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Date:      Tue, 21 Mar 2017 00:09:06 +0200
From:      Toomas Soome <tsoome@me.com>
To:        Chris H <bsd-lists@bsdforge.com>
Cc:        FreeBSD CURRENT <freebsd-current@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: Are textmode consoles/terminals still supported?
Message-ID:  <D3417D12-98EE-475F-8C34-73B0CC2BABBC@me.com>
In-Reply-To: <05ff1f84a0f3856823fda4b08266f211@ultimatedns.net>
References:  <05ff1f84a0f3856823fda4b08266f211@ultimatedns.net>

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> On 20. m=C3=A4rts 2017, at 23:58, Chris H <bsd-lists@bsdforge.com> =
wrote:
>=20
> I'm attempting to get a video card that DTRT on FreeBSD.
> I started with the graphics provided by an AMD A6-7470K,
> only to discover it's not yet supported. So I forked out
> for a recent nvidia card, and build/installed a new
> world/kernel.
> Everything seemed to be as one would expect, except there
> was an issue with loader.efi. So I had to move mine aside,
> and use the one off the install media (tho I understand
> the (u)efi has since been fixed). Now, I'm attempting to
> obtain textmode. The text stripped from a tty, and pasted
> to a new file in a textmode editor -- ee(1) for example;
> pads the line with spaces to EOL, and prefaces each line
> following the first line with rubbish (about 1 to 2
> characters worth).
> So "graphics mode" or vt(4) isn't going to get it, for me.
> Textmode, and syscons(4) has always worked as expected, and
> I thought I'd try to re-enable it, or get textmode via vt(4).
> But all attempts fail.
> excerpt from my KERNCONF
>=20
> device		vga
> options 	VESA
>=20
> device		sc
> options 	SC_PIXEL_MODE
>=20
> device		vt
> device		vt_vga
> device		vt_efifb
>=20
> However, following the advice on the freebsd wiki, querying
> the value in sysctl(8) returns:
> # sysctl hw.vga.textmode
> sysctl: unknown oid 'hw.vga.textmode'
>=20
> OK how bout vidcontrol(1)
> # vidcontrol -i adapter
> vidcontrol: obtaining adapter information: Inappropriate ioctl for =
device
>=20
> So, it appears from my standpoint that textmode is no longer
> supported?
>=20
> FWIW:
> FreeBSD trump.whitehouse.gov.test 12.0-CURRENT FreeBSD 12.0-CURRENT #0 =
r314700:
> Sun Mar 5 09:01:30 PST 2017
> root@trump.whitehouse.gov.test:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/TESTKERN amd6
>=20
> Thank you for anything that might help me obtain textmode again.
>=20
> -

The problem with UEFI is that the fact if you can only get =E2=80=9Ctext=E2=
=80=9D aka VGA text mode if your card happens to have the proper =
firmware and you can set up the card=E2=80=A6 UEFI as such does only =
provide framebuffer based console, and that framebuffer is either linear =
memory mapped or pure software - in last case only KMS console =
framebuffer will do any good.

rgds,
toomas




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