• Newcons

Introduction

vt(4) is the virtual terminal console driver implementation (also known as the "Newcons" project) which replaces syscons(4), adding the following features:

• Unicode support.
• Double-width character support for CJK characters.
• Bigger font maps (because of the use of graphics mode).
• Better use of graphics modes, enabling more appealing graphical boot experiences.

It was added to CURRENT in r259016 (2013-12-05) and enabled by default in GENERIC for amd64 and i386 architectures in r268045 (2014-06-30).

syscons(4) Comparison

vt(4) currently has the following features compared to syscons:un

Note: Additional vt(4) features will be implemented; this table does not represent the end goal for vt(4).

Testing

i386/amd64

The vt and vt_vga devices are enabled by default; if using a custom kernel make sure they are included. The sc and vga devices may be omitted.

#device        vga             # VGA video card driver
#device        sc
device         vt
device         vt_vga

To test vt(4) with KMS on Intel driver

kldload i915kms

For ATI/AMD Radeon drivers

kldload radeonkms

vt_vga defaults to graphics mode. A loader tunable hw.vga.textmode can be set to use text mode instead. To enable text mode add the following to /boot/loader.conf:

hw.vga.textmode=1

PowerPC

vt(4) is enabled by default in GENERIC in -CURRENT.

Font Support

The vtfontcvt(8) tool can convert BDF and HEX format font files for use by the vt(4) console.

For example, a 16x32 version of the terminus font can be created as follows:

1. Obtain the latest Terminus font distribution and extract it

2. Convert it to a vt(4) .fnt file:

   % vtfontcvt -w 16 -h 32 ter-u32n.bdf ter-u32b.bdf ter-u32.fnt

3. Load it from a console window:

   % vidcontrol -f ter-u32.fnt

TODO

DONE

This page was used during vt(4)'s development to track progress.

Known Issues

Search for PRs tagged with the vt keyword

• No support for non-UTF-8 charmap (e.g. ru_RU.KOI8-R).
• Limited support for modesetting.

  • Partly fixed with a KMS driver (i915kms or radeonkms): one can set a mode by putting this in /boot/loader.conf:

    kern.vt.fb.default_mode="1024x768"

• No support for several vidcontrol(1) features.
• No support for VGA text mode loadable fonts.
• No support for moused(8) in VGA text mode.
• No support for vgl(3).
• No support for DPMS.
• No support for splash(4).
• Support only 16 colors.
• Pre-loading i915kms.ko/radeonkms.ko disables video output from the point of time these video drivers are attached until interrupt threads are enabled way later. This makes kernel panics during boot undebugable.
• Machines with at least certain Intel Ivy Bridge hardware may reliably panic when pre-loading i915kms.ko (but work when loading i915kms.ko after boot). Please submit a PR with details if you reproduce this.
• Machines with at least certain Radeon ARUBA hardware may reliably panic when loading radeonkms.ko after boot (but work when pre-loading radeonkms.ko). Please submit a PR with details if you reproduce this.
• If drm2 have 2+ outputs, it decides to use too big a window, which is not fully visible on one or both screens.
• Console output with at least VGA in graphics mode or via i915kms.ko/radeonkms.ko still is remarkably slow, especially compared to syscons(4) with VGA text mode.
• Having text marked for copy and paste and then launching something that clears the screen, f. e. vi(1), leaves the region of previous text still marked.

Fixed Issues

• No mouse terminal events yet (terminal char sequence for app notification on mouse event).
• (looks like) Failure mode with incorrect mix of options (e.g. vt w/ vga) is not obvious
• Scrolling / refresh is very slow on some hardware

• Newcons w/ gallant12x22 font does not clear the screen properly: http://people.freebsd.org/~emaste/newcons/gallant.png

• Newcons locks up w/ gallant12x22 font in VirtualBox

• When resuming from suspend, switching back from ttyv0 may cause a kernel panic (vt_switch_timer). To disable the vt switch, add kern.vt.suspendswitch=0 in loader.conf.

  • http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-current/2013-December/047175.html

  • http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-current/2014-March/048857.html

• No beep in X

  • kern/189170

  • r265442

  • r265546

• vidcontrol -S on/off (enable/disable vty switch) does not work

  • r266540

• Scrollback fails on vty0 (others work)

• VGA driver produces corrupted output with fonts other than 8 pixels wide. pr191591

• Switch to vty0 on panic/reboot/shutdown/debugger fails from X (works from other VTs)

  • e.g. sysctl debug.kdb.enter=1 from xterm

  • r270705

• X crash on Unicode input (some mistake with enabling RAW kbd mode) pr191459

• Control keys mishandled on entry to ddb. For instance, use Ctrl+Alt+Esc to enter debugger, then 'c'. Ctrl and/or Alt are still active.

• The text cursor may end up in the middle of kernel messages after loading a kernel video driver (r273932).

• PS/2 keyboard might fail in X - add kbdmux to kernel config (see freebsd-current posting) (r273973).

• No support for configurable history size (even compile-time) (274117).

• The keymap selection in the installer doesn't work properly (https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=193656).

  • r282898, r282902, r282905, r282914

• The screen isn't cleared at boot in some cases (https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=191564).

  • r286667, r286723

• kbdmux control pr191306)

• During output of large amounts of text certain fractions repeatedly are incorrectly displayed as marked text. (PR211922)

Credits

Significant contributors to vt(4) include:

• Warren Block

• StefanEsser

• Ed Maste

• Jean-Sébastien Pédron

• Ed Schouten

• Aleksandr Rybalko

• Nathan Whitehorn

CategoryProject