1.\" 2.\" vidcontrol - a utility for manipulating the syscons video driver 3.\" 4.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 5.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 6.\" are met: 7.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 8.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 9.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 10.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 11.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 12.\" 13.\" @(#)vidcontrol.1 14.\" $FreeBSD$ 15.\" 16.Dd May 27, 2002 17.Dt VIDCONTROL 1 18.Os 19.Sh NAME 20.Nm vidcontrol 21.Nd system console control and configuration utility 22.Sh SYNOPSIS 23.Nm 24.Op Fl CdLPpx 25.Op Fl b Ar color 26.Op Fl c Ar appearance 27.Oo 28.Fl f 29.Op Ar size 30.Ar file 31.Oc 32.Op Fl g Ar geometry 33.Op Fl h Ar size 34.Op Fl i Cm adapter | mode 35.Op Fl l Ar screen_map 36.Op Fl M Ar char 37.Op Fl m Cm on | off 38.Op Fl r Ar foreground Ar background 39.Op Fl S Cm on | off 40.Op Fl s Ar number 41.Op Fl t Ar N | Cm off 42.Op Ar mode 43.Op Ar foreground Op Ar background 44.Op Cm show 45.Sh DESCRIPTION 46The 47.Nm 48command is used to set various options for the 49.Xr syscons 4 50console driver, 51such as video mode, colors, cursor shape, screen output map, font and screen 52saver timeout. 53.Pp 54The following command line options are supported: 55.Bl -tag -width indent 56.It Ar mode 57Select a new video mode. 58The modes currently recognized are: 59.Ar 80x25 , 60.Ar 80x30 , 61.Ar 80x43 , 62.Ar 80x50 , 63.Ar 80x60 , 64.Ar 132x25 , 65.Ar 132x30 , 66.Ar 132x43 , 67.Ar 132x50 , 68.Ar 132x60 , 69.Ar VGA_40x25 , 70.Ar VGA_80x25 , 71.Ar VGA_80x30 , 72.Ar VGA_80x50 , 73.Ar VGA_80x60 , 74.Ar VGA_90x25 , 75.Ar VGA_90x30 , 76.Ar VGA_90x43 , 77.Ar VGA_90x50 , 78.Ar VGA_90x60 , 79.Ar EGA_80x25 , 80.Ar EGA_80x43 , 81.Ar VESA_132x25 , 82.Ar VESA_132x43 , 83.Ar VESA_132x50 , 84.Ar VESA_132x60 . 85.\"The graphic mode 86.\".Ar VGA_320x200 87.\"and 88The raster text mode 89.Ar VESA_800x600 90can also be chosen. 91See 92.Sx Video Mode Support 93below. 94.It Ar foreground Op Ar background 95Change colors when displaying text. 96Specify the foreground color 97(e.g.\& 98.Dq vidcontrol white ) , 99or both a foreground and background colors 100(e.g.\& 101.Dq vidcontrol yellow blue ) . 102Use the 103.Cm show 104command below to see available colors. 105.It Cm show 106See the supported colors on a given platform. 107.It Fl b Ar color 108Set border color to 109.Ar color . 110This option may not be always supported by the video driver. 111.It Fl C 112Clear the history buffer. 113.It Fl c Cm normal | blink | destructive 114Change the cursor appearance. 115The cursor is either an inverting block 116.Pq Cm normal 117that can optionally 118.Cm blink , 119or it can be like the old hardware cursor 120.Pq Cm destructive . 121The latter is actually a simulation. 122.It Fl d 123Print out current output screen map. 124.It Xo 125.Fl f 126.Op Ar size 127.Ar file 128.Xc 129Load font 130.Ar file 131for 132.Ar size 133(currently, only 134.Cm 8x8 , 135.Cm 8x14 136or 137.Cm 8x16 ) . 138The font file can be either uuencoded or in raw binary format. 139You can also use the menu-driven 140.Xr vidfont 1 141command to load the font of your choice. 142.Pp 143.Ar Size 144may be omitted, in this case 145.Nm 146will try to guess it from the size of font file. 147.Pp 148Note that older video cards, such as MDA and CGA, do not support 149software font. 150See also 151.Sx Video Mode Support 152and 153.Sx EXAMPLES 154below and the man page for 155.Xr syscons 4 . 156.It Fl g Ar geometry 157Set the 158.Ar geometry 159of the text mode for the modes with selectable 160geometry. 161Currently only raster modes, such as 162.Ar VESA_800x600 , 163support this option. 164See also 165.Sx Video Mode Support 166and 167.Sx EXAMPLES 168below. 169.It Fl h Ar size 170Set the size of the history (scrollback) buffer to 171.Ar size 172lines. 173.It Fl i Cm adapter 174Shows info about the current video adapter. 175.It Fl i Cm mode 176Shows the possible video modes with the current video hardware. 177.It Fl l Ar screen_map 178Install screen output map file from 179.Ar screen_map . 180See also 181.Xr syscons 4 . 182.It Fl L 183Install default screen output map. 184.It Fl M Ar char 185Sets the base character used to render the mouse pointer to 186.Ar char . 