Re: "vidcontrol -i mode" shows no output except header (in search of smaller console font)

[Harry Schmalzbauer]

Am 28.02.2022 um 09:35 schrieb Michael Schuster:
On Mon, Feb 28, 2022 at 9:31 AM Ronald Klop > wrote:


Hi,

Where would this sysctl needed to be documented  for the OP to
find it?



There's many things to consider these days, so hard to find a single 
place I guess...
(and IMHO currently no severe issue, since these days, if defaults don't 
match perfectly, users get too big fonts instead of unreadable small fonts)




IMO vt(4) would have been a good place.


vt(4) is no consumer of the 'screen.font' loader tunable.  In case vt(4) 
uses efifb for output, resolution is unchangeable and 
vidfont(1)/kbdmap(1) refers to a different set of fonts by default as 
loader does.  Of course, there's filesystem boundaries to consider, but 
I don't know the reason why /usr/share/vt/fonts isn't simply a link to 
/boot/fonts/ - both sets are almost identical in size.


Some time ago, I proposed a generic boot/loader.conf file, which I 
created as a starting point to describe the 
BIOS/UEFI|loader|console(vt(4)\sc(4)) relations:

https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=256343

This is only a proposal, and reflects just my own needs/confusion of the 
past, but probably help other too, getting an overview and finding the 
corresponding docs/man pages.

It is quiet large, but I felt it's necessary to also mention KMS/drm.
It's boot/loader description biased, but also contains Serial console 
and Video console specific hints.


-harry

Re: "vidcontrol -i mode" shows no output except header (in search of smaller console font)

[Michael Schuster]

On Mon, Feb 28, 2022 at 9:31 AM Ronald Klop  wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Where would this sysctl needed to be documented  for the OP to find it?
>

IMO vt(4) would have been a good place.

>
> Regards,
> Ronald
>
>
> *Van:* Toomas Soome 
> *Datum:* 28 februari 2022 08:29
> *Aan:* Michael Schuster 
> *CC:* FreeBSD CURRENT 
> *Onderwerp:* Re: "vidcontrol -i mode" shows no output except header (in
> search of smaller console font)
>
>
>
> On 28. Feb 2022, at 08:23, Michael Schuster 
> wrote:
>
> Hi Toomas,
>
>
> On Sun, Feb 27, 2022 at 10:54 PM Toomas Soome  wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> On 27. Feb 2022, at 23:36, Michael Schuster 
>> wrote:
>>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I'm trying to get a smaller font in my text-consoles (using vt) on my
>> Ryzen 4700 and Vega10 Renoir - based laptop with a fresh install of FreeBSD
>> CURRENT from last week.
>>
>> [...]
>
>
>> UEFI or BIOS setup?
>>
>
> UEFI
>
>
>> With UEFI, sc and hw.vga.textmode has no effect. With UEFI or
>> BIOS+hw.vga.textmode=0, you can set screen.font variable (empty value will
>> cause the values list to be printed), or use loadfont command with your
>> custom font file (created with vtfontcvt).
>>
>
> I added 'screen.font="8x16"' to /boot/loader.conf, worked like a charm
> first time.
>
> Many thanks!
> Michael
>
>
> You are welcome.
>
> rgds,
> toomas
>
>
>
>
>
>

-- 
Michael Schuster
http://recursiveramblings.wordpress.com/
recursion, n: see 'recursion'

Re: "vidcontrol -i mode" shows no output except header (in search of smaller console font)

[Ronald Klop]

Hi,


Where would this sysctl needed to be documented  for the OP to find it?


Regards,
Ronald




Van: Toomas Soome 
Datum: 28 februari 2022 08:29
Aan: Michael Schuster 
CC: FreeBSD CURRENT 
Onderwerp: Re: "vidcontrol -i mode" shows no output except header (in search of 
smaller console font)








On 28. Feb 2022, at 08:23, Michael Schuster  wrote:

Hi Toomas,


On Sun, Feb 27, 2022 at 10:54 PM Toomas Soome  wrote:





On 27. Feb 2022, at 23:36, Michael Schuster  wrote:

Hi all,

I'm trying to get a smaller font in my text-consoles (using vt) on my Ryzen 4700 and Vega10 Renoir - based laptop with a fresh install of FreeBSD CURRENT from last week. 



__blockquote_end__
[...] 




UEFI or BIOS setup?



