From owner-freebsd-current@freebsd.org Mon Jun 20 16:40:16 2016 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 07C72A7BE48 for ; Mon, 20 Jun 2016 16:40:16 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jhb@freebsd.org) Received: from bigwig.baldwin.cx (bigwig.baldwin.cx [IPv6:2001:470:1f11:75::1]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-CAMELLIA256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (Client did not present a certificate) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id DE0E32CA9 for ; Mon, 20 Jun 2016 16:40:15 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jhb@freebsd.org) Received: from ralph.baldwin.cx (c-73-231-226-104.hsd1.ca.comcast.net [73.231.226.104]) by bigwig.baldwin.cx (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id C0B74B96E; Mon, 20 Jun 2016 12:40:14 -0400 (EDT) From: John Baldwin To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Cc: Ernie Luzar Subject: Re: console in 11.0-ALPHA4 Date: Mon, 20 Jun 2016 09:26:50 -0700 Message-ID: <10947495.5QBkdNB94e@ralph.baldwin.cx> User-Agent: KMail/4.14.3 (FreeBSD/10.3-STABLE; KDE/4.14.3; amd64; ; ) In-Reply-To: <57680D69.7030309@gmail.com> References: <57680D69.7030309@gmail.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7Bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" X-Greylist: Sender succeeded SMTP AUTH, not delayed by milter-greylist-4.2.7 (bigwig.baldwin.cx); Mon, 20 Jun 2016 12:40:14 -0400 (EDT) X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.22 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 20 Jun 2016 16:40:16 -0000 On Monday, June 20, 2016 11:36:09 AM Ernie Luzar wrote: > I have installed 11.0-ALPHA4-i386-20160617-r301975. > > The console looks very different from all previous releases. > I find it to be harder to read. This manifests it self with the boot log > messages and the normal behavior of the virtual consoles. > > But the real problem is in the notable hesitation when switching between > virtual consoles. > > From the boot log (ie: dmesg) I see this > VT(vga): resolution 640x480 > > This must be what is making the console display so different from > previous releases. Can VT be configured to default to present the same > console behavior as previous releases before this version of 11.0 gets > published as RELEASE? The difference is that vt(4) (the default console driver) only does software rendering of fonts. The older console driver syscons (sc(4)), used VGA text mode which uses a font in your adapter's BIOS ROM. The two fonts aren't quite the same. There is a 'vgarom' font you can try to use that should more closely match the previous console. > About the "hesitation when switching between virtual consoles" I am > thinking that this reduced performance may be caused by WITNESS being > enabled in the ALPHA series of releases. Can anyone verify that this > hesitation will not exist in the published RELEASE? I suspect this is just due to vt(4) rather than WITNESS. > In the boot log I get this message 16 times. > "vicontrol: setting cursor type: Inappropriate ioctl for device" > They don't seem to cause any problems that I have stumbled across. > Is anyone else getting these "NOTICE" type messages? vt(4) doesn't support several features that sc(4) supports. However, sc(4) doesn't support framebuffer systems very well, and does not support UTF-8, etc. Note that for comparisons you can enable vt(4) on stable/10 by setting 'kern.vty=vt' in loader.conf or at the loader prompt. -- John Baldwin