Keep using syscons -- how?

[Polytropon]

On Wed, 22 Oct 2014 18:12:50 -0500 (CDT), Lars Eighner wrote:
> On Wed, 22 Oct 2014, Warren Block wrote:
> 
> > On Wed, 22 Oct 2014, Lars Eighner wrote:
> >
> >> On Wed, 22 Oct 2014, Polytropon wrote:
> >> 
> >>> On Wed, 22 Oct 2014 04:25:12 -0500 (CDT), Lars Eighner wrote:
> >>>> What do I have to do or not do to keep being able to use syscons in VGA
> >>>> mode? Is there any way to keep the ability to switch between xwindows and
> >>>> syscons (in VGA i.e. text mode)?
> >>> 
> >>> Allow me a more general question. I'm not asking as
> >>> a "means of insult", but because I'm really interested
> >>> in the answer:
> >>> 
> >>> Why not use terminal emulators (xterm, rxvt, konsole,
> >>> gnome-terminal etc.) inside an X session?
> >> 
> >> Because raster fonts are illegible compared to vga fonts,
> >
> > The text-mode fonts are raster fonts, too.
> 
> I don't understand this. There are raster text modes, but 80x24 VGA has
> never been called "raster" that I know of.

This is just a "terminology issue": The fonts displayed in
the 80x25 (I think it's really 25 lines, not 24) are stored
in the graphics card, whereas the VGA-based console uses fonts
supplied and graphics generated by the OS, which are of course
a raster representation. The graphics card can also generate
characters for alternate fonts, but as far as I understand,
those fonts are "stored" in the card and only selected by the
OS, so you can't display characters that the card does not
have in its memory - of course it stores its characters in
a raster format as well.

I hope I didn't say something stupid. ;-)



> >> Text mode is robust.  That is really the bottom line.
> >
> > Use vt(4) in text mode:
> 
> Yes, just like Linux.  What I am asking is where do I have to freeze to
> avoid this? At what point is cons25l1 and xwindows to vtty switching still
> available?

I think FreeBSD 9 will do, whereas FreeBSD 10.1 will probably
have the new environment by default...



-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...