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Date:      Sun, 10 Nov 1996 01:47:34 +1100
From:      Julian Assange <proff@profane.iq.org>
To:        Darren Reed <avalon@coombs.anu.edu.au>
Cc:        hackers@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: patches for nice text modes (170x48x16 etc) (syscons.c) 
Message-ID:  <199611091448.BAA12293@profane.iq.org>
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sat, 09 Nov 1996 18:39:22 %2B1100." <199611090923.UAA12140@profane.iq.org> 

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> So how would I use that patch ?

Apply the syscons patch to to syscons.c (against 2.2-current, but
even if it doesn't patch cleanly against earlier code, changes
needed to patch cleanly should only be cosmetic). Rebuild.

Apply the SVGATextMode text mode patches to SVGATextMode-1.4
(see my original message for the url). Compile.

Configuration is the same as with XFree in terms of
setting up mode-lines - just read the SVGATextMode docs, there
is plenty of really good material there, and you should have
a working TextConfig file with less hair pulling than X.

Sync pules are ULF and they re-radiate very poorly.  Creating a
cron which changes mode-lines randomly every half hour or so is a
good way to frustrate all but the most sophsticated automated van
eck monitors. Manned units are a different story, but your opponent
has to invest in lots of personel time.

Since I'm on this issue anyway, you can also choose your colour
palette so equal absolute voltage intensities are used on each
R,G,B line (check by cable merging - sometimes the there are voltage
biases in the colour seperation/generation hardware). Not a substitute
for the old aluminium wall paper and a big fat grounding stake, but
it does increase the cost and required fidelity of the van eck monitor.

If you have already set up X, then you can in many circumstances
use the X modelines under text mode. This can be pretty neat
if your graphics card can pull the character data fast enough
(ET4000's always can. Other cards have lower max dot clocks for
text modes than graphics modes. My S3-trio-64 can do around 87Mhz)
as you can swap back and forth between text mode and X-mode without
any delay for monitor re-syncing.

-Julian



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