From owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Tue Jan 30 11:32:21 2018 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2610:1c1:1:606c::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 809D5EC355C for ; Tue, 30 Jan 2018 11:32:21 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Received: from mout.kundenserver.de (mout.kundenserver.de [212.227.126.131]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 (128/128 bits)) (Client CN "mout.kundenserver.de", Issuer "TeleSec ServerPass DE-2" (verified OK)) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id E423168348 for ; Tue, 30 Jan 2018 11:32:20 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Received: from r56.edvax.de ([92.195.213.55]) by mrelayeu.kundenserver.de (mreue005 [212.227.15.167]) with ESMTPA (Nemesis) id 0Mczwc-1ePMja3E0Y-00I9sQ; Tue, 30 Jan 2018 12:32:08 +0100 Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2018 12:32:07 +0100 From: Polytropon To: "@lbutlr" Cc: Freebsd Questions Subject: Re: Setting console resultion Message-Id: <20180130123207.b7739451.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: References: <5919B7EF-A04A-47CD-AFE1-3B2290420AEF@kreme.com> <20180129154404.f1662f20.freebsd@edvax.de> Reply-To: Polytropon Organization: EDVAX X-Mailer: Sylpheed 3.1.1 (GTK+ 2.24.5; i386-portbld-freebsd8.2) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Provags-ID: V03:K0:V8HEZ7SpBU2Z9xQXuft2Zm9Vq/9rD6i5/4hu5yk6ibSszRxBxHb SV3nh6vNf+7m1xt7fBDoXJbjnaumcPLqrvUlldsUtE1GAZrdVzBYQLXEdxRpkZlplkRnQ0p AkfkHc0X3+OBwcP2uc+u+ZD8kGHd/x5pupg54jUlWm1ERjrTBW2SfycsmRmpibAKF7Rg4nb zs7cZQdDvsEIKR1WKPS8g== X-UI-Out-Filterresults: notjunk:1;V01:K0:bw0kTmTrByU=:HSWge2b1IGnC8VvTf5JU0C SRenBPxywgjStVOitveT61I7vyGVPF6eb7tpskD3mvx46+SILSzTJrRww5PtB5NsYK7bQCqO3 X96HKxr6gOj+0QmxZJBmELQg9LAh4+FtEDOVHuepIu0b/lTG9fIP8OTVjlbavfHD+lBkWNgOa Trvi6ltiLJVa+z/inGtTCNRaWjb7VPl9OyfoTz5E68Ynsti1uiGAKb7JatSmaFQ/e9M4ygmAg h34wNhLdPWGTxjwKGrN1VgqWtYQq1uG09gVidoxrk+UM9th4ukOsuyiL0f6NxLxRdvz0u73Fd Fgv7lGLJLEo742AqiD92Hw9duh5JjYAXiHB1imW8ALiLX6tQ3+UKLIaXY+O6Kl9br+0uQ8J1U wUtgGHjWzE9PaUmaubizGSTcqOBdb1pXLhRVJQNDIR7b9yI2n/IPwfMOYdZQLg31b5h5dNi/U /dRa1jKrjOZ2cd/I9mcy0Ny2UPQe7AAFIZn3yzEQEFFgrBCsoLhb7X8M728QeQxOtM9ZLtbnv u2GAES8EfVf0Rx/OH76KvBssRdFS6RwGc1P74/uC8CgQbngLHcdjOR3fuQ5o+0xPtvp1gx1w0 TDlijEZgjKdwyQJsxHtvCz/C1rlMcmx7ongRAJbZ8MK1SVsIvI0nPW82WIKNehNDS5ddA6YwE mZu0twpau0EsPzqaq8LxPWac2MQQAUozOEG1jEsWWAr16SCOiUIswy3qAQ8D/9UNzk4wNJXAk DSXfCdhX2H0P5NjwOtC1T+6g4as+WIZUiLPvIWxWO3Sg1o9PwaMqm0cr63s= X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.25 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2018 11:32:21 -0000 On Mon, 29 Jan 2018 21:07:54 -0700, @lbutlr wrote: > On 29 Jan 2018, at 07:44, Polytropon wrote: > > On Mon, 29 Jan 2018 02:37:05 -0700, @lbutlr wrote: > >> I'm not sure why this is so hard, but I've read dozens of pages > >> and threads on setting up the console to boot into something > >> other than VGA 80x24 and I can't get anything to change the > >> resolution. > > > > I think with vt, it's the exact opposite problem: You cannot > > set it to 80x25 anymore. ;-) > > I dunno, that was what my console was set to and I could not change it. With vt as the console driver? Is that even possible?! > >> I have an old Core 2 duo machine with a 27" screen. Once I > >> change by boot.conf to use sc instead of vt, I can see the > >> mode that I want (1920x1440x32) but I cannot get the screen > >> to change. > >> > >> vidcontrol mode > >> This is a fresh install of 11.1. > >> > >> If I try to load the intel driver, the screen goes blank. > > > > If you are using X, you cannot use sc anymore. X requires > > the use of vt now. > > I do not use X, I am only talking about the text console. In that case, you can choose between vt and sc. I'd suggest becoming friends with vt under any circumstances as sc will probably be abolished soon. Both systems allow you to change the screen resolution, and with sc, it has always been easy to do (with vidcontrol). But you've been talking about loading the intel driver, this is usually only needed if you want to use X (and X requires you to use vt instead of sc), that's why my assumption that you also were using X on that system (because this is the only reason to load that driver). > >> The onboard video connector not he machine is VGA, so even > >> though the monitor supports higher resolutions, I don't think > >> those would work. > >> > >> I've also tried 1024x600, just to see if I can get *something* > >> to work. > > > > If you can, use the exact size of your monitor (in pixels); > > I assume you're talking about a LCD monitor, which is common > > today, as hardly anyone still uses CRTs like I do (which can > > have more than one mode, while LCDs only have one physical > > mode, determined by the amount of pixels). > > LCDs support many resolutions, and the VGA connector will not > support the maximum number of pixels the screen can display > (2564x1440). An LC display has only a fixed amount of pixels, and this amount does _not_ change. What you are describing is done in