Date: Thu, 25 Sep 2014 17:31:49 +0200 From: beeessdee@ruggedinbox.com To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Subject: vt(4) "newcons" and 80x25 vty? (tested: 10.1-BETA2) Message-ID: <4490c8c4d489370c7617c0ace9e773be.squirrel@s4bysmmsnraf7eut.onion>
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I daily use FreeBSD with base system virtual terminals (no X). I am excited of vt(4) with Unicodes support. But screen has arbitrary number of lines and columns, whatever will fit with selected font. How to get standard 80x25? First of all, thanks to ray and the various "ed"s for all the hard work making the newcons/vt(4) modern subsystem. This is very important, and much less appreciated than shiny popular widgets! I very much look forward to when vt(4) has the stability and feature parity with decades-old syscons... plus all the critical new features for non-English language, etc. I just tested in 10.1-BETA2 with following steps; specific questions are below: 1. Drop to loader prompt, "set kern.vty=vt", "boot". 2. Drop from installer to "live system". 3. kldload appropriate kms driver (could also do in step 1). 4. vidfont(1) has bug which prevents selecting Gallant (12x22 biggest font provided). So, use vidcontrol(1) with "-f" switch directly. 5. Try setting LINES and COLS in environment, at least fool the applications... Not working, really. vidcontrol(1) is totally confused about screen modes. I understand this is work in progress. I read every manpage, https://wiki.freebsd.org/Newcons , searched web. Why this is important: If I edit source code in vi(1), my lines will become too long. Other applications expecting the 80x25 or other customary sizes may be confused. Most of all, I want the fonts bigger - as big as fit 80x25 on my physical screen. I have poor eyesight! Quick calc example for optimal font sizing: At the common nowadays resolution of 1366x768, biggest pixel fitting 80x25 will be 17x30. For tty style fonts with 2:1 ratio, this means 15x30 font with 166x18 waste pixels HxW - unless extra pixel row needed after each line, in which case 14x28 font with 246x43 waste pixels. A 12x22 font (as gallant) with extra 1px row spacing results in 113x33 character grid - or if restricted to 80x25 grid (how!?), then 406x193 waste pixels. Questions: A. How to force 80x25 terminal, even if it does not use whole screen? This will be the quick workaround! B. Where are sources for Gallant? What program is used to create it? A brief web search did not reveal this. C. Any work in font besides Gallant? (Sorry, it is matter of taste!) I would try make my own, but I am not font talent. D. Any suggestions from font guys of non-Xorg program to rasterize OpenType fonts, make Metafont rasters into the appropriate format, etc.? E. Side question: Is vgl(3) being supported or replaced with vt(4) newcons? (Have not tested; but at the brief look, it all ioctls changed around.) F. How to set screen resolution, with not working vidcontrol(1)? Suggestions: * Dynamically created raster font, from vector sources, to create at runtime the largest glyphs which will permit 80 columns and 25 lines at the screen's actual resolution. Just like most tex systems automatically run mf when needed. I could maybe play with this, if I have time and the font sources. * Try converting metafont output to the appropriate format. It's already tuned for to give old fashioned pixmap. I will play with this when time permits. I realize, most people just use X. But, please do not forget people who don't like the Xorg bugware disaster. Thanks again for all hard work to make the vt(4) newcons.
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