svn commit: r45266 - head/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/news/status

Sun Jul 13 17:36:52 UTC 2014

Author: gjb
Date: Sun Jul 13 17:36:52 2014
New Revision: 45266
URL: http://svnweb.freebsd.org/changeset/doc/45266

Log:
  Add vt(4) report.
  
  Submitted by:	ray
  Sponsored by:	The FreeBSD Foundation

Modified:
  head/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/news/status/report-2014-04-2014-06.xml

Modified: head/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/news/status/report-2014-04-2014-06.xml
==============================================================================

--- head/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/news/status/report-2014-04-2014-06.xml	Sun Jul 13 10:54:43 2014	(r45265)
+++ head/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/news/status/report-2014-04-2014-06.xml	Sun Jul 13 17:36:52 2014	(r45266)
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@
     ?>
 
     <p>Thanks to all the reporters for the excellent work!  This
-      report contains 3 entries and we hope you enjoy reading it.</p>
+      report contains 4 entries and we hope you enjoy reading it.</p>
 
     <p>The deadline for submissions covering between July and
       September 2014 is October 7th, 2014.</p>
@@ -218,4 +218,116 @@
       <task>Test on real hardware</task>
     </help>
   </project>
+
+  <project cat='kern'>
+    <title>Updated <tt>vt(4)</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>
+
+      <person>
+	<name>
+	  <given>Ed</given>
+	  <common>Schouten</common>
+	</name>
+	<email>ed at FreeBSD.org</email>
+      </person>
+    </contact>
+
+    <links>
+      <url href="https://wiki.freebsd.org/Newcons">Project wiki
+	page</url>
+    </links>
+
+    <body>
+      <p>The <tt>vt(4)</tt> (a.k.a. <tt>Newcons</tt>) project provides
+	a replacement for the legacy <tt>syscons</tt> system console.
+	It brings a number of improvements, including better
+	integration with graphics modes and broader character set
+	support.</p>
+
+      <p>Since the last <a
+	  href="http://www.freebsd.org/news/status/report-2014-01-2014-03.html#Updated-vt%284%29-System-Console">report</a>,
+	<tt>vt(4)</tt> gained the ability to make early driver
+	selection.  <tt>vt(4)</tt> selects the best successfully
+	probed driver before most of kernel subsystems.  Also, to make
+	easy migration from <tt>syscons(4)</tt> to <tt>vt(4)</tt>,
+	multiple virtual terminal subsystems in the kernel are now
+	supported, and it is controlled by a small module with just
+	one kernel environment variable <pre>kern.vty=syscons</pre> or
+	<pre>kern.vty=vt</pre>.</p>
+
+      <p>The GENERIC kernel configuration for the amd64 and i386
+	platforms include both <tt>syscons(4)</tt> and <tt>vt(4)</tt>
+	by default.  Such configuration also planned to be in next
+	10-STABLE release, expected to be included in
+	&os; 10.1-RELEASE.</p>
+
+      <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 — work, but without X.Org yet.</li>
+	<li>SPARC — works on certain hardware (e.g., Ultra
+	  5).</li>
+	<li><tt>vesa(4)</tt> — in progress.</li>
+	<li>i386/amd64 nVidia driver — not supported.  VGA
+	  should be used (VESA planned).</li>
+	<li>Xbox framebuffer driver — will be deleted as
+	  unused.</li>
+      </ul>
+    </body>
+
+    <sponsor>The &os; Foundation</sponsor>
+
+    <help>
+      <task>Implement the remaining features supported by
+	<tt>vidcontrol(1)</tt>.</task>
+
+      <task>Write manual pages for <tt>vt(4)</tt> drivers and kernel
+	interface.</task>
+
+      <task>Support direct handling of keyboard by the <tt>kbd</tt>
+	device (without <tt>kbdmux(4)</tt>).</task>
+
+      <task>CJK fonts.  (This is in progress).</task>
+      <task>Address performance issues on some architectures.</task>
+      <task>Switch to <tt>vt(4)</tt> by default.</task>
+      <task>Convert keyboard maps for use with <tt>vt(4)</tt>.</task>
+      <task>Implement campatibility mode to be able to use single-byte
+	charsets/key-codes in the <tt>vt(4)</tt>.</task>
+    </help>
+  </project>
 </report>
