1.\" 2.\" Copyright (c) 1999 3.\" Kazutaka YOKOTA <yokota@zodiac.mech.utsunomiya-u.ac.jp> 4.\" All rights reserved. 5.\" 6.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 7.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 8.\" are met: 9.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 10.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer as 11.\" the first lines of this file unmodified. 12.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 13.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 14.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 15.\" 16.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR 17.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES 18.\" OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. 19.\" IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, 20.\" INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT 21.\" NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, 22.\" DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY 23.\" THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT 24.\" (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF 25.\" THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. 26.\" 27.\" $FreeBSD: src/share/man/man4/syscons.4,v 1.10.2.14 2003/04/25 21:21:36 brueffer Exp $ 28.\" $DragonFly: src/share/man/man4/syscons.4,v 1.2 2003/06/17 04:36:59 dillon Exp $ 29.\" 30.Dd June 30, 1999 31.Dt SYSCONS 4 32.Os 33.Sh NAME 34.Nm syscons , 35.Nm sc 36.Nd the console driver 37.Sh SYNOPSIS 38.Cd "options MAXCONS=N" 39.Cd "options SC_ALT_MOUSE_IMAGE" 40.Cd "options SC_DISABLE_DDBKEY" 41.Cd "options SC_DISABLE_REBOOT" 42.Cd "options SC_HISTORY_SIZE=N" 43.Cd "options SC_MOUSE_CHAR=C" 44.Cd "options SC_NO_CUTPASTE" 45.Cd "options SC_NO_FONT_LOADING" 46.Cd "options SC_NO_HISTORY" 47.Cd "options SC_NO_PALETTE_LOADING" 48.Cd "options SC_NO_SYSMOUSE" 49.Cd "options SC_PIXEL_MODE" 50.Cd "options SC_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE" 51.Cd "options SC_NORM_ATTR=_attribute_" 52.Cd "options SC_NORM_REV_ATTR=_attribute_" 53.Cd "options SC_KERNEL_CONS_ATTR=_attribute_" 54.Cd "options SC_KERNEL_CONS_REV_ATTR=_attribute_" 55.Cd "options SC_DFLT_FONT" 56.Cd "makeoptions SC_DFLT_FONT=_font_name_" 57.Cd "device sc0 at isa?" Op flags Ar flags 58.Sh DESCRIPTION 59The 60.Nm 61driver provides multiple virtual terminals. 62It resembles the SCO color console driver. 63.Pp 64The 65.Nm 66driver is implemented on top of the keyboard driver 67.Pq Xr atkbd 4 68and the video card driver 69.Pq Xr vga 4 70and so requires both of them to be configured in the system. 71.Pp 72There can be only one 73.Nm 74device defined in the system. 75.Ss Virtual Terminals 76The 77.Nm 78driver provides multiple virtual terminals which appear as if they were 79separate terminals. 80One virtual terminal is considered current and exclusively 81occupies the screen and the keyboard; the other virtual terminals 82are placed in the background. 83.Pp 84In order to use virtual terminals, they must be individually 85marked ``on'' in 86.Pa /etc/ttys 87so that 88.Xr getty 8 89will recognize them to be active and run 90.Xr login 1 91to let the user log in to the system. 92By default, only the first eight virtual terminals are activated in 93.Pa /etc/ttys . 94.Pp 95You press the 96.Dv Alt 97key and a switch key to switch between 98virtual terminals. 99The following table summarizes the correspondence between the switch 100key and the virtual terminal. 101.Bd -literal -offset indent 102Alt-F1 ttyv0 Alt-F7 ttyv6 Shift-Alt-F1 ttyv10 103Alt-F2 ttyv1 Alt-F8 ttyv7 Shift-Alt-F2 ttyv11 104Alt-F3 ttyv2 Alt-F9 ttyv8 Shift-Alt-F3 ttyv12 105Alt-F4 ttyv3 Alt-F10 ttyv9 Shift-Alt-F4 ttyv13 106Alt-F5 ttyv4 Alt-F11 ttyv10 Shift-Alt-F5 ttyv14 107Alt-F6 ttyv5 Alt-F12 ttyv11 Shift-Alt-F6 ttyv15 108.Ed 109.Pp 110You can also use the ``nscr'' key (usually the 111.Dv PrintScreen 112key on the AT Enhanced keyboard) to cycle available virtual terminals. 113.Pp 114The default number of available virtual terminals is 16. 115This can be changed with the kernel configuration option 116.Dv MAXCONS 117(see below). 