svn commit: r43510 - head/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/news/status

Tue Jan 14 16:54:03 UTC 2014

Author: pgj
Date: Tue Jan 14 16:54:02 2014
New Revision: 43510
URL: http://svnweb.freebsd.org/changeset/doc/43510

Log:
  - Add 2013Q4 report on vt(9)
  
  Submitted by:	ray

Modified:
  head/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/news/status/report-2013-10-2013-12.xml

Modified: head/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/news/status/report-2013-10-2013-12.xml
==============================================================================

--- head/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/news/status/report-2013-10-2013-12.xml	Tue Jan 14 16:26:48 2014	(r43509)
+++ head/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/news/status/report-2013-10-2013-12.xml	Tue Jan 14 16:54:02 2014	(r43510)
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@
 
     <!-- XXX: Keep updating the number of entries -->
     <p>Thanks to all the reporters for the excellent work!  This report
-      contains 23 entries and we hope you enjoy reading it.</p>
+      contains 24 entries and we hope you enjoy reading it.</p>
 
     <p>The deadline for submissions covering between January and
       March 2014 is April 7th, 2014.</p>
@@ -1272,4 +1272,104 @@
       <p>This project is sponsored by The &os; Foundation.</p>
     </body>
   </project>
+
+  <project cat='kern'>
+    <title>Updated <tt>vt(9)</tt> System Console</title>
+
+    <contact>
+      <person>
+	<name>
+	  <given>Aleksandr</given>
+	  <common>Rybalko</common>
+	</name>
+	<email>ray at FreeBSD.org</email>
+      </person>
+
+      <person>
+	<name>
+	  <given>Ed</given>
+	  <common>Maste</common>
+	</name>
+	<email>emaste at FreeBSD.org</email>
+      </person>
+    </contact>
+
+    <links>
+      <url href="https://wiki.freebsd.org/Newcons">Project wiki page</url>
+    </links>
+
+    <body>
+      <p>Colloquially known as Newcons, <tt>vt(9)</tt> is a modern
+	replacement for the existing, quite old, virtual terminal
+	emulator called <tt>syscons(4)</tt>.  Initially motivated by the
+	lack of Unicode support in <tt>syscons(4)</tt>, the project was
+	later expanded to cover the new requirement to support Kernel
+	Mode Switching (KMS).</p>
+
+      <p>The project is now approaching completion and is ready for
+	wider testing as the related code was already merged to &os;
+	<tt>head</tt>.  Hence, <tt>vt(9)</tt> can be tested easily by
+	replacing the following two lines in the kernel config file:</p>
+
+      <pre>device sc
+device vga</pre>
+
+      <p>with the following ones:</p>
+
+      <pre>device vt
+device vt_vga</pre>
+
+      <p>Major highlights:</p>
+
+      <ul>
+	<li>Unicode support.</li>
+	<li>Double-width character support for CJK characters.</li>
+	<li><tt>xterm(1)</tt>-like terminal emulation.</li>
+	<li>Support for Kernel Mode Setting (KMS) drivers
+	  (<tt>i915kms</tt>, <tt>radeonkms</tt>).</li>
+	<li>Support for different fonts per terminal window.</li>
+	<li>Simplified drivers.</li>
+      </ul>
+
+      <p>Brief status of supported architectures and hardware:</p>
+
+      <ul>
+	<li>amd64 (VGA/<tt>i915kms</tt>/<tt>radeonkms</tt>) — works.</li>
+	<li>ARM framebuffer — works.</li>
+	<li>i386 (VGA/<tt>i915kms</tt>/<tt>radeonkms</tt>) — works.</li>
+	<li>IA64 — untested.</li>
+	<li>MIPS — untested.</li>
+	<li>PPC and PPC64 — Works, but without X.Org yet.</li>
+	<li>SPARC — works on certain hardware (eg. Ultra 5).</li>
+	<li><tt>vesa(4)</tt> — in progress.</li>
+	<li>i386/amd64 nVidia driver — need testing.</li>
+	<li>Xbox framebuffer driver — need testing.</li>
+      </ul>
+
+      <p>Known Issues:</p>
+
+      <ul>
+	<li>Switching to <tt>vty0</tt> from X.Org on Fatal events will not work.</li>
+	<li>Certain hardware (eg. Lenovo X220) get black screen when i915kms is preloaded.</li>
+	<li>Scrolling can be slow;</li>
+	<li>Screen borders is not cleared when changing fonts.</li>
+	<li><tt>vt(9)</tt> locks up with the <tt>gallant12x22</tt> font in VirtualBox.</li>
+      </ul>
+
+      <p>This project is sponsored by The &os; Foundation.  Many thanks
+	to Ed Schouten, who originally started the Newcons project and
+	did most of the work.</p>
+    </body>
+
+    <help>
+	<task>Create sub-directories for <tt>vt(9)</tt> under
+	  <tt>/usr/share/</tt> to store key maps and fonts.</task>
+	<task>Implement remaining features supported by
+	  <tt>vidcontrol(1)</tt>.</task>
+	<task>Write the <tt>vt(9)</tt> manual page.</task>
+	<task>Support keyboard handled directly by device <tt>kbd</tt>
+	  (without <tt>kbdmux(4)</tt>).</task>
+	<task>CJK fonts (in progress).</task>
+    </help>
+  </project>
 </report>
