Re: Windows Assembly

                                             _____
       This can't be right.                 (((   `\
                                            _ _`\   )
       I'm not a Linux-head, but I          (^  )   )
       do use the 'Blueflops' Linux          ~-(     )
       distro in order to run the            _'((,,,)))
       LINKS web browser...and I          ,-' \_/    `\
       can tell you that invoking        (          ,  |
       the browser causes the             `-.-'`-.-'/|_|
       video to switch to a high-rez         \     / | |
       VESA graphics mode.                    =()=: / ,' aa

Links uses SVGAlib. SVGAlib works sometimes, other times it just gives you a bunch of scrambled lines on the screen for no apparent reason. It also fails to use standard timings to ensure proper alignment of video modes. It may be using VESA in your case, but it also may not be. Either way, it's SVGAlib doing it, not the kernel.

SVGAlib won't do VGA modes, it only does SVGA modes for some reason, thus it wasn't a suitable choice for my game as it won't do anything less than 640x480. It also doesn't deal well with rapid console switches (says so right on the website), something my own program Softer handles just fine.

       Seems like you SHOULD be able to switch the processor into
       Virtual-86 mode, do your video-mode manipulations, and then
       switch back to protected mode.

Yes, it's possible, but Linux is one undocumented little ***. I was going to do that, since that would give me any mode I wanted under any possible circumstance, but I couldn't find the details of the vm86 system call anywhere. In fact, if I found the necessary details, I'd give up this Windows *** right this second. Doing the VESA via VM86 thing would be a bit of a bitch, but the reason I gave up on Linux was because what I wanted wasn't possible, not because it was difficult.
.