118.Pp 119Note that the X server usually requires a virtual terminal for display 120purposes, so at least one terminal must be left unused by 121.Xr getty 8 122so that it can be used by the X server. 123.Ss Key Definitions and Function Key Strings 124The 125.Nm 126driver, in conjunction with the keyboard driver, allows the user 127to change key definitions and function key strings. 128The 129.Xr kbdcontrol 1 130command will load a key definition file (known as ``keymap'' file), 131dump the current keymap, and assign a string to a function key. 132See 133.Xr keyboard 4 134and 135.Xr kbdmap 5 136for the keymap file. 137.Pp 138You may want to set the 139.Ar keymap 140variable in 141.Pa /etc/rc.conf.local 142to the desired keymap file so that it will be automatically loaded 143when the system starts up. 144.Ss Software Font 145For most modern video cards, e.g. VGA, the 146.Nm 147driver and the video card driver allow the user to change 148the font used on the screen. 149The 150.Xr vidcontrol 1 151command can be used to load a font file from 152.Pa /usr/share/syscons/fonts . 153.Pp 154The font comes in various sizes: 8x8, 8x14 and 8x16. 155The 8x16 font is typically used for the VGA card in the 15680-column-by-25-line mode. 157Other video modes may require different font sizes. 158It is better to always load all three sizes of the same font. 159.Pp 160You may set 161.Ar font8x8 , 162.Ar font8x14 163and 164.Ar font8x16 165variables in 166.Pa /etc/rc.conf 167to the desired font files so that they will be automatically loaded 168when the system starts up. 169.Pp 170Optionally you can specify a particular font file as the default. 171See the 172.Dv SC_DFLT_FONT 173option below. 174.Ss Screen Map 175If your video card does not support software fonts, you may still be able 176to achieve a similar effect by re-mapping the font built into your video card. 177Use 178.Xr vidcontrol 1 179to load a screen map file which defines the mapping between character codes. 180.Ss Mouse Support and Copy-and-Paste 181You can use your mouse to copy text on the screen and paste it as if 182it was typed by hand. 183You must be running the mouse daemon 184.Xr moused 8 185and enable the mouse cursor in the virtual terminal via 186.Xr vidcontrol 1 . 187.Pp 188Pressing mouse button 1 (usually the left button) will start selection. 189Releasing button 1 will end the selection process. 190The selected text will be marked by inverting foreground and 191background colors. 192You can press button 3 (usually the right button) to extend 193the selected region. 194The selected text is placed in the copy buffer and can be pasted 195at the cursor position by pressing button 2 (usually the 196middle button) as many times as you like. 197.Pp 198If your mouse has only two buttons, you may want to use the 199.Dv SC_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE 200option below to make the right button to paste the text. 201Alternatively you can make the mouse daemon 202emulate the middle button. 203See the man page for 204.Xr moused 8 205for more details. 206.Ss Back Scrolling 207The 208.Nm 209driver allows the user to browse the output which has ``scrolled off'' 210the top of the screen. 211.Pp 212Press the ``slock'' key (usually 213.Dv ScrllLock 214/ 215.Dv Scroll Lock 216or 217.Dv Pause 218on many keyboards) and the terminal is 219in the ``scrollback'' mode. 220It is indicated by the 221.Dv Scroll Lock 222LED. 223Use the arrow keys, the 224.Dv Page Up/Down 225keys and the 226.Dv Home/End 227keys to scroll buffered terminal output. 228Press the ``slock'' key again to get back to the normal terminal mode. 229.Pp 230The size of the scrollback buffer can be set by the 231.Dv SC_HISTORY_SIZE 232option described below. 233.Ss Screen Saver 234The 235.Nm 236driver can be made to put up the screen saver if the current 237virtual terminal is idle, that is, the user is not typing 238on the keyboard nor moving the mouse. 239See 240.Xr splash 4 241and 242.Xr vidcontrol 1 243for more details. 244.Sh DRIVER CONFIGURATION 245.Ss Kernel Configuration Options 246The following kernel configuration options control the 247.Nm 248driver. 249.Bl -tag -width MOUSE 250.It Dv MAXCONS=N 251This option sets the number of virtual terminals to 252.Fa N . 