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 December 23, 2006 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 CdLHPpx 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 48utility 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. 91Alternatively, a mode can be specified with its number by using a mode name of 92the form 93.Li MODE_ Ns Aq Ar NUMBER . 94A list of valid mode numbers can be obtained with the 95.Fl i Cm mode 96option. 97See 98.Sx Video Mode Support 99below. 100.It Ar foreground Op Ar background 101Change colors when displaying text. 102Specify the foreground color 103(e.g.\& 104.Dq vidcontrol white ) , 105or both a foreground and background colors 106(e.g.\& 107.Dq vidcontrol yellow blue ) . 108Use the 109.Cm show 110command below to see available colors. 111.It Cm show 112See the supported colors on a given platform. 113.It Fl b Ar color 114Set border color to 115.Ar color . 116This option may not be always supported by the video driver. 117.It Fl C 118Clear the history buffer. 119.It Fl c Cm normal | blink | destructive 120Change the cursor appearance. 121The cursor is either an inverting block 122.Pq Cm normal 123that can optionally 124.Cm blink , 125or it can be like the old hardware cursor 126.Pq Cm destructive . 127The latter is actually a simulation. 128.It Fl d 129Print out current output screen map. 130.It Xo 131.Fl f 132.Op Ar size 133.Ar file 134.Xc 135Load font 136.Ar file 137for 138.Ar size 139(currently, only 140.Cm 8x8 , 141.Cm 8x14 142or 143.Cm 8x16 ) . 144The font file can be either uuencoded or in raw binary format. 145You can also use the menu-driven 146.Xr vidfont 1 147command to load the font of your choice. 148.Pp 149.Ar Size 150may be omitted, in this case 151.Nm 152will try to guess it from the size of font file. 153.Pp 154Note that older video cards, such as MDA and CGA, do not support 155software font. 156See also 157.Sx Video Mode Support 158and 159.Sx EXAMPLES 160below and the man page for 161.Xr syscons 4 . 162.It Fl g Ar geometry 163Set the 164.Ar geometry 165of the text mode for the modes with selectable 166geometry. 167Currently only raster modes, such as 168.Ar VESA_800x600 , 169support this option. 170See also 171.Sx Video Mode Support 172and 173.Sx EXAMPLES 174below. 175.It Fl h Ar size 176Set the size of the history (scrollback) buffer to 177.Ar size 178lines. 179.It Fl i Cm adapter 180Shows info about the current video adapter. 181.It Fl i Cm mode 182Shows the possible video modes with the current video hardware. 183.It Fl l Ar screen_map 184Install screen output map file from 185.Ar screen_map . 186See also 187.Xr syscons 4 . 188.It Fl L 189Install default screen output map. 190.It Fl M Ar char 191Sets the base character used to render the mouse pointer to 192.Ar char . 193.It Fl m Cm on | off 194Switch the mouse pointer 195.Cm on 196or 197.Cm off . 198Used together with the 199.Xr moused 8 200daemon for text mode cut & paste functionality. 201.It Fl p 202Capture the current contents of the video buffer corresponding 203to the terminal device referred to by standard input. 204The 205.Nm 206utility writes contents of the video buffer to the standard 207output in a raw binary format. 208For details about that 209format see 210.Sx Format of Video Buffer Dump 211below. 212.It Fl P 213Same as 214.Fl p , 215but dump contents of the video buffer in a plain text format 216ignoring nonprintable characters and information about text 217attributes. 218.It Fl H 219When used with 220.Fl p 221or 222.Fl P , 223it instructs 224.Nm 225to dump full history buffer instead of visible portion of 226the video buffer only. 227.It Fl r Ar foreground background 228Change reverse mode colors to 229.Ar foreground 230and 231.Ar background . 232.It Fl S Cm on | off 233Turn vty switching on or off. 234When vty switching is off, 235attempts to switch to a different virtual terminal will fail. 236(The default is to permit vty switching.) 