xref: /freebsd/usr.sbin/vidcontrol/vidcontrol.1 (revision 6e8394b8baa7d5d9153ab90de6824bcd19b3b4e1)
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.\"	$Id: vidcontrol.1,v 1.15 1999/04/08 13:51:54 ghelmer Exp $
16.\"
17.Dd May 22, 1994
18.Dt VIDCONTROL 1
19.Os
20.Sh NAME
21.Nm vidcontrol
22.Nd a utility for manipulating the syscons video driver.
23.Sh SYNOPSIS
24.Nm
25.Op Fl r Ar fg Ar bg
26.Op Fl b Ar color
27.Op Fl c Ar appearance
28.Op Fl d
29.Op Fl i Ar adapter|mode
30.Op Fl l Ar scrmap
31.Op Fl L
32.Op Fl m Ar on|off
33.Op Fl f Ar size Ar file
34.Op Fl s Ar number
35.Op Fl t Ar N|off
36.Op Fl x
37.Op mode
38.Op fgcol Op bgcol
39.Op show
40.Sh DESCRIPTION
41The
42.Nm
43command is used to set various options for the syscons video driver,
44such as video mode, colors, cursors, scrnmaps, font and screensaver timeout.
45.Pp
46The following command line options are supported:
47.Bl -tag -width indent
48.It mode
49Select a new video mode. The modes currently recognized are:
50.Ar 40x25 ,
51.Ar 80x25 ,
52.Ar 80x30 ,
53.Ar 80x43 ,
54.Ar 80x50 ,
55.Ar 80x60 ,
56.Ar 132x25 ,
57.Ar 132x30 ,
58.Ar 132x43 ,
59.Ar 132x50 ,
60.Ar 132x60 ,
61.Ar VGA_40x25 ,
62.Ar VGA_80x25 ,
63.Ar VGA_80x30 ,
64.Ar VGA_80x50 ,
65.Ar VGA_80x60 ,
66.Ar EGA_80x25 ,
67.Ar EGA_80x43 ,
68.Ar VESA_132x25 ,
69.Ar VESA_132x30 ,
70.Ar VESA_132x43 ,
71.Ar VESA_132x50 ,
72.Ar VESA_132x60 .
73.\"The graphic mode
74.\".Ar VGA_320x200
75.\"and
76The raster text mode
77.Ar VESA_800x600
78can also be chosen.
79See
80.Sx Video Mode Support
81below.
82.It fgcol Op bgcol
83Change colors when displaying text. Specify the foreground color
84(e.g. "vidcontrol white"), or both a foreground & background color
85(e.g. "vidcontrol yellow blue").
86.It show
87See the supported colors on a given platform.
88.It Fl r Ar foreground Ar background
89Change reverse mode colors to
90.Ar foreground
91and
92.Ar background .
93.It Fl b Ar color
94Set border color to
95.Ar color
96(only supported on VGA hardware).
97.It Fl c Ar normal|blink|destructive
98Change the cursor appearance. The cursor is either an inverting block
99(normal) that eventually can "blink". Or it can be like the old hardware cursor
100(destructive). The latter is actually a simulation.
101.It Fl d
102Print out current screen output map.
103.It Fl l Ar scrmap
104Install screen output map file from
105.Ar scrmap
106.It Fl L
107Install default screen output map.
108.It Fl i Ar adapter
109Shows info about the current videoadapter.
110.It Fl i Ar mode
111Shows the possible videomodes with the current video hardware.
112.It Fl m Ar on|off
113Switch the mousepointer
114.Ar on
115or
116.Ar off .
117Used together with the moused
118daemon for textmode cut & paste functionality.
119.It Fl f Ar size Ar file
120Load font
121.Ar file
122for
123.Ar size
124(currently, only 8x8, 8x14 or 8x16).
125The font file can be either uuencoded or in raw binary format.
126.It Fl s Ar number
127Set the current vty to
128.Ar number .
129.It Fl t Ar N|off
130Set the screensaver timeout to
131.Ar N
132seconds, or turns it
133.Ar off .
134.It Fl x
135Use hexadecimal digits for output.
136.El
137.Ss Video Mode Support
138Note that not all modes listed above may be supported by the video
139hardware.
140You can verify which mode is supported by the video hardware, using the
141.Fl i Ar mode
142option.
143.Pp
144The VESA BIOS support must be linked to the kernel
145or loaded as a KLD module if you wish to use VESA video modes
146or 132 column modes
147.Pq see Xr vga 4 .
148.Pp
149Video modes other than 25 and 30 line modes may require specific size of font.
150Use
151.Fl f
152option above to load a font file to the kernel.
153If the required size of font has not been loaded to the kernel,
154.Nm
155will fail if the user attempts to set a new video mode.
156.Pp
157.TS
158c s
159c c
160l c.
161Video modes and font size
162Modes	Font size
16325 line modes	8x16 (VGA), 8x14 (EGA)
16430 line modes	8x16
16543 line modes	8x8
16650 line modes	8x8
16760 line modes	8x8
168.TE
169.Pp
170It is better to always load all three sizes (8x8, 8x14 and 8x16)
171of the same font.
172.Pp
173You may set
174.Ar font8x8 ,
175.Ar font8x14
176and
177.Ar font8x16
178variables in
179.Pa /etc/rc.conf.local
180to the desired font files so that they will be automatically loaded
181when the system starts up.
182.Sh FILES
183.Bl -tag -width /usr/share/syscons/scrnmaps -compact
184.It Pa /usr/share/syscons/fonts
185.It Pa /usr/share/syscons/scrnmaps
186.El
187.Sh SEE ALSO
188.Xr kbdcontrol 1 ,
189.Xr keyboard 4 ,
190.Xr screen 4 ,
191.Xr syscons 4 ,
192.Xr vga 4 ,
193.Xr rc.conf 5 ,
194.Xr moused 8
195.Sh AUTHORS
196.An S�ren Schmidt Aq sos@FreeBSD.org
197