xref: /openbsd/share/man/man4/vga.4 (revision 771fbea0)
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5.\" 	Matthias Drochner.  All rights reserved.
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28.Dd $Mdocdate: October 19 2013 $
29.Dt VGA 4
30.Os
31.Sh NAME
32.Nm vga
33.Nd VGA graphics driver for wscons
34.Sh SYNOPSIS
35.Cd "vga0 at isa?"
36.Cd "vga* at pci?"
37.Cd "wsdisplay* at vga?"
38.Cd "agp* at vga?"
39.Sh DESCRIPTION
40This driver handles VGA graphics hardware within the
41.Xr wscons 4
42console framework.
43It doesn't provide direct device driver entry points but makes its
44functions available via the internal
45.Xr wsdisplay 4
46interface.
47.Pp
48The
49.Nm
50driver supports multiple virtual screens on one physical display.
51The screens allocated on one display can be of different
52.Dq types ,
53where a type refers to various display properties.
54The type is determined at the time the virtual screen is created and can't
55be changed later.
56Screens are either created at kernel startup (then the default type is used)
57or later with help of the
58.Xr wsconscfg 8
59utility.
60.Pp
61Currently, the following screen types are supported:
62.Bl -hang
63.It 80x25
64This is the standard VGA text mode with 80 columns and 25 rows.
6516 different colors can be displayed at the same time.
66Characters are 8 x 16 pixels large, and a font consists of 256 characters.
67A built-in font of this size is always present on a VGA card.
68It's also possible to use a downloaded font instead.
69.It 80x25bf
70A modified version of the previous.
71It only allows 8 colors to be displayed.
72In exchange, it can access two fonts at the same time, so that 512
73different characters can be displayed.
74.It 80x40
75A text mode with 80 columns and 40 rows.
76Similar to the standard mode, 16 colors and 256 characters are available.
77Characters are 8 x 10 pixels large.
78For this mode to be useful, a font of that character size must be downloaded.
79.It 80x40bf
80A modified version of the previous.
81It only allows 8 colors to be displayed.
82In exchange, it can access two fonts at the same time, so that 512
83different characters can be displayed.
84.It 80x50
85A text mode with 80 columns and 50 rows.
86Similar to the standard mode, 16 colors and 256 characters are available.
87Characters are 8 x 8 pixels large.
88For this mode to be useful, a font of that character size must be downloaded.
89.It 80x50bf
90A modified version of the previous.
91It only allows 8 colors to be displayed.
92In exchange, it can access two fonts at the same time, so that 512
93different characters can be displayed.
94.It 80x24
95A variant of the
96.Dq 80x25
97screen type which displays 24 lines only.
98It uses the standard 8x16 VGA font.
99This mode might be useful for applications which depend on closer
100DEC VT100 compatibility.
101.It 80x24bf
102A modified version of the previous.
103It only allows 8 colors to be displayed.
104In exchange, it can access two fonts at the same time, so that 512
105different characters can be displayed.
106.El
107.Pp
108The
109.Nm
110driver can display fonts of the original IBM type and ISO-8859-1 encoded fonts.
111.Sh SEE ALSO
112.Xr agp 4 ,
113.Xr intro 4 ,
114.Xr isa 4 ,
115.Xr pcdisplay 4 ,
116.Xr pci 4 ,
117.Xr wscons 4 ,
118.Xr wsdisplay 4 ,
119.Xr wsconscfg 8 ,
120.Xr wsfontload 8
121.Sh BUGS
122Only a subset of the possible text modes is supported.
123.Pp
124VGA cards are supposed to emulate an MDA if a monochrome display is connected.
125In this case, the device will naturally not support colors at all, but
126offer the capability to display underlined characters instead.
127The
128.Dq 80x25bf ,
129.Dq 80x40bf ,
130.Dq 80x50bf ,
131and
132.Dq 80x24bf
133screen types will not be available.
134This mode of operation is not tested.
135