237This protection can be easily bypassed when the kernel is compiled with 238the 239.Dv DDB 240option. 241However, you probably should not compile the kernel debugger on a box which 242is supposed to be physically secure. 243.It Fl s Ar number 244Set the current vty to 245.Ar number . 246.It Fl t Ar N | Cm off 247Set the screensaver timeout to 248.Ar N 249seconds, or turns it 250.Cm off . 251.It Fl x 252Use hexadecimal digits for output. 253.El 254.Ss Video Mode Support 255Note that not all modes listed above may be supported by the video 256hardware. 257You can verify which mode is supported by the video hardware, using the 258.Fl i Cm mode 259option. 260.Pp 261The VESA BIOS support must be linked to the kernel 262or loaded as a KLD module if you wish to use VESA video modes 263or 132 column modes 264(see 265.Xr vga 4 ) . 266.Pp 267You need to compile your kernel with the 268.Ar VGA_WIDTH90 269option if you wish to use VGA 90 column modes 270(see 271.Xr vga 4 ) . 272.Pp 273Video modes other than 25 and 30 line modes may require specific size of font. 274Use 275.Fl f 276option above to load a font file to the kernel. 277If the required size of font has not been loaded to the kernel, 278.Nm 279will fail if the user attempts to set a new video mode. 280.Pp 281.Bl -column "25 line modes" "8x16 (VGA), 8x14 (EGA)" -compact 282.Sy Modes Ta Sy Font size 283.No 25 line modes Ta 8x16 (VGA), 8x14 (EGA) 284.No 30 line modes Ta 8x16 285.No 43 line modes Ta 8x8 286.No 50 line modes Ta 8x8 287.No 60 line modes Ta 8x8 288.El 289.Pp 290It is better to always load all three sizes (8x8, 8x14 and 8x16) 291of the same font. 292.Pp 293You may set variables in 294.Pa /etc/rc.conf 295or 296.Pa /etc/rc.conf.local 297so that desired font files will be automatically loaded 298when the system starts up. 299See below. 300.Pp 301If you want to use any of the raster text modes you need to recompile your 302kernel with the 303.Dv SC_PIXEL_MODE 304option. 305See 306.Xr syscons 4 307for more details on this kernel option. 308.Ss Format of Video Buffer Dump 309The 310.Nm 311utility uses the 312.Xr syscons 4 313.Dv CONS_SCRSHOT 314.Xr ioctl 2 315to capture the current contents of the video buffer. 316The 317.Nm 318utility writes version and additional information to the standard 319output, followed by the contents of the video buffer. 320.Pp 321VGA video memory is typically arranged in two byte tuples, 322one per character position. 323In each tuple, the first byte will be the character code, 324and the second byte is the character's color attribute. 325.Pp 326The VGA color attribute byte looks like this: 327.Pp 328.Bl -column "X:X" "<00000000>" "width" "bright foreground color" 329.Sy "bits# width meaning" 330.Li "7 <X0000000> 1 character blinking" 331.Li "6:4 <0XXX0000> 3 background color" 332.Li "3 <0000X000> 1 bright foreground color" 333.Li "2:0 <00000XXX> 3 foreground color" 334.El 335.Pp 336Here is a list of the three bit wide base colors: 337.Pp 338.Bl -hang -offset indent -compact 339.It 0 340Black 341.It 1 342Blue 343.It 2 344Green 345.It 3 346Cyan 347.It 4 348Red 349.It 5 350Magenta 351.It 6 352Brown 353.It 7 354Light Grey 355.El 356.Pp 357Base colors with bit 3 (the bright foreground flag) set: 358.Pp 359.Bl -hang -offset indent -compact 360.It 0 361Dark Grey 362.It 1 363Light Blue 364.It 2 365Light Green 366.It 3 367Light Cyan 368.It 4 369Light Red 370.It 5 371Light Magenta 372.It 6 373Yellow 374.It 7 375White 376.El 377.Pp 378For example, the two bytes 379.Pp 380.Dl "65 158" 381.Pp 382specify an uppercase A (character code 65), blinking 383(bit 7 set) in yellow (bits 3:0) on a blue background 384(bits 6:4). 385.Pp 386The 387.Nm 388output contains a small header which includes additional 389information which may be useful to utilities processing 390the output. 