xref: /freebsd/usr.sbin/vidcontrol/vidcontrol.1 (revision c4f6a2a9e1b1879b618c436ab4f56ff75c73a0f5)
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 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
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 H
213When used with
214.Fl p
215or
216.Fl P ,
217it instructs
218.Nm
219to dump full history buffer instead of visible portion of
220the video buffer only.
221.It Fl r Ar foreground background
222Change reverse mode colors to
223.Ar foreground
224and
225.Ar background .
226.It Fl S Cm on | off
227Turn vty switching on or off.
228When vty switching is off,
229attempts to switch to a different virtual terminal will fail.
230(The default is to permit vty switching.)
231.It Fl s Ar number
232Set the current vty to
233.Ar number .
234.It Fl t Ar N | Cm off
235Set the screensaver timeout to
236.Ar N
237seconds, or turns it
238.Cm off .
239.It Fl x
240Use hexadecimal digits for output.
241.El
242.Ss Video Mode Support
243Note that not all modes listed above may be supported by the video
244hardware.
245You can verify which mode is supported by the video hardware, using the
246.Fl i Cm mode
247option.
248.Pp
249The VESA BIOS support must be linked to the kernel
250or loaded as a KLD module if you wish to use VESA video modes
251or 132 column modes
252(see
253.Xr vga 4 ) .
254.Pp
255You need to compile your kernel with the
256.Ar VGA_WIDTH90
257option if you wish to use VGA 90 column modes
258(see
259.Xr vga 4 ) .
260.Pp
261Video modes other than 25 and 30 line modes may require specific size of font.
262Use
263.Fl f
264option above to load a font file to the kernel.
265If the required size of font has not been loaded to the kernel,
266.Nm
267will fail if the user attempts to set a new video mode.
268.Pp
269.Bl -column "25 line modes" "8x16 (VGA), 8x14 (EGA)" -compact
270.Sy Modes Ta Sy Font size
271.Li 25 line modes Ta 8x16 (VGA), 8x14 (EGA)
272.Li 30 line modes Ta 8x16
273.Li 43 line modes Ta 8x8
274.Li 50 line modes Ta 8x8
275.Li 60 line modes Ta 8x8
276.El
277.Pp
278It is better to always load all three sizes (8x8, 8x14 and 8x16)
279of the same font.
280.Pp
281You may set variables in
282.Pa /etc/rc.conf
283or
284.Pa /etc/rc.conf.local
285so that desired font files will be automatically loaded
286when the system starts up.
287See below.
288.Pp
289If you want to use the raster text mode
290.Ar VESA_800x600 ,
291you need to recompile your kernel with the
292.Dv SC_PIXEL_MODE
293option.
294See
295.Xr syscons 4
296for more details on this kernel option.
297.Ss Format of Video Buffer Dump
298The
299.Nm
300utility uses the
301.Xr syscons 4
302.Dv CONS_SCRSHOT
303.Xr ioctl 2
304to capture the current contents of the video buffer.
305The
306.Nm
307utility writes version and additional information to the standard
308output, followed by the contents of the terminal device.
309.Pp
310VGA video memory is typically arranged in two byte tuples,
311one per character position.
312In each tuple, the first byte will be the character code,
313and the second byte is the character's color attribute.
314.Pp
315The VGA color attribute byte looks like this:
316.Pp
317.Bl -column "X:X" "<00000000>" "width" "bright foreground color"
318.Sy "bits#		width	meaning"
319.Li "7	<X0000000>	1	character blinking"
320.Li "6:4	<0XXX0000>	3	background color"
321.Li "3	<0000X000>	1	bright foreground color"
322.Li "2:0	<00000XXX>	3	foreground color"
323.El
324.Pp
325Here is a list of the three bit wide base colors:
326.Pp
327.Bl -hang -offset indent -compact
328.It 0
329Black
330.It 1
331Blue
332.It 2
333Green
334.It 3
335Cyan
336.It 4
337Red
338.It 5
339Magenta
340.It 6
341Brown
342.It 7
343Light Grey
344.El
345.Pp
346Base colors with bit 3 (the bright foreground flag) set:
347.Pp
348.Bl -hang -offset indent -compact
349.It 0
350Dark Grey
351.It 1
352Light Blue
353.It 2
354Light Green
355.It 3
356Light Cyan
357.It 4
358Light Red
359.It 5
360Light Magenta
361.It 6
362Yellow
363.It 7
364White
365.El
366.Pp
367For example, the two bytes
368.Pp
369.Dl "65 158"
370.Pp
371specify an uppercase A (character code 65), blinking
372(bit 7 set) in yellow (bits 3:0) on a blue background
373(bits 6:4).
374.Pp
375The
376.Nm
377output contains a small header which includes additional
378information which may be useful to utilities processing
379the output.
