vt(4) "newcons" and 80x25 vty? (tested: 10.1-BETA2)

[Ronald Klop]

On Thu, 25 Sep 2014 17:31:49 +0200, <beeessdee at ruggedinbox.com> wrote:

> I daily use FreeBSD with base system virtual terminals (no X).  I am
> excited of vt(4) with Unicodes support.  But screen has arbitrary number
> of lines and columns, whatever will fit with selected font.  How to get
> standard 80x25?

Hello,

Can you try hw.vga.textmode=1 in loader.conf? It will a similar screen as  
syscons did.
See man vt(4).

Regards,
Ronald.


>
> First of all, thanks to ray and the various "ed"s for all the hard work
> making the newcons/vt(4) modern subsystem.  This is very important, and
> much less appreciated than shiny popular widgets!  I very much look
> forward to when vt(4) has the stability and feature parity with
> decades-old syscons... plus all the critical new features for
> non-English language, etc.
>
> I just tested in 10.1-BETA2 with following steps; specific questions are
> below:
>
> 	1. Drop to loader prompt, "set kern.vty=vt", "boot".
>
> 	2. Drop from installer to "live system".
>
> 	3. kldload appropriate kms driver (could also do in step 1).
>
> 	4. vidfont(1) has bug which prevents selecting Gallant (12x22
> 	biggest font provided).  So, use vidcontrol(1) with "-f" switch
> 	directly.
>
> 	5. Try setting LINES and COLS in environment, at least fool
> 	the applications...  Not working, really.
>
> vidcontrol(1) is totally confused about screen modes. I understand this
> is work in progress.
>
> I read every manpage, https://wiki.freebsd.org/Newcons , searched web.
>
> Why this is important:  If I edit source code in vi(1), my lines will
> become too long.  Other applications expecting the 80x25 or other
> customary sizes may be confused.  Most of all, I want the fonts bigger -
> as big as fit 80x25 on my physical screen.  I have poor eyesight!
>
> Quick calc example for optimal font sizing:  At the common nowadays
> resolution of 1366x768, biggest pixel fitting 80x25 will be 17x30.  For
> tty style fonts with 2:1 ratio, this means 15x30 font with 166x18 waste
> pixels HxW - unless extra pixel row needed after each line, in which
> case 14x28 font with 246x43 waste pixels.  A 12x22 font (as gallant)
> with extra 1px row spacing results in 113x33 character grid - or if
> restricted to 80x25 grid (how!?), then 406x193 waste pixels.
>
> Questions:
>
> 	A. How to force 80x25 terminal, even if it does not use
> 	whole screen?  This will be the quick workaround!
>
> 	B. Where are sources for Gallant?  What program is used to
> 	create it?  A brief web search did not reveal this.
>
> 	C. Any work in font besides Gallant?  (Sorry, it is matter
> 	of taste!)  I would try make my own, but I am not font
> 	talent.
>
> 	D. Any suggestions from font guys of non-Xorg program to
> 	rasterize OpenType fonts, make Metafont rasters into
> 	the appropriate format, etc.?
>
> 	E. Side question:  Is vgl(3) being supported or replaced with
> 	vt(4) newcons?  (Have not tested; but at the brief look, it
> 	all ioctls changed around.)
>
> 	F. How to set screen resolution, with not working vidcontrol(1)?
>
> Suggestions:
>
> * Dynamically created raster font, from vector sources, to create at
> runtime the largest glyphs which will permit 80 columns and 25 lines
> at the screen's actual resolution.  Just like most tex systems
> automatically run mf when needed.  I could maybe play with this, if
> I have time and the font sources.
>
> * Try converting metafont output to the appropriate format.  It's
> already tuned for to give old fashioned pixmap.  I will play with this
> when time permits.
>
> I realize, most people just use X.  But, please do not forget people who
> don't like the Xorg bugware disaster.
>
> Thanks again for all hard work to make the vt(4) newcons.
>
>
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