187.It Fl m Cm on | off 188Switch the mouse pointer 189.Cm on 190or 191.Cm off . 192Used together with the 193.Xr moused 8 194daemon for text mode cut & paste functionality. 195.It Fl p 196Capture the current contents of the video buffer corresponding 197to the terminal device referred to by standard input. 198The 199.Nm 200utility writes contents of the video buffer to the standard 201output in a raw binary format. 202For details about that 203format see 204.Sx Format of Video Buffer Dump 205below. 206.It Fl P 207Same as 208.Fl p , 209but dump contents of the video buffer in a plain text format 210ignoring nonprintable characters and information about text 211attributes. 212.It Fl r Ar foreground background 213Change reverse mode colors to 214.Ar foreground 215and 216.Ar background . 217.It Fl S Cm on | off 218Turn vty switching on or off. 219When vty switching is off, 220attempts to switch to a different virtual terminal will fail. 221(The default is to permit vty switching.) 222.It Fl s Ar number 223Set the current vty to 224.Ar number . 225.It Fl t Ar N | Cm off 226Set the screensaver timeout to 227.Ar N 228seconds, or turns it 229.Cm off . 230.It Fl x 231Use hexadecimal digits for output. 232.El 233.Ss Video Mode Support 234Note that not all modes listed above may be supported by the video 235hardware. 236You can verify which mode is supported by the video hardware, using the 237.Fl i Cm mode 238option. 239.Pp 240The VESA BIOS support must be linked to the kernel 241or loaded as a KLD module if you wish to use VESA video modes 242or 132 column modes 243(see 244.Xr vga 4 ) . 245.Pp 246You need to compile your kernel with the 247.Ar VGA_WIDTH90 248option if you wish to use VGA 90 column modes 249(see 250.Xr vga 4 ) . 251.Pp 252Video modes other than 25 and 30 line modes may require specific size of font. 253Use 254.Fl f 255option above to load a font file to the kernel. 256If the required size of font has not been loaded to the kernel, 257.Nm 258will fail if the user attempts to set a new video mode. 259.Pp 260.Bl -column "25 line modes" "8x16 (VGA), 8x14 (EGA)" -compact 261.Sy Modes Ta Sy Font size 262.Li 25 line modes Ta 8x16 (VGA), 8x14 (EGA) 263.Li 30 line modes Ta 8x16 264.Li 43 line modes Ta 8x8 265.Li 50 line modes Ta 8x8 266.Li 60 line modes Ta 8x8 267.El 268.Pp 269It is better to always load all three sizes (8x8, 8x14 and 8x16) 270of the same font. 271.Pp 272You may set variables in 273.Pa /etc/rc.conf 274or 275.Pa /etc/rc.conf.local 276so that desired font files will be automatically loaded 277when the system starts up. 278See below. 279.Pp 280If you want to use the raster text mode 281.Ar VESA_800x600 , 282you need to recompile your kernel with the 283.Dv SC_PIXEL_MODE 284option. 285See 286.Xr syscons 4 287for more details on this kernel option. 288.Ss Format of Video Buffer Dump 289The 290.Nm 291utility uses the 292.Xr syscons 4 293.Dv CONS_SCRSHOT 294.Xr ioctl 2 295to capture the current contents of the video buffer. 296The 297.Nm 298utility writes version and additional information to the standard 299output, followed by the contents of the terminal device. 300.Pp 301VGA video memory is typically arranged in two byte tuples, 302one per character position. 303In each tuple, the first byte will be the character code, 304and the second byte is the character's color attribute. 305.Pp 306The VGA color attribute byte looks like this: 307.Pp 308.Bl -column "X:X" "<00000000>" "width" "bright foreground color" 309.Sy "bits# width meaning" 310.Li "7 <X0000000> 1 character blinking" 311.Li "6:4 <0XXX0000> 3 background color" 312.Li "3 <0000X000> 1 bright foreground color" 313.Li "2:0 <00000XXX> 3 foreground color" 314.El 315.Pp 316Here is a list of the three bit wide base colors: 317.Pp 318.Bl -hang -offset indent -compact 319.It 0 320Black 321.It 1 322Blue 323.It 2 324Green 325.It 3 326Cyan 327.It 4 328Red 329.It 5 330Magenta 331.It 6 332Brown 333.It 7 334Light Grey 335.El 336.Pp 337Base colors with bit 3 (the bright foreground flag) set: 338.Pp 339.Bl -hang -offset indent -compact 340.It 0 341Dark Grey 342.It 1 343Light Blue 344.It 2 345Light Green 346.It 3 347Light Cyan 348.It 4 349Light Red 350.It 5 351Light Magenta 352.It 6 353Yellow 354.It 7 355White 356.El 357.Pp 358For example, the two bytes 359.Pp 360.Dl "65 158" 361.Pp 362specify an uppercase A (character code 65), blinking 363(bit 7 set) in yellow (bits 3:0) on a blue background 364(bits 6:4). 