From owner-freebsd-bugs  Wed Oct 27 17:50:11 1999
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Date: Wed, 27 Oct 1999 17:42:20 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Ronald F. Guilmette" <rfg@monkeys.com>
Reply-To: rfg@monkeys.com (Ronald F. Guilmette)
To: FreeBSD-gnats-submit@freebsd.org
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Subject: kern/14566: Non-kernel programs have little/no control over VGA/VESA devices
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>Number:         14566
>Category:       kern
>Synopsis:       Non-kernel programs have little/no control over VGA/VESA devices
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       serious
>Priority:       low
>Responsible:    freebsd-bugs
>State:          open
>Quarter:        
>Keywords:       
>Date-Required:
>Class:          change-request
>Submitter-Id:   current-users
>Arrival-Date:   Wed Oct 27 17:50:00 PDT 1999
>Closed-Date:
>Last-Modified:
>Originator:     Ronald F. Guilmette
>Release:        FreeBSD 3.3-RELEASE i386
>Organization:
E-Scrub Technologies, Inc.
>Environment:

>Description:

	I typed `man 4 vga' and was surprised to find that there doesn't
	seem to be even so much as single ioctl() control call for manipu-
	lating vga devices(!)

	What the hay!?

	Then I went and started perusing the kernel vga driver sources.  There
	is a LOT of functionality in there for various stuff (e.g. diddling
	cursor, getting its location, setting border color, loading fonts,
	and on and on) and it seems to me that all of that functionality
	should be brought out and made directly available in user land.
	No?

	More specifically, I personally would like to be able to get at
	the VESA functionality.  In particular , I'd like to be able to
	switch my monitor into power-saving VESA "standby" mode.

	Surely, there ought to be an ioctl() for THAT!

	Oh yes, and if this gets fixed, and if all of the functionality is
	ever made available at the user level, PLEASE also create a file
	called /usr/include/vgaio.h and put all of the IOCTL control code
	definitions in it.  Thanks.

	P.S.  I'd really _like_ to go and rag on the Xfree86 people and
	tell them to get their you-know-what together, and that they should
	be supporting the VESA "standby" power-saving mode in their X servers,
	but how can I do that when the FreeBSD kernel doesn't even permit
	user-land processes to get at this bit of hardware functionality?

>How-To-Repeat:

	man 4 vga

>Fix:

	Jump in your time machine and fast forward to the future, when, I'm
	sure, all of this functionality will be directly available in user
	land. :-)

>Release-Note:
>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted:


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