +=$2} END {print sum}'
627006

Nope, only another 600K or so. Puts us up to 4.2M or so kernel, plus 3M of nvidia..

But wait, there's more.  Let's look at the X server and all its shared libs.

# size `lsof -p 2087 | egrep 'mem.*REG' | awk '{print $9}'`
   text    data     bss     dec     hex filename
  32711     448     480   33639    8367 /lib/libnss_files-2.4.90.so
  28347     668       8   29023    715f /usr/lib/xorg/modules/libramdac.so
 242306    2396      44  244746   3bc0a /usr/lib/xorg/modules/libfb.so
 130662    1848     332  132842   206ea /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/libextmod.so
   1087     160      32    1279     4ff /usr/lib/tls/libnvidia-tls.so.1.0.8756
7983042  127036   17376 8127454  7c03de /usr/lib/libGLcore.so.1.0.8756
   9457    1524      60   11041    2b21 /usr/lib/xorg/modules/input/kbd_drv.so
  38096    3352      16   41464    a1f8 /usr/lib/xorg/modules/input/mouse_drv.so
 578630   73544    3968  656142   a030e /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/libglx.so.1.0.8756
 219189   89192       4  308385   4b4a1 /usr/lib/xorg/modules/libpcidata.so
 434782   11352       4  446138   6ceba /usr/lib/libfreetype.so.6.3.8
1230342   10368   11312 1252022  131ab6 /lib/libc-2.4.90.so
  43260     420     292   43972    abc4 /lib/libgcc_s-4.1.0-20060512.so.1
 141605     336      64  142005   22ab5 /lib/libm-2.4.90.so
  71955     704       4   72663   11bd7 /usr/lib/libz.so.1.2.3
  17096     368       4   17468    443c /usr/lib/libXdmcp.so.6.0.0
  16794    3776    1248   21818    553a /usr/lib/libfontenc.so.1.0.0
   6550     368      12    6930    1b12 /usr/lib/libXau.so.6.0.0
 439854   25036   47916  512806   7d326 /usr/lib/libXfont.so.1.4.1
   6814     400      48    7262    1c5e /lib/libdl-2.4.90.so
 154483    2376    1088  157947   268fb /usr/lib/liblbxutil.so.1.0.0
  27966     608    1064   29638    73c6 /usr/lib/xorg/modules/linux/libdrm.so
  28409     908      36   29353    72a9 /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/libdri.so
   1541     396       4    1941     795 /usr/lib/xorg/modules/fonts/libbitmap.so
  99149    2392     192  101733   18d65 /lib/ld-2.4.90.so

Totalling it up: 
11984127 359976   85608 12429711

Yowza.  124 *meg*.

> But that would greatly simplify the whole system.

Yeah, adding 124 meg to a 4.2M kernel will simplify it...

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