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Date:      Tue, 10 Sep 1996 03:32:44 +1000
From:      Bruce Evans <bde@zeta.org.au>
To:        freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.org, j@uriah.heep.sax.de
Subject:   Re: Support for fixed-scan monitors
Message-ID:  <199609091732.DAA23167@godzilla.zeta.org.au>

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>> > Syscons (and pcvt) should start the same device as the BIOS, anyway.
>
>> Given the quirks of BIOSes, that would have to be the [CEV]GA. I

Or mono.

>> don't think syscons knows which device is being used by BIOS (please

No, but it's easy to decide:

	using_mono = *(u_short *)0x463 == 0x3b4;

>> correct me if I'm wrong here). I haven't checked pcvt. So, I believe
>> this is mostly a matter of choice (and not of using what BIOS uses).
>
>This is a mistake of motherboard and BIOS vendors.  There used to be a

This is a mistake of console driver authors :-).

>jumper on the motherboards back in the old days, denoting the prefered
>graphics console.  (The BIOSes usually complained if it was set wrong,
>i.e. choose a nonexistant adapter.)
>
>pcvt correctly honors it, but i agree that this feature is now almost
>worthless.

pcvt actually looks in the CMOS RAM to determine the adaptor that the
BIOS is supposed to use.  The jumper method was worse, except possibly
for bootstrapping the screen/monitor combination.  It may be wrong to
use the CMOS value because the bootstrap may have changed the mode
(I'm not sure of the BIOS changes the CMOS to match the mode).

Bruce



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