xref: /freebsd/usr.sbin/vidcontrol/vidcontrol.1 (revision 23f282aa31e9b6fceacd449020e936e98d6f2298)
1.\" t
2.\"
3.\" vidcontrol - a utility for manipulating the syscons video driver
4.\"
5.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
6.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
7.\" are met:
8.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
9.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
10.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
11.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
12.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
13.\"
14.\"     @(#)vidcontrol.1
15.\" $FreeBSD$
16.\"
17.Dd June 30, 1999
18.Dt VIDCONTROL 1
19.Os
20.Sh NAME
21.Nm vidcontrol
22.Nd a utility for manipulating the syscons console driver.
23.Sh SYNOPSIS
24.Nm
25.Op Fl b Ar color
26.Op Fl c Ar appearance
27.Op Fl d
28.Op Fl f Ar size Ar file
29.Op Fl i Cm adapter | mode
30.Op Fl l Ar screen_map
31.Op Fl L
32.Op Fl M Ar char
33.Op Fl m Cm on | off
34.Op Fl r Ar foreground Ar background
35.Op Fl s Ar number
36.Op Fl t Ar N | Cm off
37.Op Fl x
38.Op Ar mode
39.Op Ar foreground Op Ar background
40.Op Cm show
41.Sh DESCRIPTION
42The
43.Nm
44command is used to set various options for the
45.Xr syscons 4
46console driver,
47such as video mode, colors, cursor shape, screen output map, font and screen
48saver timeout.
49.Pp
50The following command line options are supported:
51.Bl -tag -width indent
52.It Ar mode
53Select a new video mode.
54The modes currently recognized are:
55.Ar 80x25 ,
56.Ar 80x30 ,
57.Ar 80x43 ,
58.Ar 80x50 ,
59.Ar 80x60 ,
60.Ar 132x25 ,
61.Ar 132x30 ,
62.Ar 132x43 ,
63.Ar 132x50 ,
64.Ar 132x60 ,
65.Ar VGA_40x25 ,
66.Ar VGA_80x25 ,
67.Ar VGA_80x30 ,
68.Ar VGA_80x50 ,
69.Ar VGA_80x60 ,
70.Ar EGA_80x25 ,
71.Ar EGA_80x43 ,
72.Ar VESA_132x25 ,
73.Ar VESA_132x43 ,
74.Ar VESA_132x50 ,
75.Ar VESA_132x60 .
76.\"The graphic mode
77.\".Ar VGA_320x200
78.\"and
79The raster text mode
80.Ar VESA_800x600
81can also be chosen.
82See
83.Sx Video Mode Support
84below.
85.It Ar foreground Op Ar background
86Change colors when displaying text.
87Specify the foreground color
88(e.g.
89.Dq vidcontrol white ) ,
90or both a foreground and background colors
91(e.g.
92.Dq vidcontrol yellow blue ) .
93Use the
94.Cm show
95command below to see available colors.
96.It Cm show
97See the supported colors on a given platform.
98.It Fl r Ar foreground background
99Change reverse mode colors to
100.Ar foreground
101and
102.Ar background .
103.It Fl b Ar color
104Set border color to
105.Ar color .
106This option may not be always supported by the video driver.
107.It Fl c Cm normal | blink | destructive
108Change the cursor appearance.
109The cursor is either an inverting block
110.Pq Cm normal
111that eventually can
112.Cm blink .
113Or it can be like the old hardware cursor
114.Pq Cm destructive .
115The latter is actually a simulation.
116.It Fl d
117Print out current output screen map.
118.It Fl l Ar screen_map
119Install screen output map file from
120.Ar screen_map .
121See also
122.Xr syscons 4 .
123.It Fl L
124Install default screen output map.
125.It Fl i Cm adapter
126Shows info about the current video adapter.
127.It Fl i Cm mode
128Shows the possible video modes with the current video hardware.
129.It Fl M Ar char
130Sets the base character used to render the mouse pointer to
131.Ar char .
132.It Fl m Cm on | off
133Switch the mouse pointer
134.Cm on
135or
136.Cm off .
137Used together with the
138.Xr moused 8
139daemon for text mode cut & paste functionality.
140.It Fl f Ar size Ar file
141Load font
142.Ar file
143for
144.Ar size
145(currently, only
146.Cm 8x8 ,
147.Cm 8x14
148or
149.Cm 8x16 ) .
150The font file can be either uuencoded or in raw binary format.
151You can also use the menu-driven
152.Xr vidfont 1
153command to load the font of your choice.