391.Pp 392The first 10 bytes are always arranged as follows: 393.Bl -column "Byte range" "Contents" -offset indent 394.It Sy "Byte Range Contents" 395.It "1 thru 8 Literal text" Dq Li SCRSHOT_ 396.It "9 File format version number" 397.It "10 Remaining number of bytes in the header" 398.El 399.Pp 400Subsequent bytes depend on the version number. 401.Bl -column "Version" "13 and up" -offset indent 402.It Sy "Version Byte Meaning" 403.It "1 11 Terminal width, in characters" 404.It " 12 Terminal depth, in characters" 405.It " 13 and up The snapshot data" 406.El 407.Pp 408So a dump of an 80x25 screen would start (in hex) 409.Bd -literal -offset indent 41053 43 52 53 48 4f 54 5f 01 02 50 19 411----------------------- -- -- -- -- 412 | | | | ` 25 decimal 413 | | | `--- 80 decimal 414 | | `------ 2 remaining bytes of header data 415 | `--------- File format version 1 416 `------------------------ Literal "SCRSHOT_" 417.Ed 418.Sh VIDEO OUTPUT CONFIGURATION 419.Ss Boot Time Configuration 420You may set the following variables in 421.Pa /etc/rc.conf 422or 423.Pa /etc/rc.conf.local 424in order to configure the video output at boot time. 425.Pp 426.Bl -tag -width foo_bar_var -compact 427.It Ar blanktime 428Sets the timeout value for the 429.Fl t 430option. 431.It Ar font8x16 , font8x14 , font8x8 432Specifies font files for the 433.Fl f 434option. 435.It Ar scrnmap 436Specifies a screen output map file for the 437.Fl l 438option. 439.El 440.Pp 441See 442.Xr rc.conf 5 443for more details. 444.Ss Driver Configuration 445The video card driver may let you change default configuration 446options, such as the default font, so that you do not need to set up 447the options at boot time. 448See video card driver manuals, (e.g.\& 449.Xr vga 4 ) 450for details. 451.Sh FILES 452.Bl -tag -width /usr/share/syscons/scrnmaps/foo-bar -compact 453.It Pa /usr/share/syscons/fonts/* 454font files. 455.It Pa /usr/share/syscons/scrnmaps/* 456screen output map files. 457.El 458.Sh EXAMPLES 459If you want to load 460.Pa /usr/share/syscons/fonts/iso-8x16.fnt 461to the kernel, run 462.Nm 463as: 464.Pp 465.Dl vidcontrol -f 8x16 /usr/share/syscons/fonts/iso-8x16.fnt 466.Pp 467So long as the font file is in 468.Pa /usr/share/syscons/fonts , 469you may abbreviate the file name as 470.Pa iso-8x16 : 471.Pp 472.Dl vidcontrol -f 8x16 iso-8x16 473.Pp 474Furthermore, you can also omit font size 475.Dq Li 8x16 : 476.Pp 477.Dl vidcontrol -f iso-8x16 478.Pp 479Moreover, the suffix specifying the font size can be also omitted; in 480this case, 481.Nm 482will use the size of the currently displayed font to construct the 483suffix: 484.Pp 485.Dl vidcontrol -f iso 486.Pp 487Likewise, you can also abbreviate the screen output map file name for 488the 489.Fl l 490option if the file is found in 491.Pa /usr/share/syscons/scrnmaps . 492.Pp 493.Dl vidcontrol -l iso-8859-1_to_cp437 494.Pp 495The above command will load 496.Pa /usr/share/syscons/scrnmaps/iso-8859-1_to_cp437.scm . 497.Pp 498The following command will set-up a 100x37 raster text mode (useful for 499some LCD models): 500.Pp 501.Dl vidcontrol -g 100x37 VESA_800x600 502.Pp 503The following command will capture the contents of the first virtual 504terminal video buffer, and redirect the output to the 505.Pa shot.scr 506file: 507.Pp 508.Dl vidcontrol -p < /dev/ttyv0 > shot.scr 509.Pp 510The following command will dump contents of the fourth virtual terminal 511video buffer 512to the standard output in the human readable format: 513.Pp 514.Dl vidcontrol -P < /dev/ttyv3 515.Sh SEE ALSO 516.Xr kbdcontrol 1 , 517.Xr vidfont 1 , 518.Xr keyboard 4 , 519.Xr screen 4 , 520.Xr syscons 4 , 521.Xr vga 4 , 522.Xr rc.conf 5 , 523.Xr kldload 8 , 524.Xr moused 8 , 525.Xr watch 8 526.Pp 527The various 528.Pa scr2* 529utilities in the 530.Pa graphics 531and 532.Pa textproc 533categories of the 534.Em "Ports Collection" . 535.Sh AUTHORS 536.An S\(/oren Schmidt Aq sos@FreeBSD.org 537.An Sascha Wildner 538.Sh CONTRIBUTORS 539.An Maxim Sobolev Aq sobomax@FreeBSD.org , 540.An Nik Clayton Aq nik@FreeBSD.org 541