UEFI
 
__blockquote_end__


UEFI
 
__blockquote_start__

 With UEFI, sc and hw.vga.textmode has no effect. With UEFI or 
BIOS+hw.vga.textmode=0, you can set screen.font variable (empty value will 
cause the values list to be printed), or use loadfont command with your custom 
font file (created with vtfontcvt).



I added 'screen.font="8x16"' to /boot/loader.conf, worked like a charm first time. 


Many thanks!
Michael


You are welcome.

rgds,
toomas

Re: "vidcontrol -i mode" shows no output except header (in search of smaller console font)

[Toomas Soome]

> On 28. Feb 2022, at 08:23, Michael Schuster  wrote:
> 
> Hi Toomas,
> 
> 
> On Sun, Feb 27, 2022 at 10:54 PM Toomas Soome  > wrote:
> 
> 
>> On 27. Feb 2022, at 23:36, Michael Schuster > > wrote:
>> 
>> Hi all,
>> 
>> I'm trying to get a smaller font in my text-consoles (using vt) on my Ryzen 
>> 4700 and Vega10 Renoir - based laptop with a fresh install of FreeBSD 
>> CURRENT from last week. 
>> 
> 
> [...] 
> 
> 
> UEFI or BIOS setup?
> 
> UEFI
>  
> With UEFI, sc and hw.vga.textmode has no effect. With UEFI or 
> BIOS+hw.vga.textmode=0, you can set screen.font variable (empty value will 
> cause the values list to be printed), or use loadfont command with your 
> custom font file (created with vtfontcvt).
> 
> I added 'screen.font="8x16"' to /boot/loader.conf, worked like a charm first 
> time. 
> 
> Many thanks!
> Michael

You are welcome.

rgds,
toomas

Re: "vidcontrol -i mode" shows no output except header (in search of smaller console font)

[Michael Schuster]

Hi Toomas,


On Sun, Feb 27, 2022 at 10:54 PM Toomas Soome  wrote:

>
>
> On 27. Feb 2022, at 23:36, Michael Schuster 
> wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> I'm trying to get a smaller font in my text-consoles (using vt) on my
> Ryzen 4700 and Vega10 Renoir - based laptop with a fresh install of FreeBSD
> CURRENT from last week.
>
> [...]


> UEFI or BIOS setup?
>

UEFI


> With UEFI, sc and hw.vga.textmode has no effect. With UEFI or
> BIOS+hw.vga.textmode=0, you can set screen.font variable (empty value will
> cause the values list to be printed), or use loadfont command with your
> custom font file (created with vtfontcvt).
>

I added 'screen.font="8x16"' to /boot/loader.conf, worked like a charm
first time.

Many thanks!
Michael
-- 
Michael Schuster
http://recursiveramblings.wordpress.com/
recursion, n: see 'recursion'

Re: "vidcontrol -i mode" shows no output except header (in search of smaller console font)

[Toomas Soome]

> On 27. Feb 2022, at 23:36, Michael Schuster  wrote:
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> I'm trying to get a smaller font in my text-consoles (using vt) on my Ryzen 
> 4700 and Vega10 Renoir - based laptop with a fresh install of FreeBSD CURRENT 
> from last week. 
> 
> My research led me to believe that using vidcontrol would help me here, but 
> however I do try, "vidcontrol -i mode" prints nothing except the header line, 
> and other "vidcontrol" subcommands give me "Inappropriate ioctl for device".
> 
> I tried a few things
> - switched to sc via setting "kern.vty=sc" in /boot/loader.conf, this caused 
> a hang on reboot
> - setting "hw.vga.textmode" to 1
> - "kldload vesa"
> ... and probably a few other things I now forget, all to no effect - I still 
> get nothing.
> 
> I then performed an update from a freshly 'git pulled' source today (kernel, 
> world, drm-devel-kmod), a simple "vidcontrol" test still shows the same.
> 
> I know it can work because I had a smaller font before I re-installed over 
> the previous installation (which originally came from ghostbsd in Aug 2020), 
> so - I assume - it can't be rocket science :-)
> I'd appreciate further hints/pointers/RTFMs (though I've tried quite a few of 
> those).
> 

UEFI or BIOS setup? With UEFI, sc and hw.vga.textmode has no effect. With UEFI 
or BIOS+hw.vga.textmode=0, you can set screen.font variable (empty value will 
cause the values list to be printed), or use loadfont command with your custom 
font file (created with vtfontcvt).

rgds,
toomas