365.Pp 366The 367.Nm 368output contains a small header which includes additional 369information which may be useful to utilities processing 370the output. 371.Pp 372The first 10 bytes are always arranged as follows: 373.Bl -column "Byte range" "Contents" -offset indent 374.It Sy "Byte Range Contents" 375.It "1 thru 8 Literal text" Dq Li SCRSHOT_ 376.It "9 File format version number" 377.It "10 Remaining number of bytes in the header" 378.El 379.Pp 380Subsequent bytes depend on the version number. 381.Bl -column "Version" "13 and up" -offset indent 382.It Sy "Version Byte Meaning" 383.It "1 11 Terminal width, in characters" 384.It " 12 Terminal depth, in characters" 385.It " 13 and up The snapshot data" 386.El 387.Pp 388So a dump of an 80x25 screen would start (in hex) 389.Bd -literal -offset indent 39053 43 52 53 48 4f 54 5f 01 02 50 19 391----------------------- -- -- -- -- 392 | | | | ` 25 decimal 393 | | | `--- 80 decimal 394 | | `------ 2 remaining bytes of header data 395 | `--------- File format version 1 396 `------------------------ Literal "SCRSHOT_" 397.Ed 398.Sh VIDEO OUTPUT CONFIGURATION 399.Ss Boot Time Configuration 400You may set the following variables in 401.Pa /etc/rc.conf 402or 403.Pa /etc/rc.conf.local 404in order to configure the video output at boot time. 405.Pp 406.Bl -tag -width foo_bar_var -compact 407.It Ar blanktime 408Sets the timeout value for the 409.Fl t 410option. 411.It Ar font8x16 , font8x14 , font8x8 412Specifies font files for the 413.Fl f 414option. 415.It Ar scrnmap 416Specifies a screen output map file for the 417.Fl l 418option. 419.El 420.Pp 421See 422.Xr rc.conf 5 423for more details. 424.Ss Driver Configuration 425The video card driver may let you change default configuration 426options, such as the default font, so that you do not need to set up 427the options at boot time. 428See video card driver manuals, (e.g.\& 429.Xr vga 4 ) 430for details. 431.Sh FILES 432.Bl -tag -width /usr/share/syscons/scrnmaps/foo-bar -compact 433.It Pa /usr/share/syscons/fonts/* 434font files. 435.It Pa /usr/share/syscons/scrnmaps/* 436screen output map files. 437.El 438.Sh EXAMPLES 439If you want to load 440.Pa /usr/share/syscons/fonts/iso-8x16.fnt 441to the kernel, run 442.Nm 443as: 444.Pp 445.Dl vidcontrol -f 8x16 /usr/share/syscons/fonts/iso-8x16.fnt 446.Pp 447So long as the font file is in 448.Pa /usr/share/syscons/fonts , 449you may abbreviate the file name as 450.Pa iso-8x16 : 451.Pp 452.Dl vidcontrol -f 8x16 iso-8x16 453.Pp 454Furthermore, you can also omit font size 455.Dq Li 8x16 : 456.Pp 457.Dl vidcontrol -f iso-8x16 458.Pp 459Moreover, the suffix specifying the font size can be also omitted; in 460this case, 461.Nm 462will use the size of the currently displayed font to construct the 463suffix: 464.Pp 465.Dl vidcontrol -f iso 466.Pp 467Likewise, you can also abbreviate the screen output map file name for 468the 469.Fl l 470option if the file is found in 471.Pa /usr/share/syscons/scrnmaps . 472.Pp 473.Dl vidcontrol -l iso-8859-1_to_cp437 474.Pp 475The above command will load 476.Pa /usr/share/syscons/scrnmaps/iso-8859-1_to_cp437.scm . 477.Pp 478The following command will set-up a 100x37 raster text mode (useful for 479some LCD models): 480.Pp 481.Dl vidcontrol -g 100x37 VESA_800x600 482.Pp 483The following command will capture the contents of the first virtual 484terminal, and redirect the output to the 485.Pa shot.scr 486file: 487.Pp 488.Dl vidcontrol -p < /dev/ttyv0 > shot.scr 489.Pp 490The following command will dump contents of the fourth virtual terminal 491to the standard output in the human readable format: 492.Pp 493.Dl vidcontrol -P < /dev/ttyv3 494.Sh SEE ALSO 495.Xr kbdcontrol 1 , 496.Xr vidfont 1 , 497.Xr keyboard 4 , 498.Xr screen 4 , 499.Xr syscons 4 , 500.Xr vga 4 , 501.Xr rc.conf 5 , 502.Xr kldload 8 , 503.Xr moused 8 , 504.Xr watch 8 505.Pp 506The various 507.Li scr2* 508utilities in the 509.Li graphics 510and 511.Li textproc 512categories of the 513.Em "Ports Collection" . 514.Sh AUTHORS 515.An S\(/oren Schmidt Aq sos@FreeBSD.org 516.Sh CONTRIBUTORS 517.An Maxim Sobolev Aq sobomax@FreeBSD.org , 518.An Nik Clayton Aq nik@FreeBSD.org 519