xref: /netbsd-src/share/man/man4/vga.4 (revision 1ffa7b76c40339c17a0fb2a09fac93f287cfc046)
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4.\" 	Matthias Drochner.  All rights reserved.
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27.Dd March 20, 1999
28.Os
29.Dt VGA 4
30.Sh NAME
31.Nm vga
32.Nd VGA graphics driver for wscons
33.Sh SYNOPSIS
34.Cd options VGA_CONSOLE_SCREENTYPE="??x??"
35.Cd options VGA_CONSOLE_ATI_BROKEN_FONTSEL
36.Pp
37.Cd "vga0 at isa?"
38.Cd "vga* at pci?"
39.Cd "wsdisplay* at vga? console ?"
40.Sh DESCRIPTION
41This driver handles
42.Tn VGA
43graphics hardware within the
44.Xr wscons 4
45console framework. It doesn't provide direct device
46driver entry points but makes its functions available via
47the internal
48.Xr wsdisplay 4
49interface.
50.Pp
51The
52.Nm
53driver supports multiple virtual screens on one physical
54display. The screens allocated on one display can be of different
55.Dq types ,
56where a type refers to various display properties. The type is
57determined at the time the virtual screen is created and can't
58be changed later. Screens are either created at kernel startup
59(then the default type is used) or later with help of the
60.Xr wsconscfg 8
61utility.
62.Pp
63Currently, the following screen types are supported:
64.Bl -hang
65.It 80x25
66This is the standard
67.Tn VGA
68text mode with 80 columns and 25 rows. 16 different colors
69can be displayed at the same time. Characters are 8 x 16
70pixels large, and a font consists of 256 characters. A builtin
71font of this size is always present on a
72.Tn VGA
73card. It's also possible to use a downloaded font instead.
74.It 80x25bf
75is a modified version of the previous. It only allows 8
76colors to be displayed. In exchange, it can access two
77fonts at the same time, so that 512 different characters
78can be displayed.
79.It 80x40
80A text mode with 80 columns and 40 rows. Similar to the
81standard mode, 16 colors and 256 characters are available.
82Characters are 8 x 10 pixels large. For this mode to be useful,
83a font of that character size must be downloaded.
84.It 80x40bf
85is analogously to
86.Dq 80x25bf
87a version with 512 displayable characters but 8 colors only.
88.It 80x50
89A text mode with 80 columns and 50 rows. Similar to the
90standard mode, 16 colors and 256 characters are available.
91Characters are 8 x 8 pixels large. For this mode to be useful,
92a font of that character size must be downloaded.
93.It 80x50bf
94is analogously to
95.Dq 80x25bf
96a version with 512 displayable characters but 8 colors only.
97.It 80x24
98is a variant of the
99.Dq 80x25
100screen type which displays 24 lines only. It uses the standard 8x16 VGA font.
101This mode might be useful for applications which depend on closer
102.Tn DEC VT100
103compatibility.
104.It 80x24bf
105Analogously, like
106.Dq 80x24
107but with 512 character slots and 8 colors.
108.El
109.Pp
110The
111.Nm
112driver can display fonts of the original
113.Tn IBM
114type and ISO-8859-1 encoded fonts. As an experimental feature, the
115.Dq higher half
116fonts of the former
117.Nx Ns /i386
118.Nm pcvt
119driver distribution can be used too if the kernel option
120.Dq WSCONS_SUPPORT_PCVTFONTS
121was set at compile time. This is only useful with the
122.Dq *bf
123screen types; a font containing the
124.Tn ASCII
125range of characters must be available too on this screen.
126.Pp
127If you have an Ati videocard and you are experiencing problems with
128fonts other than 80x25, you can try to set
129.Cd options VGA_CONSOLE_ATI_BROKEN_FONTSEL
130in you kernel configuration and see if it helps.
131.Sh SEE ALSO
132.Xr isa 4 ,
133.Xr pcdisplay 4 ,
134.Xr pci 4 ,
135.Xr wscons 4 ,
136.Xr wsconscfg 8 ,
137.Xr wsfontload 8
138.Sh BUGS
139Only a subset of the possible text modes is supported.
140.Pp
141.Tn VGA
142cards are supposed to emulate an
143.Tn MDA
144if a monochrome display is connected. In this case, the
145device will naturally not support colors at all, but
146offer the capability to display underlined characters instead.
147The
148.Dq 80x25bf ,
149.Dq 80x40bf ,
150.Dq 80x50bf
151and
152.Dq 80x24bf
153screen types will not be available. This mode of operation
154is not tested.
155