xref: /freebsd/usr.sbin/vidcontrol/vidcontrol.1 (revision daf1cffce2e07931f27c6c6998652e90df6ba87e)
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. The modes currently recognized are:
54.Ar 80x25 ,
55.Ar 80x30 ,
56.Ar 80x43 ,
57.Ar 80x50 ,
58.Ar 80x60 ,
59.Ar 132x25 ,
60.Ar 132x30 ,
61.Ar 132x43 ,
62.Ar 132x50 ,
63.Ar 132x60 ,
64.Ar VGA_40x25 ,
65.Ar VGA_80x25 ,
66.Ar VGA_80x30 ,
67.Ar VGA_80x50 ,
68.Ar VGA_80x60 ,
69.Ar EGA_80x25 ,
70.Ar EGA_80x43 ,
71.Ar VESA_132x25 ,
72.Ar VESA_132x43 ,
73.Ar VESA_132x50 ,
74.Ar VESA_132x60 .
75.\"The graphic mode
76.\".Ar VGA_320x200
77.\"and
78The raster text mode
79.Ar VESA_800x600
80can also be chosen.
81See
82.Sx Video Mode Support
83below.
84.It Ar foreground Op Ar background
85Change colors when displaying text. Specify the foreground color
86(e.g.
87.Dq vidcontrol white ) ,
88or both a foreground and background colors
89(e.g.
90.Dq vidcontrol yellow blue ) .
91Use the
92.Cm show
93command below to see available colors.
94.It Cm show
95See the supported colors on a given platform.
96.It Fl r Ar foreground background
97Change reverse mode colors to
98.Ar foreground
99and
100.Ar background .
101.It Fl b Ar color
102Set border color to
103.Ar color .
104This option may not be always supported by the video driver.
105.It Fl c Cm normal | blink | destructive
106Change the cursor appearance. The cursor is either an inverting block
107.Pq Cm normal
108that eventually can
109.Cm blink .
110Or it can be like the old hardware cursor
111.Pq Cm destructive .
112The latter is actually a simulation.
113.It Fl d
114Print out current output screen map.
115.It Fl l Ar screen_map
116Install screen output map file from
117.Ar screen_map .
118See also
119.Xr syscons 4 .
120.It Fl L
121Install default screen output map.
122.It Fl i Cm adapter
123Shows info about the current video adapter.
124.It Fl i Cm mode
125Shows the possible video modes with the current video hardware.
126.It Fl M Ar char
127Sets the base character used to render the mouse pointer to
128.Ar char .
129.It Fl m Cm on | off
130Switch the mouse pointer
131.Cm on
132or
133.Cm off .
134Used together with the
135.Xr moused 8
136daemon for text mode cut & paste functionality.
137.It Fl f Ar size Ar file
138Load font
139.Ar file
140for
141.Ar size
142(currently, only
143.Cm 8x8 ,
144.Cm 8x14
145or
146.Cm 8x16 ) .
147The font file can be either uuencoded or in raw binary format.
148You can also use the menu-driven
149.Xr vidfont 1
150command to load the font of your choice.
151.Pp
152Note that older video cards, such as MDA and CGA, do not support
153software font.
154See also
155.Sx Video Mode Support
156and
157.Sx EXAMPLE
158below and the man page for
159.Xr syscons 4 .
160.It Fl s Ar number
161Set the current vty to
162.Ar number .
163.It Fl t Ar N | Cm off
164Set the screensaver timeout to
165.Ar N
166seconds, or turns it
167.Cm off .
168.It Fl x
169Use hexadecimal digits for output.
170.El
171.Ss Video Mode Support
172Note that not all modes listed above may be supported by the video
173hardware.
174You can verify which mode is supported by the video hardware, using the
175.Fl i Cm mode
176option.
177.Pp
178The VESA BIOS support must be linked to the kernel
179or loaded as a KLD module if you wish to use VESA video modes
180or 132 column modes
181.Pq see Xr vga 4 .
182.Pp
183Video modes other than 25 and 30 line modes may require specific size of font.
184Use
185.Fl f
186option above to load a font file to the kernel.
187If the required size of font has not been loaded to the kernel,
188.Nm
189will fail if the user attempts to set a new video mode.
190.Pp
191.TS
192c s
193c c
194l c.
195Video modes and font size
196Modes	Font size
19725 line modes	8x16 (VGA), 8x14 (EGA)
19830 line modes	8x16
19943 line modes	8x8
20050 line modes	8x8
20160 line modes	8x8
202.TE
203.Pp
204It is better to always load all three sizes (8x8, 8x14 and 8x16)
205of the same font.
206.Pp
207You may set variables in
208.Pa /etc/rc.conf
209or
210.Pa /etc/rc.conf.local
211so that desired font files will be automatically loaded
212when the system starts up.
213See below.
214.Pp
215If you want to use the raster text mode
216.Ar VESA_800x600 ,
217you need to recomile your kernel with the
218.Em SC_PIXEL_MODE
219option.  See
220.Xr syscons 4
221for more details on this kernel option.
222.Sh VIDEO OUTPUT CONFIGURATION
223.Ss Boot Time Configuration
224You may set the following variables in
225.Pa /etc/rc.conf
226or
227.Pa /etc/rc.conf.local
228in order to configure the video output at boot time.
229.Pp
230.Bl -tag -width foo_bar_var -compact
231.It Ar blanktime
232Sets the timeout value for the
233.Fl t
234option.
235.It Ar font8x16 , font8x14 , font8x8
236Specifies font files for the
237.Fl f
238option.
239.It Ar scrnmap
240Specifies a screen output map file for the
241.Fl l
242option.
243.El
244.Pp
245See
246.Xr rc.conf 5
247for more details.
248.Ss Driver Configuration
249The video card driver may let you change default configuration
250options, such as the default font, so that you do not need to set up
251the options at boot time.
252See video card driver manuals,
253.Pq e.g. Xr vga 4
254for details.
255.Sh FILES
256.Bl -tag -width /usr/share/syscons/scrnmaps/foo-bar -compact
257.It Pa /usr/share/syscons/fonts/*
258font files.
259.It Pa /usr/share/syscons/scrnmaps/*
260screen output map files.
261.El
262.Sh EXAMPLE
263If you want to load
264.Pa /usr/share/syscons/fonts/iso-8x16.fnt
265to the kernel, run
266.Nm
267as:
268.Pp
269.Dl vidcontrol -f 8x16 /usr/share/syscons/fonts/iso-8x16.fnt
270.Pp
271So long as the font file is in
272.Pa /usr/share/syscons/fonts ,
273you may abbreviate the file name as
274.Pa iso-8x16 :
275.Pp
276.Dl vidcontrol -f 8x16 iso-8x16
277.Pp
278Likewise, you can also abbreviate the screen output map file name for
279the
280.Fl l
281option if the file is found in
282.Pa /usr/share/syscons/scrnmaps .
283.Pp
284.Dl vidcontrol -l iso-8859-1_to_cp437
285.Pp
286The above command will load
287.Pa /usr/share/syscons/scrnmaps/iso-8859-1_to_cp437.scm .
288.Sh SEE ALSO
289.Xr kbdcontrol 1 ,
290.Xr vidfont 1 ,
291.Xr keyboard 4 ,
292.Xr screen 4 ,
293.Xr syscons 4 ,
294.Xr vga 4 ,
295.Xr rc.conf 5 ,
296.Xr kldload 8 ,
297.Xr moused 8
298.Sh AUTHORS
299.An S�ren Schmidt Aq sos@FreeBSD.org
300