software. Still it's common for LCDs to address them in their native mode. So if a display has 2564x1440 pixels ("hardware pixels"), this should be the mode the driver talks to it in; however, if its internal software also "speaks" 1024x768, you can get to see something in that mode, even though it will look ugly. But many displays are able to internally "re-calculate" images and either apply a border, or just scale them up ("light 2x2 pixels where the source image contains 1"). So if you input 1200x800 px, the device _can_ scale it up to fill 2564x1440 px, but that doesn't change its physical properties. Note that even though commonly "resolution" is being used as a term for "size in pixels", it's technically not correct. The resolution is provided in dpi, dots per inch, like 75, 100, or 120 dpi (with the assumption that the horizontal and the vertical resolution will be equal), or 150x150dpi (to explicitely state they are equal): width in inch height in inch resolution = ------------- x -------------- pixels wide pixels high As both values are _physically fixed_ on a flatpanel display, the resolution is also fixed ("native resolution"). On a CRT, the amount of (addressable) pixels changes with the size, so does the resolution. > Also, there will be a different display connected once the > setup is done and the machine is actually installed in it's > final location. In combination with vt, this might require you to change your settings once you got them working for _one_ display. > >> Every attempt requires changing /boot/loader.conf and then > >> rebooting, so it gets very aggravating very quickly, and I > >> can't find consistent information since most of the pages > >> i've found refer to FreeBSD 9.x or 10.x (or sometimes > >> earlier) and it appears a lot has changed in 11.x. > > > > The vt documentation isn't fully complete yet, but here is a > > good starting point: > > > > https://wiki.freebsd.org/Newcons > > kldload i915kms <- screen goes black, never comes back. I'm almost sure you won't need that if you use sc. For vt... maybe yes... but this is probably only needed if you are going to use X (which you denied). > hw.vga.textmode <- already set This is only relevant for vt. > kern.vt.fb.default_mode="1024x768" This isn't the size in pixels your system has (it's even 4:3, nobody uses that anymore). Use the loader command "gop" to see what the system _thinks_ your screen looks like. > Not sure if I tried that specific number, as that's still a > very limited sccreen size, but certainly the other numbers I > tried did not work. It might cause the screen to blank, or to to perform a fallback to a known "good mode". Maybe you can experiment with the following syttings (from a FreeBSD 10.3 system connected to a CRT with now unreadable "text mode" thanks to vt): /boot/loader.conf: kern.vty=vt hw.vga.textmode=0 i915kms_load="YES" # can be removed if causing trouble && !X /etc/rc.conf: allscreens_flags="-f gallant" # ugly This will give you 132x54 ugly characters on a 21" 4:3 CRT. :-) Try fonts like vgarom-8x14 or vgarom-8x8 if you want to try a smaller character size. I have also experimented with kern.vt.fb.default_mode in /boot/loader.conf, but it didn't seem to have any effect. The "gop" loader command is not available on FreeBSD 10, so I couldn't check that. > Reading that, other than UTF-8 support, vt appears to be > extremely limited and its know issues list is nearly 4 years > old, which certainly gives one pause. Yes, vt doesn't provide the functionality sc provided for decades, without any trouble. Keep in mind vt isn't text mode. It is already a graphics mode that just disguises as a text mode (by displaying text characters). But vt is rich on features, it's just that the documentation isn't complete yet. If you want things like normal 16 colors, block graphics or german umlauts, then definitely stay with sc; vt hasn't achieved that level of excellece yet. ;-) > "Pre-loading i915kms.ko/radeonkms.ko disables video output > from the point of time these video drivers are attached > until interrupt threads are enabled way later. This makes > kernel panics during boot undebugable." Great... > Anyway, I have set the console to use sc which is how I got > a screensaver to load (not that I want/need a screensaver, > but I was testing) and I've managed to set the screen size > of a current session, but I still can't get it to change > during boot (so I can actually read some of the output) and > I have to apply it to each console manually after logging in. With vt, the screensaver wouldn't even work. ;-) > This seems needlessly obtuse and complicated. Not that sc > was much better, though things have gotten much worse that > they were in, say, freebsd 9 in terms of plugging in a > screen and having a reasonable hope you'd be able to set it > to a mode where each characters isn't 24-30 points. The alternative "solution" is to have tiny crappy characters and blurry colors, so you can't read anything on your huuuge screen. ;-) -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...