380.Pp
381The first 10 bytes are always arranged as follows:
382.Bl -column "Byte range" "Contents" -offset indent
383.It Sy "Byte Range	Contents"
384.It "1 thru 8	Literal text" Dq Li SCRSHOT_
385.It "9	File format version number"
386.It "10	Remaining number of bytes in the header"
387.El
388.Pp
389Subsequent bytes depend on the version number.
390.Bl -column "Version" "13 and up" -offset indent
391.It Sy "Version	Byte	Meaning"
392.It "1	11	Terminal width, in characters"
393.It "	12	Terminal depth, in characters"
394.It "	13 and up	The snapshot data"
395.El
396.Pp
397So a dump of an 80x25 screen would start (in hex)
398.Bd -literal -offset indent
39953 43 52 53 48 4f 54 5f 01 02 50 19
400----------------------- -- -- -- --
401          |              |  |  |  ` 25 decimal
402          |              |  |  `--- 80 decimal
403          |              |  `------ 2 remaining bytes of header data
404          |              `--------- File format version 1
405          `------------------------ Literal "SCRSHOT_"
406.Ed
407.Sh VIDEO OUTPUT CONFIGURATION
408.Ss Boot Time Configuration
409You may set the following variables in
410.Pa /etc/rc.conf
411or
412.Pa /etc/rc.conf.local
413in order to configure the video output at boot time.
414.Pp
415.Bl -tag -width foo_bar_var -compact
416.It Ar blanktime
417Sets the timeout value for the
418.Fl t
419option.
420.It Ar font8x16 , font8x14 , font8x8
421Specifies font files for the
422.Fl f
423option.
424.It Ar scrnmap
425Specifies a screen output map file for the
426.Fl l
427option.
428.El
429.Pp
430See
431.Xr rc.conf 5
432for more details.
433.Ss Driver Configuration
434The video card driver may let you change default configuration
435options, such as the default font, so that you do not need to set up
436the options at boot time.
437See video card driver manuals, (e.g.\&
438.Xr vga 4 )
439for details.
440.Sh FILES
441.Bl -tag -width /usr/share/syscons/scrnmaps/foo-bar -compact
442.It Pa /usr/share/syscons/fonts/*
443font files.
444.It Pa /usr/share/syscons/scrnmaps/*
445screen output map files.
446.El
447.Sh EXAMPLES
448If you want to load
449.Pa /usr/share/syscons/fonts/iso-8x16.fnt
450to the kernel, run
451.Nm
452as:
453.Pp
454.Dl vidcontrol -f 8x16 /usr/share/syscons/fonts/iso-8x16.fnt
455.Pp
456So long as the font file is in
457.Pa /usr/share/syscons/fonts ,
458you may abbreviate the file name as
459.Pa iso-8x16 :
460.Pp
461.Dl vidcontrol -f 8x16 iso-8x16
462.Pp
463Furthermore, you can also omit font size
464.Dq Li 8x16 :
465.Pp
466.Dl vidcontrol -f iso-8x16
467.Pp
468Moreover, the suffix specifying the font size can be also omitted; in
469this case,
470.Nm
471will use the size of the currently displayed font to construct the
472suffix:
473.Pp
474.Dl vidcontrol -f iso
475.Pp
476Likewise, you can also abbreviate the screen output map file name for
477the
478.Fl l
479option if the file is found in
480.Pa /usr/share/syscons/scrnmaps .
481.Pp
482.Dl vidcontrol -l iso-8859-1_to_cp437
483.Pp
484The above command will load
485.Pa /usr/share/syscons/scrnmaps/iso-8859-1_to_cp437.scm .
486.Pp
487The following command will set-up a 100x37 raster text mode (useful for
488some LCD models):
489.Pp
490.Dl vidcontrol -g 100x37 VESA_800x600
491.Pp
492The following command will capture the contents of the first virtual
493terminal, and redirect the output to the
494.Pa shot.scr
495file:
496.Pp
497.Dl vidcontrol -p < /dev/ttyv0 > shot.scr
498.Pp
499The following command will dump contents of the fourth virtual terminal
500to the standard output in the human readable format:
501.Pp
502.Dl vidcontrol -P < /dev/ttyv3
503.Sh SEE ALSO
504.Xr kbdcontrol 1 ,
505.Xr vidfont 1 ,
506.Xr keyboard 4 ,
507.Xr screen 4 ,
508.Xr syscons 4 ,
509.Xr vga 4 ,
510.Xr rc.conf 5 ,
511.Xr kldload 8 ,
512.Xr moused 8 ,
513.Xr watch 8
514.Pp
515The various
516.Li scr2*
517utilities in the
518.Li graphics
519and
520.Li textproc
521categories of the
522.Em "Ports Collection" .
523.Sh AUTHORS
524.An S\(/oren Schmidt Aq sos@FreeBSD.org
525.Sh CONTRIBUTORS
526.An Maxim Sobolev Aq sobomax@FreeBSD.org ,
527.An Nik Clayton Aq nik@FreeBSD.org
528