253The default value is 16. 254.It Dv SC_ALT_MOUSE_IMAGE 255This option selects the alternative way of displaying the mouse cursor 256in the virtual terminal. 257It may be expensive for some video cards to draw the arrow-shaped 258cursor, and you may want to try this option. 259However, the appearance of the alternative mouse cursor may not be 260very appealing. 261Note that if you use the 262.Dv SC_NO_FONT_LOADING 263option then you must also use this option if you wish to be able to use 264the mouse. 265.It Dv SC_DISABLE_DDBKEY 266This option disables the ``debug'' key combination (by default, it is 267.Dv Alt-Esc , 268or 269.Dv Ctl-PrintScreen ) . 270It will prevent users from 271entering the kernel debugger (DDB) by pressing the key combination. 272DDB will still be invoked when the kernel panics or hits a break point 273if it is included in the kernel. 274.It Dv SC_DISABLE_REBOOT 275This option disables the ``reboot'' key (by default, it is 276.Dv Ctl-Alt-Del ) , 277so that the casual user may not accidentally reboot the system. 278.It Dv SC_HISTORY_SIZE=N 279Sets the size of back scroll buffer to 280.Fa N 281lines. 282The default value is 100. 283.It Dv SC_MOUSE_CHAR=C 284Unless the 285.Dv SC_ALT_MOUSE_IMAGE 286option above is specified, the 287.Nm 288driver reserves four consecutive character codes in order to display the 289mouse cursor in the virtual terminals in some systems. 290This option specifies the first character code to 291.Fa C 292to be used for this purpose. 293The default value is 0xd0. 294A good candidate is 0x03. 295.It Dv SC_PIXEL_MODE 296Adds support for pixel (raster) mode console. 297This mode is useful on some laptop computers, but less so on 298most other systems, and it adds substantial amount of code to syscons. 299If this option is NOT defined, you can reduce the kernel size a lot. 300See the 301.Dv VESA800X600 302flag below. 303.It Dv SC_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE 304If you have a two button mouse, you may want to add this option 305to use the right button of the mouse to paste text. 306See 307.Sx Mouse Support and Copy-and-Paste 308above. 309.It Dv SC_NORM_ATTR=_attribute_ 310.It Dv SC_NORM_REV_ATTR=_attribute_ 311.It Dv SC_KERNEL_CONS_ATTR=_attribute_ 312.It Dv SC_KERNEL_CONS_REV_ATTR=_attribute_ 313These options will set the default colors. 314Available colors are defined in 315.Pa /usr/include/machine/pc/display.h . 316See 317.Sx EXAMPLES 318below. 319.It Dv SC_DFLT_FONT 320This option will specify the default font. 321Available fonts are: iso, iso2, koi8-r, koi8-u, cp437, cp850, cp865, 322cp866 and cp866u. 32316-line, 14-line and 8-line font data will be compiled in. 324Without this option, the 325.Nm 326driver will use whatever font is already loaded in the video card, 327unless you explicitly load a software font at startup. 328See 329.Sx EXAMPLES 330below. 331.El 332.Pp 333The following options will remove some features from the 334.Nm 335driver and save kernel memory. 336.Bl -tag -width MOUSE 337.It Dv SC_NO_CUTPASTE 338This option disables ``copy and paste'' operation in virtual 339terminals. 340.It Dv SC_NO_FONT_LOADING 341The 342.Nm 343driver can load software fonts on some video cards. 344This option removes this feature. 345Note that if you still wish to use 346the mouse with this option then you must also use the 347.Dv SC_ALT_MOUSE_IMAGE 348option. 349.It Dv SC_NO_HISTORY 350This option disables back-scrolling in virtual terminals. 351.\".It Dv SC_NO_PALETTE_LOADING 352.It Dv SC_NO_SYSMOUSE 353This option removes mouse support in the 354.Nm 355driver. 356The mouse daemon 357.Xr moused 8 358will fail if this option is defined. 359This option implies the 360.Dv SC_NO_CUTPASTE 361option too. 362.El 363.Ss Driver Flags 364The following driver flags can be used to control the 365.Nm 366driver. 367They can be set either in the kernel configuration file 368(see 369.Xr config 8 ) , 370or else in the User Configuration Menu at boot 371time 372(see 373.Xr boot 8 ) . 374.Bl -tag -width bit_0 375.\".It bit 0 (VISUAL_BELL) 376.\"Uses the ``visual'' bell. 377.\"The screen will blink instead of generating audible sound. 378.