xref: /freebsd/usr.sbin/vidcontrol/vidcontrol.1 (revision 1a2cdef4962b47be5057809ce730a733b7f3c27c)
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 June 30, 1999
17.Dt VIDCONTROL 1
18.Os
19.Sh NAME
20.Nm vidcontrol
21.Nd a utility for manipulating the syscons console driver.
22.Sh SYNOPSIS
23.Nm
24.Op Fl b Ar color
25.Op Fl c Ar appearance
26.Op Fl d
27.Oo
28.Fl f
29.Op Ar size
30.Ar file
31.Oc
32.Op Fl g Ar geometry
33.Op Fl i Cm adapter | mode
34.Op Fl l Ar screen_map
35.Op Fl L
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 Ar number
40.Op Fl t Ar N | Cm off
41.Op Fl x
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 r Ar foreground background
108Change reverse mode colors to
109.Ar foreground
110and
111.Ar background .
112.It Fl b Ar color
113Set border color to
114.Ar color .
115This option may not be always supported by the video driver.
116.It Fl c Cm normal | blink | destructive
117Change the cursor appearance.
118The cursor is either an inverting block
119.Pq Cm normal
120that eventually can
121.Cm blink .
122Or it can be like the old hardware cursor
123.Pq Cm destructive .
124The latter is actually a simulation.
125.It Fl d
126Print out current output screen map.
127.It Fl l Ar screen_map
128Install screen output map file from
129.Ar screen_map .
130See also
131.Xr syscons 4 .
132.It Fl L
133Install default screen output map.
134.It Fl i Cm adapter
135Shows info about the current video adapter.
136.It Fl i Cm mode
137Shows the possible video modes with the current video hardware.
138.It Fl M Ar char
139Sets the base character used to render the mouse pointer to
140.Ar char .
141.It Fl m Cm on | off
142Switch the mouse pointer
143.Cm on
144or
145.Cm off .
146Used together with the
147.Xr moused 8
148daemon for text mode cut & paste functionality.
149.It Xo
150.Fl f
151.Op Ar size
152.Ar file
153.Xc
154Load font
155.Ar file
156for
157.Ar size
158(currently, only
159.Cm 8x8 ,
160.Cm 8x14
161or
162.Cm 8x16 ) .
163The font file can be either uuencoded or in raw binary format.
164You can also use the menu-driven
165.Xr vidfont 1
166command to load the font of your choice.
167.Pp
168.Ar Size
169may be omitted, in this case
170.Nm
171will try to guess it from the size of font file.
172.Pp
173Note that older video cards, such as MDA and CGA, do not support
174software font.
175See also
176.Sx Video Mode Support
177and
178.Sx EXAMPLES
179below and the man page for
180.Xr syscons 4 .
181.It Fl g Ar geometry
182Set the
183.Ar geometry
184of the text mode for the modes with selectable
185geometry.  Currently only raster modes, such as
186.Ar VESA_800x600 ,
187support this option.
188See also
189.Sx Video Mode Support
190and
191.Sx EXAMPLES
192below.
193.It Fl s Ar number
194Set the current vty to
195.Ar number .
196.It Fl t Ar N | Cm off
197Set the screensaver timeout to
198.Ar N
199seconds, or turns it
200.Cm off .
201.It Fl x
202Use hexadecimal digits for output.
203.El
204.Ss Video Mode Support
205Note that not all modes listed above may be supported by the video
206hardware.
207You can verify which mode is supported by the video hardware, using the
208.Fl i Cm mode
209option.
210.Pp
211The VESA BIOS support must be linked to the kernel
212or loaded as a KLD module if you wish to use VESA video modes
213or 132 column modes
214.Pq see Xr vga 4 .
215.Pp
216You need to compile your kernel with the
217.Ar VGA_WIDTH90
218option if you wish to use VGA 90 column modes
219.Pq see Xr vga 4 .
220.Pp
221Video modes other than 25 and 30 line modes may require specific size of font.
222Use
223.Fl f
224option above to load a font file to the kernel.
