Re: [PATCH TO TEST] VESA [1024x768] mode support for FreeBSD-CURRENT

From: Jay O'Brien (jayobrien_at_att.net)
Date: 04/10/05

  • Next message: Viatcheslav Kisselev: "Installation" 
    Date: Sun, 10 Apr 2005 08:56:03 -0700
To: Michal Mertl <mime@traveller.cz>

    Michal Mertl wrote:

    > Jay O'Brien wrote:
    >
    >>Michal Mertl wrote:
    >>
    >>
    >>>Didier Wiroth wrote:
    >>>
    >>>
    >>>
    >>>>Hi,
    >>>>
    >>>>I'm using freebsd 5.4-prerelease on my laptop. My laptop has an ati
    >>>>mobility radeon 9600.
    >>>>Unfortunately it has very poor console vesa support. SC_PIXEL_MODE does
    >>>>not work, 90x60 is the highest resolution I can get for now.
    >>>>It looks like I'm not the only one having this problem with ati
    >>>>chipsets:
    >>>>http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/getmsg.cgi?fetch=1091839+1096057+/usr/local/w
    >>>>ww/db/text/2005/freebsd-questions/20050123.freebsd-questions
    >>>>
    >>>>
    >>>>I saw this posting:
    >>>>http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-current/2004-August/035621.ht
    >>>>ml
    >>>>
    >>>>Unfortunately I'm not a programmer and have no ... to very poor patching
    >>>>skills.
    >>>>It looks to me, that in this posting(s) a "few" patches are grouped
    >>>>together to enable vesa 1024x768.
    >>>>
    >>>>1) Has someone applied this patches?
    >>>>2) As the patch(es) is/are on the entire page, I don't know how to
    >>>>separate them. Would someone mail me as an attachment the different
    >>>>patches and tell me how I should apply them:
    >>>>for example, mail me patch1, patch2, patch3
    >>>>and the explanation how to patch them:
    >>>>cd /usr/src
    >>>>patch < ~/patch1
    >>>>patch < ~/patch2 ...etc
    >>>
    >>>
    >>>I think the newest and probably best (?) patch was prepared by Xin Li
    >>>(deplhij@freebsd.org) who is also committer. I sent this email to him
    >>>(or she? - sorry about that) in case he has some comments. Beware that
    >>>he said he experienced some problems with previous version of the patch.
    >>>
    >>>I haven't tested this version of the patch myself but it at least
    >>>compiles.
    >>>
    >>>It's available at http://people.freebsd.org/~delphij/vesa/
    >>>in files syscons.diff.20050215 and vidcontrol.diff.20050215
    >>>
    >>>You would apply them with:
    >>>
    >>>cd /usr/src/sys/dev/syscons
    >>>patch < /path/syscons.diff.20050215
    >>>cd /usr/src/usr.sbin/vidcontrol
    >>>patch </path/vidcontrol.diff.20050215
    >>>make clean
    >>>make all
    >>>make install
    >>>
    >>>You need also to rebuild and reinstall the kernel. You must have
    >>>'options SC_PIXEL_MODE' in your kernel config. You also need to have
    >>>VESA available - you can load it with kldload vesa or include it in the
    >>>kernel with 'options VESA'.
    >>>
    >>>After reboot with the new kernel you should be able to get list of all
    >>>VESA and standard modes your card support with 'vidcontrol -i mode'. To
    >>>be able to use them as your console mode you need to have the
    >>>appropriate font loaded. The font resolution is seen in vidcontrol
    >>>output in the 'font' column. To load the font 8x8 you can use
    >>>'vidcontrol -f /usr/share/syscons/fonts/cp437-8x8.fnt' or similar. To
    >>>set the mode use 'vidcontrol MODE_$num' where $num is the mode number
    >>>(first column in 'vidcontrol -i mode' output).
    >>>
    >>>HTH
    >>>
    >>>Michal
    >>>
    >>>
    >>
    >>
    >>I feel like I am missing a lot here. I want to display 132 characters per
    >>line on my console. I am not running X Windows and it is not a notebook.
    >
    >
    > It doesn't matter. I only saw the most complaints from notebook owners
    > who didn't have text mode console covering all LCD surface.
    >
    >
    >>I am running 5.3-RELEASE-p5 #0.
    >>
    >>What is this SC_PIXEL_MODE and where may I find documentation on it? I
    >>don't find it in /usr/src/sys/i386/conf/NOTES.
    >
    >
    > man syscons(4). It's also mentioned in NOTES although not the NOTES you
    > were looking at. Don't forget that on 5.x there are two conf directories
    > - one platform independent in /sys/conf and other in /sys/$ARCH/conf.
    > Common (platform independent) options like this one are
    > in /sys/conf/NOTES.
    >

    Thanks! Now that I see that it is perhaps not required for my system, that
    is not a laptop, is it possible that I don't need this at all? Is it
    definitely needed to support 132 character terminal mode, or is just
    needed for laptops?

    >
    >>To "rebuild and reinstall the kernel", after editing my
    >>/usr/src/sys/i386/conf/GENERIC to insert 'options SC_PIXEL_MODE', would I
    >>'make buildkernel' and then 'make installkernel' or is there something
    >>else I'm missing?
    >
    >
    > No, that's the way to do it.
    >
    >
    >>I note that some of the messages are posted to multiple mailing lists,
    >>and I suspect that as I only read questions@freebsd.org I'm not seeing
    >>the entire story.
    >
    >
    > I'm afraid that's quite possible. Please go search the archives.
    >
    >
    >>Jay O'Brien
    >>Rio Linda, California USA
    >
    >
    > Michal Mertl
    >
    > Prague, Bohemia, Czech Republic :-)
    >

    It is wonderful to be a part of a caring community that spans the
    world, without concern for international borders. Fortunately for
    me, everyone uses english; I'm stuck with only one language (plus
    international morse code, but that's another story).

    Jay O'Brien
    Rio Linda, California, USA
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