Jesse Barnes posted a summary of recent efforts to improve the Linux kernel's support for graphics, "in collaboration with the [framebuffer] guys, we've been working on enhancing the kernel's graphics subsystem in an attempt to bring some sanity to the Linux graphics world and avoid the situation we have now where several kernel and userspace drivers compete for control of graphics devices." He then explained, "there are several reasons to pull modesetting and proper multihead support into the kernel: suspend/resume, debugging (e.g. panic), non-X uses, and more reliable VT switch," going on to offer detail on each of these listed reasons. Jesse followed these explanations with an overview of the current status of the code:

"The current codebase is still incomplete in many ways: locking needs to be (re-)added around our various list manipulation paths, we need better initial configuration logic, only the Intel driver has any support (and it's still missing suspend/resume and accelerated FB functions), we need to check modes against monitor limitations (which come from EDID or the user), CVT and GTF based mode generation still isn't used by the DRM modesetting code, and much more. I'm hoping that by posting this now, we can get some ideas about what requirements other people have for graphics on Linux so we can prioritize our work."