docs/117035: [patch] to handbook for info on vidcontrol and console video modes

Chess Griffin chess.griffin at gmail.com
Tue Oct 9 02:30:02 UTC 2007


>Number:         117035
>Category:       docs
>Synopsis:       [patch] to handbook for info on vidcontrol and console video modes
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       non-critical
>Priority:       low
>Responsible:    freebsd-doc
>State:          open
>Quarter:        
>Keywords:       
>Date-Required:
>Class:          change-request
>Submitter-Id:   current-users
>Arrival-Date:   Tue Oct 09 02:30:01 GMT 2007
>Closed-Date:
>Last-Modified:
>Originator:     Chess Griffin
>Release:        7.0-CURRENT
>Organization:
>Environment:
FreeBSD bsdbob.localdomain 7.0-CURRENT FreeBSD 7.0-CURRENT #0: Sat Oct  6 10:19:22 EDT 2007     root at bsdbob.localdomain:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/CNG  i386

>Description:
The following patch adds some brief information to /home/chess/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/basics/chapter.sgml concerning the default video console mode and how to change it.

If patch does not print cleanly in this form, I can resend as an attachment.



--- chapter.sgml.orig	2007-09-14 19:56:21.000000000 -0400
+++ chapter.sgml	2007-10-08 22:21:36.000000000 -0400
@@ -200,13 +200,13 @@
 
       <para>Special key combinations have been reserved by FreeBSD for
 	switching consoles<footnote>
-	  <para>A fairly technical and accurate description of all the details
-	    of the FreeBSD console and keyboard drivers can be found in the
-	    manual pages of &man.syscons.4;, &man.atkbd.4;, &man.vidcontrol.1;
-	    and &man.kbdcontrol.1;.  We will not expand on the details here,
-	    but the interested reader can always consult the manual pages for
-	    a more detailed and thorough explanation of how things
-	    work.</para>
+	  <para>A fairly technical and accurate description of all the
+	    details of the FreeBSD console and keyboard drivers can be
+	    found in the manual pages of &man.syscons.4;,
+	    &man.atkbd.4;, and &man.kbdcontrol.1;.  We will not expand
+	    on the details here, but the interested reader can always
+	    consult the manual pages for a more detailed and thorough
+	    explanation of how things work.</para>
 	</footnote>.  You can use
 	<keycombo><keycap>Alt</keycap><keycap>F1</keycap></keycombo>,
 	<keycombo><keycap>Alt</keycap><keycap>F2</keycap></keycombo>, through
@@ -290,6 +290,42 @@
 	  booting process and the programs involved.</para>
       </note>
     </sect2>
+
+    <sect2 id="consoles-vidcontrol">
+      <title>Changing Console Video Modes</title>
+
+      <para>The FreeBSD console default video mode may be adjusted to
+	1024x768, 1280x1024, or any other size supported by your
+	graphics chip and monitor.  To use a different video mode, you
+	first must recompile your kernel and include two additional 
+	options:</para>
+
+      <programlisting>OPTIONS VESA
+OPTIONS SC_PIXEL_MODE</programlisting>
+	
+      <para>Once the kernel has been recompiled with these two
+	options, you can then determine what video modes are supported
+	by your hardware by using the &man.vidcontrol.1; utility.  To
+	get a list of supported video modes, type the following in a
+	root console:</para>
+      
+      <screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>vidcontrol -i mode</userinput></screen>
+      
+      <para>The output of this command is a list of video modes that
+	are supported by your hardware.  You can then choose to use a
+	new video mode by passing it to vidcontrol in a root console,
+	as in this example:</para>
+      
+      <screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>vidcontrol MODE_279</userinput></screen>
+      
+      <para>If the new video mode is acceptable, it can be permanently
+	set on boot by including the following in your
+	<filename>/etc/rc.conf</filename> file, again using the above
+	example:</para>
+      
+      <programlisting>allscreens_flags="MODE_279"</programlisting>
+
+    </sect2>
   </sect1>
 
   <sect1 id="permissions">
>How-To-Repeat:

>Fix:


>Release-Note:
>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted:



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