xref: /dragonfly/share/man/man4/vga.4 (revision ef3ac1d1)
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2.\" Copyright (c) 1999
3.\" Kazutaka YOKOTA <yokota@zodiac.mech.utsunomiya-u.ac.jp>
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27.\" $FreeBSD: src/share/man/man4/vga.4,v 1.7.2.10 2002/12/20 18:03:05 trhodes Exp $
28.\"
29.Dd December 14, 2009
30.Dt VGA 4
31.Os
32.Sh NAME
33.Nm vga ,
34.Nm vesa
35.Nd generic video card interface
36.Sh SYNOPSIS
37.Cd "options VESA"
38.Cd "options VESA_DEBUG=N"
39.Cd "options VGA_KEEP_POWERON_MODE"
40.Cd "options VGA_NO_FONT_LOADING"
41.Cd "options VGA_NO_MODE_CHANGE"
42.Cd "options VGA_DEBUG=N"
43.Cd "options VGA_WIDTH90"
44.Cd "device vga0 at isa? port ?"
45.Sh DESCRIPTION
46The
47.Nm
48driver is a generic video card driver which provides access to
49video cards.
50This driver is required for the console driver
51.Xr syscons 4 .
52The console driver will call the
53.Nm
54driver to manipulate video hardware (changing video modes, loading font, etc).
55.Pp
56The
57.Nm
58driver supports the standard VGA video cards.
59In addition, the driver can utilize the VESA BIOS Extension if the video card
60supports it.
61VESA support can either be statically included in the kernel
62or can be loaded as a separate module.
63.Pp
64In order to statically link the VESA support into the kernel, the
65.Dv VESA
66option (see below) must be defined in the kernel configuration file.
67.Pp
68The
69.Nm vesa
70module can be dynamically loaded into the kernel using
71.Xr kldload 8 .
72.Sh DRIVER CONFIGURATION
73.Ss Kernel Configuration Options
74The following kernel configuration options
75(see
76.Xr config 8 )
77can be used to control the
78.Nm
79driver.
80These options provide compatibility with certain VGA cards.
81.Bl -tag -width ".Dv VGA_KEEP_POWERON_MODE"
82.It Dv VGA_DEBUG=N
83Set the VGA support debug level to
84.Fa N .
85The default value is 0, which suppresses all debugging output.
86A value of 2 gives maximum verbosity.
87.It Dv VGA_KEEP_POWERON_MODE
88This option keeps the initial mode's register settings for switching back
89to it from another mode.
90.It Dv VGA_WIDTH90
91This option enables 90 column modes: 90x25, 90x30, 90x43, 90x50, 90x60.
92These modes are not always supported by the video card and the display.
93It is highly likely that LCD display cannot work with these modes.
94.El
95.Pp
96The following options will remove some features from the
97.Nm
98driver and save kernel memory.
99.Bl -tag -width ".Dv VGA_KEEP_POWERON_MODE"
100.It Dv VGA_NO_FONT_LOADING
101This option removes font loading from the driver.
102Note that if you use this option and
103still wish to use the mouse on the console then you must also use the
104.Dv SC_ALT_MOUSE_IMAGE
105option.
106See
107.Xr syscons 4 .
108.It Dv VGA_NO_MODE_CHANGE
109This option prevents the driver from changing video modes.
110.El
111.Pp
112The following options add optional features to the driver.
113.Bl -tag -width ".Dv VGA_KEEP_POWERON_MODE"
114.It Dv VESA
115Add VESA BIOS Extension support to the driver.
116If the VGA card has the VESA BIOS Extension 1.2 or later,
117this option will utilize it to switch to high resolution modes.
118.It Dv VESA_DEBUG=N
119Set the VESA support debug level to
120.Fa N .
121The default value is 0, which suppresses all debugging output.
122A value of 2 gives maximum verbosity.
123.El
124.Sh EXAMPLES
125Your kernel configuration should normally have:
126.Pp
127.D1 Cd "device vga0 at isa? port ?"
128.Pp
129The following line should be included in the kernel configuration file
130in order to enable the VESA BIOS Extension support.
131.Pp
132.D1 Cd "options VESA"
133.Pp
134If you do not want VESA support included in the kernel, but
135want to use occasionally, do not add the
136.Dv VESA
137option.
138And load the
139.Nm vesa
140module as desired:
141.Pp
142.Dl kldload vesa
143.Sh SEE ALSO
144.Xr vgl 3 ,
145.Xr syscons 4 ,
146.Xr config 8 ,
147.Xr kldload 8 ,
148.Xr kldunload 8
149.Sh STANDARDS
150.Rs
151.%A "Apple, IBM, Motorola"
152.%T "Common Hardware Reference Platform: I/O Device Reference"
153.%B "Appendix A: VGA Programming Model"
154.%P "p. 195"
155.%O "ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/rs6000/technology/spec/chrp/"
156.Re
157.Pp
158.Rs
159.%T "VESA BIOS Extension (VBE)"
160.%A Video Electronics Standards Association
161.Re
162.Sh HISTORY
163The
164.Nm
165driver first appeared in
166.Fx 3.1 .
167.Sh AUTHORS
168.An -nosplit
169The
170.Nm
171driver was written by
172.An S\(/oren Schmidt Aq Mt sos@FreeBSD.org
173and
174.An Kazutaka Yokota Aq Mt yokota@FreeBSD.org .
175This manual page was written by
176.An Kazutaka Yokota .
177