From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Apr 10 16:19:09 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 26DB216A4CE for ; Sun, 10 Apr 2005 16:19:09 +0000 (GMT) Received: from ss.eunet.cz (ss.eunet.cz [193.85.228.13]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1923C43D45 for ; Sun, 10 Apr 2005 16:19:08 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from mime@traveller.cz) Received: from localhost.i.cz (ss.eunet.cz [193.85.228.13]) by ss.eunet.cz (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id j3AGJ4HR050923; Sun, 10 Apr 2005 18:19:05 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from mime@traveller.cz) From: Michal Mertl To: "Jay O'Brien" In-Reply-To: <42594C93.5070203@att.net> References: <0IEH00KMJ6U14XA0@store.etat.lu> <1112729834.68302.2.camel@genius2.i.cz> <4258D61C.90301@att.net> <1113127599.8293.116.camel@genius2.i.cz> <42594C93.5070203@att.net> Content-Type: text/plain Date: Sun, 10 Apr 2005 18:19:03 +0200 Message-Id: <1113149943.630.37.camel@genius2.i.cz> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.2.1.1 FreeBSD GNOME Team Port Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit cc: FreeBSD - questions Subject: Re: [PATCH TO TEST] VESA [1024x768] mode support for FreeBSD-CURRENT X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 10 Apr 2005 16:19:09 -0000 Jay O'Brien wrote: > Michal Mertl wrote: > >> > >>I feel like I am missing a lot here. I want to display 132 characters per > >>line on my console. I am not running X Windows and it is not a notebook. > > > > > > It doesn't matter. I only saw the most complaints from notebook owners > > who didn't have text mode console covering all LCD surface. > > > > > >>I am running 5.3-RELEASE-p5 #0. > >> > >>What is this SC_PIXEL_MODE and where may I find documentation on it? I > >>don't find it in /usr/src/sys/i386/conf/NOTES. > > > > > > man syscons(4). It's also mentioned in NOTES although not the NOTES you > > were looking at. Don't forget that on 5.x there are two conf directories > > - one platform independent in /sys/conf and other in /sys/$ARCH/conf. > > Common (platform independent) options like this one are > > in /sys/conf/NOTES. > > > > > Thanks! Now that I see that it is perhaps not required for my system, that > is not a laptop, is it possible that I don't need this at all? Is it > definitely needed to support 132 character terminal mode, or is just > needed for laptops? There's no standard VGA 132 character text mode. It's either provided by VESA or emulated using some graphics mode. Newer graphics hardware stopped supporting extended text modes. If you want such modes you need to emulate them (render the characters using lots of small dots instead of just writing characters to the adapter which renders them for you). Support for this functionality is included in syscons/vga driver when you define options SC_PIXEL_MODE. Standard FreeBSD supports only planar graphics mode 800x600 dots with 4 bits (16) of color information per pixel which can be run on old plain VGA with 256KB of memory. The patches we are talking about add support for rendering the characters in any graphics mode your card supports (through VESA) with >= 15 bits per pixel. You could then run say 1600x1200x32 bpp (16milions of colours) for a text mode console. You can't use any graphics there but the textual resolution will be bigger. There also isn't support for using simultaneously more than 16 (or is it 15?) different colors for characters even when milions are technically possible. > It is wonderful to be a part of a caring community that spans the > world, without concern for international borders. Fortunately for > me, everyone uses english; I'm stuck with only one language (plus > international morse code, but that's another story). Yes, it really is great. Not the English though. I'd prefer Czech but I'm afraid it's a lost battle :-). Michal