\".It bit 1,2 (CURSOR_TYPE) 379.\"This option specifies the cursor appearance. 380.\"Possible values are: 381.\".Bl -tag -width TYPE -compact 382.\".It Dv 0 383.\"normal block cursor 384.\".It Dv 2 385.\"blinking block cursor 386.\".It Dv 4 387.\"underline cursor 388.\".It Dv 6 389.\"blinking underline (aka destructive) cursor 390.\".El 391.\".It bit 6 (QUIET_BELL) 392.\"This option suppresses the bell, whether audible or visual, 393.\"if it is rung in a background virtual terminal. 394.It 0x0080 (VESA800X600) 395This option puts the video card in the VESA 800x600 pixel, 16 color 396mode. 397It may be useful for laptop computers for which the 800x600 mode 398is otherwise unsupported by the X server. 399Note that in order for this flag to work, the kernel must be 400compiled with the 401.Dv SC_PIXEL_MODE 402option explained above. 403.\"Note also that the ``copy-and-paste'' function is not currently supported 404.\"in this mode and the mouse pointer will not be displayed. 405.It 0x0100 (AUTODETECT_KBD) 406This option instructs the syscons driver to periodically scan 407for a keyboard device if it is not currently attached to one. 408Otherwise, the driver only probes for a keyboard once during bootup. 409.El 410.Sh FILES 411.Bl -tag -width /usr/share/syscons/xxxxyyyyzzz -compact 412.It Pa /dev/console 413.It Pa /dev/consolectl 414.It Pa /dev/ttyv? 415virtual terminals 416.It Pa /etc/ttys 417terminal initialization information 418.It Pa /usr/share/syscons/fonts/* 419font files 420.It Pa /usr/share/syscons/keymaps/* 421key map files 422.It Pa /usr/share/syscons/scrmaps/* 423screen map files 424.El 425.Sh EXAMPLES 426As the 427.Nm 428driver requires the keyboard driver and the video card driver, 429the kernel configuration file should contain the following lines. 430.Pp 431.Bd -literal -offset indent 432device atkbdc0 at isa? port IO_KBD 433device atkbd0 at atkbdc? irq 1 434device vga0 at isa? 435device sc0 at isa? 436 437pseudo-device splash 438.Ed 439.Pp 440If you do not intend to load the splash image or use the screen saver, 441the last line is not necessary, and can be omitted. 442.Pp 443Note that the keyboard controller driver 444.Nm atkbdc 445is required by the keyboard driver 446.Nm atkbd . 447.Pp 448The following lines will set the default colors. 449The normal text will be green on black background. 450The reversed text will be yellow on green background. 451Note that you cannot put any white space inside the quoted string, 452because of the current implementation of 453.Xr config 8 . 454.Pp 455.Dl "options SC_NORM_ATTR=(FG_GREEN|BG_BLACK) 456.Dl "options SC_NORM_REV_ATTR=(FG_YELLOW|BG_GREEN) 457.Pp 458The following lines will set the default colors of the kernel message. 459The kernel message will be printed bright red on black background. 460The reversed message will be black on red background. 461.Pp 462.Dl "options SC_KERNEL_CONS_ATTR=(FG_LIGHTRED|BG_BLACK) 463.Dl "options SC_KERNEL_CONS_REV_ATTR=(FG_BLACK|BG_RED) 464.Pp 465The following example adds the font files 466.Pa cp850-8x16.fnt , 467.Pa cp850-8x14.font 468and 469.Pa cp850-8x8.font 470to the kernel. 471.Pp 472.Dl "options SC_DFLT_FONT" 473.Dl "makeoptions SC_DFLT_FONT=cp850 474.Dl "device sc0 at isa? 475.Pp 476.\".Sh DIAGNOSTICS 477.Sh CAVEATS 478The Amount of data that is possible to insert from the cut buffer is limited 479by the 480.Brq Dv MAX_INPUT , 481a system limit on the number of bytes that may be stored in the terminal 482input queue - usually 1024 bytes 483(see 484.Xr termios 4 ) . 485.Sh BUGS 486This manual page is incomplete and urgently needs revision. 487.Sh SEE ALSO 488.Xr kbdcontrol 1 , 489.Xr login 1 , 490.Xr vidcontrol 1 , 491.Xr atkbd 4 , 492.Xr atkbdc 4 , 493.Xr keyboard 4 , 494.Xr screen 4 , 495.Xr splash 4 , 496.Xr ukbd 4 , 497.Xr vga 4 , 498.Xr kbdmap 5 , 499.Xr rc.conf 5 , 500.Xr ttys 5 , 501.Xr config 8 , 502.Xr getty 8 , 503.Xr kldload 8 , 504.Xr moused 8 505.Sh HISTORY 506The 507.Nm 508driver first appeared in 509.Fx 1.0 . 510.Sh AUTHORS 511.An -nosplit 512The 513.Nm 514driver was written by 515.An S\(/oren Schmidt Aq sos@FreeBSD.org . 516This manual page was written by 517.An Kazutaka Yokota Aq yokota@FreeBSD.org . 518