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Date:      Sun, 10 Apr 2005 12:06:39 +0200
From:      Michal Mertl <mime@traveller.cz>
To:        "Jay O'Brien" <jayobrien@att.net>
Cc:        FreeBSD - questions <questions@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: [PATCH TO TEST] VESA [1024x768] mode support for	FreeBSD-CURRENT
Message-ID:  <1113127599.8293.116.camel@genius2.i.cz>
In-Reply-To: <4258D61C.90301@att.net>
References:  <0IEH00KMJ6U14XA0@store.etat.lu> <1112729834.68302.2.camel@genius2.i.cz>  <4258D61C.90301@att.net>

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Jay O'Brien wrote:
> Michal Mertl wrote:
> 
> > Didier Wiroth wrote:
> > 
> > 
> >>Hi,
> >>
> >>I'm using freebsd 5.4-prerelease on my laptop. My laptop has an ati
> >>mobility radeon 9600.
> >>Unfortunately it has very poor console vesa support. SC_PIXEL_MODE does
> >>not work, 90x60 is the highest resolution I can get for now.
> >>It looks like I'm not the only one having this problem with ati
> >>chipsets:
> >>http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/getmsg.cgi?fetch=1091839+1096057+/usr/local/w
> >>ww/db/text/2005/freebsd-questions/20050123.freebsd-questions
> >>
> >>
> >>I saw this posting:
> >>http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-current/2004-August/035621.ht
> >>ml
> >>
> >>Unfortunately I'm not a programmer and have no ... to very poor patching
> >>skills.
> >>It looks to me, that in this posting(s) a "few" patches are grouped
> >>together to enable vesa 1024x768.
> >>
> >>1) Has someone applied this patches?
> >>2) As the patch(es) is/are on the entire page, I don't know how to
> >>separate them. Would someone mail me as an attachment the different
> >>patches and tell me how I should apply them:
> >>for example, mail me patch1, patch2, patch3
> >>and the explanation how to patch them:
> >>cd /usr/src
> >>patch < ~/patch1
> >>patch < ~/patch2 ...etc
> > 
> > 
> > I think the newest and probably best (?) patch was prepared by Xin Li
> > (deplhij@freebsd.org) who is also committer. I sent this email to him
> > (or she? - sorry about that) in case he has some comments. Beware that
> > he said he experienced some problems with previous version of the patch.
> > 
> > I haven't tested this version of the patch myself but it at least
> > compiles.
> > 
> > It's available at http://people.freebsd.org/~delphij/vesa/
> > in files syscons.diff.20050215 and vidcontrol.diff.20050215
> > 
> > You would apply them with:
> > 
> > cd /usr/src/sys/dev/syscons
> > patch < /path/syscons.diff.20050215
> > cd /usr/src/usr.sbin/vidcontrol
> > patch </path/vidcontrol.diff.20050215
> > make clean
> > make all
> > make install
> > 
> > You need also to rebuild and reinstall the kernel. You must have
> > 'options SC_PIXEL_MODE' in your kernel config. You also need to have
> > VESA available - you can load it with kldload vesa or include it in the
> > kernel with 'options VESA'.
> > 
> > After reboot with the new kernel you should be able to get list of all
> > VESA and standard modes your card support with 'vidcontrol -i mode'. To
> > be able to use them as your console mode you need to have the
> > appropriate font loaded. The font resolution is seen in vidcontrol
> > output in the 'font' column. To load the font 8x8 you can use
> > 'vidcontrol -f /usr/share/syscons/fonts/cp437-8x8.fnt' or similar. To
> > set the mode use 'vidcontrol MODE_$num' where $num is the mode number
> > (first column in 'vidcontrol -i mode' output).
> > 
> > HTH
> > 
> > Michal
> > 
> > 
> 
> 
> 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.

> To "rebuild and reinstall the kernel", after editing my 
> /usr/src/sys/i386/conf/GENERIC to insert 'options SC_PIXEL_MODE', would I 
> 'make buildkernel' and then 'make installkernel' or is there something 
> else I'm missing?  

No, that's the way to do it.

> I note that some of the messages are posted to multiple mailing lists, 
> and I suspect that as I only read questions@freebsd.org I'm not seeing 
> the entire story.

I'm afraid that's quite possible. Please go search the archives.

> Jay O'Brien 
> Rio Linda, California USA

Michal Mertl

Prague, Bohemia, Czech Republic :-)



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