225If the required size of font has not been loaded to the kernel,
226.Nm
227will fail if the user attempts to set a new video mode.
228.Pp
229.Bl -column "25 line modes" "8x16 (VGA), 8x14 (EGA)" -compact
230.Sy Modes Ta Sy Font size
231.Li 25 line modes Ta 8x16 (VGA), 8x14 (EGA)
232.Li 30 line modes Ta 8x16
233.Li 43 line modes Ta 8x8
234.Li 50 line modes Ta 8x8
235.Li 60 line modes Ta 8x8
236.El
237.Pp
238It is better to always load all three sizes (8x8, 8x14 and 8x16)
239of the same font.
240.Pp
241You may set variables in
242.Pa /etc/rc.conf
243or
244.Pa /etc/rc.conf.local
245so that desired font files will be automatically loaded
246when the system starts up.
247See below.
248.Pp
249If you want to use the raster text mode
250.Ar VESA_800x600 ,
251you need to recompile your kernel with the
252.Dv SC_PIXEL_MODE
253option.  See
254.Xr syscons 4
255for more details on this kernel option.
256.Sh VIDEO OUTPUT CONFIGURATION
257.Ss Boot Time Configuration
258You may set the following variables in
259.Pa /etc/rc.conf
260or
261.Pa /etc/rc.conf.local
262in order to configure the video output at boot time.
263.Pp
264.Bl -tag -width foo_bar_var -compact
265.It Ar blanktime
266Sets the timeout value for the
267.Fl t
268option.
269.It Ar font8x16 , font8x14 , font8x8
270Specifies font files for the
271.Fl f
272option.
273.It Ar scrnmap
274Specifies a screen output map file for the
275.Fl l
276option.
277.El
278.Pp
279See
280.Xr rc.conf 5
281for more details.
282.Ss Driver Configuration
283The video card driver may let you change default configuration
284options, such as the default font, so that you do not need to set up
285the options at boot time.
286See video card driver manuals,
287.Pq e.g. Xr vga 4
288for details.
289.Sh FILES
290.Bl -tag -width /usr/share/syscons/scrnmaps/foo-bar -compact
291.It Pa /usr/share/syscons/fonts/*
292font files.
293.It Pa /usr/share/syscons/scrnmaps/*
294screen output map files.
295.El
296.Sh EXAMPLES
297If you want to load
298.Pa /usr/share/syscons/fonts/iso-8x16.fnt
299to the kernel, run
300.Nm
301as:
302.Pp
303.Dl vidcontrol -f 8x16 /usr/share/syscons/fonts/iso-8x16.fnt
304.Pp
305So long as the font file is in
306.Pa /usr/share/syscons/fonts ,
307you may abbreviate the file name as
308.Pa iso-8x16 :
309.Pp
310.Dl vidcontrol -f 8x16 iso-8x16
311.Pp
312Furthermore, you can also omit font size
313.Dq Li 8x16 :
314.Pp
315.Dl vidcontrol -f iso-8x16
316.Pp
317Likewise, you can also abbreviate the screen output map file name for
318the
319.Fl l
320option if the file is found in
321.Pa /usr/share/syscons/scrnmaps .
322.Pp
323.Dl vidcontrol -l iso-8859-1_to_cp437
324.Pp
325The above command will load
326.Pa /usr/share/syscons/scrnmaps/iso-8859-1_to_cp437.scm .
327.Pp
328The following command will set-up a 100x37 raster text mode (useful for
329some LCD models):
330.Pp
331.Dl vidcontrol -g 100x37 VESA_800x600
332.Sh SEE ALSO
333.Xr kbdcontrol 1 ,
334.Xr vidfont 1 ,
335.Xr keyboard 4 ,
336.Xr screen 4 ,
337.Xr syscons 4 ,
338.Xr vga 4 ,
339.Xr rc.conf 5 ,
340.Xr kldload 8 ,
341.Xr moused 8
342.Sh AUTHORS
343.An S\(/oren Schmidt Aq sos@FreeBSD.org
344