Date: Sat, 9 Sep 2017 02:42:48 +0200 From: Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de> To: Adam Vande More <amvandemore@gmail.com> Cc: FreeBSD Questions <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>, Ernie Luzar <luzar722@gmail.com> Subject: Re: Restoring sc console look and feel with vt Message-ID: <20170909024248.6f679115.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <CA%2BtpaK3-KcUaO6amOoNBP5iqtK3QfrPznwvYPmMaT6r7AW0SZw@mail.gmail.com> References: <20170905151245.f592508c.freebsd@edvax.de> <59AEAD20.8050006@gmail.com> <20170905201840.ae6b53ee.freebsd@edvax.de> <CA%2BtpaK2jMnej28pzdnz7=VKoj9uv7M4rfE%2Brf_d70hLfkduvkg@mail.gmail.com> <20170905204920.2b709f7a.freebsd@edvax.de> <CA%2BtpaK2p4ThWBOLvVxU%2B3hjR-ssdg4a9J5KPqBcE2Nu2G5egQg@mail.gmail.com> <20170905225237.0276255a.freebsd@edvax.de> <20170905230625.7a282985.freebsd@edvax.de> <CA%2BtpaK3-KcUaO6amOoNBP5iqtK3QfrPznwvYPmMaT6r7AW0SZw@mail.gmail.com>
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On Tue, 5 Sep 2017 16:21:22 -0500, Adam Vande More wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 5, 2017 at 4:06 PM, Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de> wrote:
>=20
> > On Tue, 5 Sep 2017 22:52:37 +0200, Polytropon wrote:
> > > On Tue, 5 Sep 2017 14:13:04 -0500, Adam Vande More wrote:
> > > > On Tue, Sep 5, 2017 at 1:49 PM, Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > I'll try to express better:
> > > > >
> > > > > When the system boots, the screen uses 80x25 characters. The
> > > > > character size depends on the screen size of course. With sc,
> > > > > I get "big letters" on a 21" CRT, as intended.
> > > > >
> > > > > When booting with vt, the system starts booting with the 80x25
> > > > > mode, then switches to a font where I'd say the screen has
> > > > > 160x100 characters (just a guess, I didn't count them actually).
> > > > > Those are "small letters", even on a 21" CRT, too small for me
> > > > > to be read conveniently.
> > > > >
> > > > > So what I need is a way to tell vt to display 80x25 characters
> > > > > that "scale up", and generally make them look like the regular
> > > > > sc text mode.
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > > For the former, removing the previous advice from loader.conf
> > would be
> > > > > the
> > > > > > first step. Then you should be able to find an acceptable sett=
ing
> > > > > > experimenting with vidcontrol eg resolution/fonts.
> > > > >
> > > > > With vidcontrol, I only get error messages. I think it ie tied
> > > > > to sc? I also have no idea what font names to try...
> > > > >
> > > >
> > > > Does your video hw requite kms?
> > >
> > > Which one doesn't? ;-)
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > > If so, when is it loaded? It should
> > > > loaded from loader.conf, not later.
> > >
> > > Yes, I have those entries in /boot/loader.conf:
> > >
> > > kern.vty=3Dvt
> > > hw.vga.textmode=3D1
> > > i915kms_load=3D"YES"
> > >
> > > The system has an on-board Intel GPU. The system boots with the
> > > normal ("native") 80x25, then clears the screen upon kernel load,
> > > continues for a short while in that mode, still 80x25, then lets
> > > the screen flicker, and finally run at 133x52 (counted "manually")
> > > which isn't sufficiently readable for me anymore. The mouse cursor
> > > is even harder to spot...
> > >
> > > But as I said, without vt + KMS, X doesn't work anymore. We seem
> > > to live in modern times. ;-)
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > > You may need to explicitly define:
> > > >
> > > > hw.vga.textmode=3D0
> > > >
> > > > You can load fonts with:
> > > >
> > > > vidcontrol -f <font_name>
> > > >
> > > > Fonts should be located in:
> > > >
> > > > /usr/share/vt/fonts/
> > >
> > > Thanks for the pointer, I will try this now and report back about
> > > the results.
> >
> > The results:
> >
> > With the configuration change, I can now select the fonts.
> > While "gallant" seems to be the default font (no change if
> > selected after system boots), the vgarom-* fonts are even
> > worse. They seem to be made for ants. :-)
> >
> > I cannot get a "smaller" screen than 132x54 (now verified).
> > I don't care if the letters aren't "pixel-perfect", but they
> > need to be bigger. Is there an option to tell the system
> > to "scale up" the font (so only 80x25 will fit)?
> >
> > The normal 80x25 text mode is something I'm really going
> > to miss, and the change sc -> vt is causing me pain. In my
> > eyes. I'd like to change everything back to sc, but that
> > doesn't seem to be a possible way (causes X to stop working).
> > And I haven't started yet to complain that I cannot use
> > german =F6 =E4 =FC =D6 =C4 =DC and =DF anymore...
> >
> > Any further ideas what to try?
> >
>=20
> What does this output:
>=20
> vidcontrol -i mode
A long long list which I don't really understand...
> You can drop in your own font perhaps with huge letters. There are some
> instruction on the FreeBSD newcons wiki, but I've never tried them.
That suggestion looks possible, but totally wrong. The user should
not be required to manually download and insert arbitrary fonts
just to restore console functionality that has been working without
problems for decades. :-(
> You could also try lowering the resolution:
>=20
> kern.vt.fb.default_mode=3D"640x480"
At 640x480, I get a text mode of 50x21. The text looks plain ugly
and is blurry, with black lines distorting the image.
If I set a lower value, like 320x200, the monitor switches off.
As the machine for testing is not networked, I had to remove the
SSD, attach it via USB to a different system, and then change
/boot/loader.conf, simply because there is no way to edit
/boot/loader.conf once the kernel is loaded and the screen
resolution is changed.
When the system boots, at an early point the message
VT(vga): resolution 640x480
is shown, no matter what setting I put in the /boot/loader.conf
file. I have experimented with the values and got the following
modes:
640x480 -> 80x21
800x600 -> 62x23
1024x768 -> 78x34
Now that the text mode console is graphical, it seems to be really
problematic to get something as simple as 80x25 working, probably
because of the complex relationships between viewport size, font
size, font scaling etc., and of course the problem that a CRT does
not have a fixed size in pixels.
Seems that I have to accept that text mode is no longer supported
(in terms of "works as it used to do), and X terminals are the way
to go for the future...
> There is also the option of using the accelerated VESA mode:
>=20
> https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/46723/
>=20
> That would allow you to continue to use sc, but may also sacrifice so vid=
eo
> flexibility.
I will have a look at this soon. Maybe this will not play nicely
with X, like classic sc caused problems?
--=20
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...
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