154.Pp
155Note that older video cards, such as MDA and CGA, do not support
156software font.
157See also
158.Sx Video Mode Support
159and
160.Sx EXAMPLE
161below and the man page for
162.Xr syscons 4 .
163.It Fl s Ar number
164Set the current vty to
165.Ar number .
166.It Fl t Ar N | Cm off
167Set the screensaver timeout to
168.Ar N
169seconds, or turns it
170.Cm off .
171.It Fl x
172Use hexadecimal digits for output.
173.El
174.Ss Video Mode Support
175Note that not all modes listed above may be supported by the video
176hardware.
177You can verify which mode is supported by the video hardware, using the
178.Fl i Cm mode
179option.
180.Pp
181The VESA BIOS support must be linked to the kernel
182or loaded as a KLD module if you wish to use VESA video modes
183or 132 column modes
184.Pq see Xr vga 4 .
185.Pp
186Video modes other than 25 and 30 line modes may require specific size of font.
187Use
188.Fl f
189option above to load a font file to the kernel.
190If the required size of font has not been loaded to the kernel,
191.Nm
192will fail if the user attempts to set a new video mode.
193.Pp
194.TS
195c s
196c c
197l c.
198Video modes and font size
199Modes	Font size
20025 line modes	8x16 (VGA), 8x14 (EGA)
20130 line modes	8x16
20243 line modes	8x8
20350 line modes	8x8
20460 line modes	8x8
205.TE
206.Pp
207It is better to always load all three sizes (8x8, 8x14 and 8x16)
208of the same font.
209.Pp
210You may set variables in
211.Pa /etc/rc.conf
212or
213.Pa /etc/rc.conf.local
214so that desired font files will be automatically loaded
215when the system starts up.
216See below.
217.Pp
218If you want to use the raster text mode
219.Ar VESA_800x600 ,
220you need to recomile your kernel with the
221.Em SC_PIXEL_MODE
222option.  See
223.Xr syscons 4
224for more details on this kernel option.
225.Sh VIDEO OUTPUT CONFIGURATION
226.Ss Boot Time Configuration
227You may set the following variables in
228.Pa /etc/rc.conf
229or
230.Pa /etc/rc.conf.local
231in order to configure the video output at boot time.
232.Pp
233.Bl -tag -width foo_bar_var -compact
234.It Ar blanktime
235Sets the timeout value for the
236.Fl t
237option.
238.It Ar font8x16 , font8x14 , font8x8
239Specifies font files for the
240.Fl f
241option.
242.It Ar scrnmap
243Specifies a screen output map file for the
244.Fl l
245option.
246.El
247.Pp
248See
249.Xr rc.conf 5
250for more details.
251.Ss Driver Configuration
252The video card driver may let you change default configuration
253options, such as the default font, so that you do not need to set up
254the options at boot time.
255See video card driver manuals,
256.Pq e.g. Xr vga 4
257for details.
258.Sh FILES
259.Bl -tag -width /usr/share/syscons/scrnmaps/foo-bar -compact
260.It Pa /usr/share/syscons/fonts/*
261font files.
262.It Pa /usr/share/syscons/scrnmaps/*
263screen output map files.
264.El
265.Sh EXAMPLE
266If you want to load
267.Pa /usr/share/syscons/fonts/iso-8x16.fnt
268to the kernel, run
269.Nm
270as:
271.Pp
272.Dl vidcontrol -f 8x16 /usr/share/syscons/fonts/iso-8x16.fnt
273.Pp
274So long as the font file is in
275.Pa /usr/share/syscons/fonts ,
276you may abbreviate the file name as
277.Pa iso-8x16 :
278.Pp
279.Dl vidcontrol -f 8x16 iso-8x16
280.Pp
281Likewise, you can also abbreviate the screen output map file name for
282the
283.Fl l
284option if the file is found in
285.Pa /usr/share/syscons/scrnmaps .
286.Pp
287.Dl vidcontrol -l iso-8859-1_to_cp437
288.Pp
289The above command will load
290.Pa /usr/share/syscons/scrnmaps/iso-8859-1_to_cp437.scm .
291.Sh SEE ALSO
292.Xr kbdcontrol 1 ,
293.Xr vidfont 1 ,
294.Xr keyboard 4 ,
295.Xr screen 4 ,
296.Xr syscons 4 ,
297.Xr vga 4 ,
298.Xr rc.conf 5 ,
299.Xr kldload 8 ,
300.Xr moused 8
301.Sh AUTHORS
302.An S�ren Schmidt Aq sos@FreeBSD.org
303