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32 .Nd virtual terminal console driver
34 .Cd "options TERMINAL_KERN_ATTR=_attribute_"
35 .Cd "options TERMINAL_NORM_ATTR=_attribute_"
36 .Cd "options VT_MAXWINDOWS=N"
37 .Cd "options VT_ALT_TO_ESC_HACK=1"
38 .Cd "options VT_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE"
39 .Cd "options VT_FB_MAX_WIDTH=X"
40 .Cd "options VT_FB_MAX_HEIGHT=Y"
41 .Cd "options SC_NO_CUTPASTE"
47 .Cd hw.vga.acpi_ignore_no_vga=1
49 .Cd kern.vt.color.<colornum>.rgb="<colorspec>"
50 .Cd kern.vt.fb.default_mode="<X>x<Y>"
51 .Cd kern.vt.fb.modes.<connector>="<X>x<Y>"
56 .Cd kern.vt.kbd_halt=1
57 .Cd kern.vt.kbd_poweroff=1
58 .Cd kern.vt.kbd_reboot=1
59 .Cd kern.vt.kbd_debug=1
60 .Cd kern.vt.kbd_panic=0
61 .Cd kern.vt.enable_bell=1
65 device provides multiple virtual terminals with an extensive feature
67 .Bl -item -offset indent
69 Unicode UTF-8 text with double-width characters.
71 Large font maps in graphics mode, including support for Asian
74 Graphics-mode consoles.
78 .Pq Kernel Mode Setting
79 video drivers for switching between the
81 and virtual terminals.
84 Multiple virtual terminals are provided on a single computer.
85 Up to sixteen virtual terminals can be defined.
86 A single virtual terminal is connected to the screen and keyboard
88 Key combinations are used to select a virtual terminal.
89 Alt-F1 through Alt-F12 correspond to the first twelve virtual terminals.
90 If more than twelve virtual terminals are created, Shift-Alt-F1 through
91 Shift-Alt-F4 are used to switch to the additional terminals.
92 .Ss Copying and Pasting Text with a Mouse
93 Copying and pasting text from the screen with a mouse is supported.
94 Press and hold down mouse button 1, usually the left button, while
95 moving the mouse to select text.
96 Selected text is highlighted with reversed foreground and background
98 To select more text after releasing mouse button 1, press mouse button
99 3, usually the right button.
100 To paste text that has been selected, press mouse button 2, usually the
102 The text is entered as if it were typed at the keyboard.
104 .Dv VT_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE
105 kernel option can be used with mice that only have two buttons.
106 Setting this option makes the second mouse button into the
110 for more information.
112 Output that has scrolled off the screen can be reviewed by pressing the
113 Scroll Lock key, then scrolling up and down with the arrow keys.
114 The Page Up and Page Down keys scroll up or down a full screen at a
116 The Home and End keys jump to the beginning or end of the scrollback
118 When finished reviewing, press the Scroll Lock key again to return to
120 .Sh DRIVER CONFIGURATION
121 .Ss Kernel Configuration Options
122 These kernel options control the
125 .Bl -tag -width MAXCONS
126 .It Dv TERMINAL_NORM_ATTR= Ns Pa attribute
127 .It Dv TERMINAL_KERN_ATTR= Ns Pa attribute
128 These options change the default colors used for normal and kernel
130 Available colors are defined in
135 .It Dv VT_MAXWINDOWS=N
136 Set the number of virtual terminals to be created to
138 The value defaults to 12.
139 .It Dv VT_ALT_TO_ESC_HACK=1
140 When the Alt key is held down while pressing another key, send an ESC
141 sequence instead of the Alt key.
142 .It Dv VT_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE
143 If defined, swap the functions of mouse buttons 2 and 3.
144 In effect, this makes the right-hand mouse button perform a paste.
145 These options are checked in the order shown.
146 .It Dv SC_NO_CUTPASTE
147 Disable mouse support.
148 .It VT_FB_MAX_WIDTH=X
149 Set the maximum width to
151 .It VT_FB_MAX_HEIGHT=Y
152 Set the maximum height to
155 .Sh BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY
156 Several options are provided for compatibility with the previous
159 These options will be removed in a future
162 .Bl -column -offset indent ".Sy vt VT_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE" ".Sy SC_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE"
163 .It Sy vt Option Name Ta Sy sc Option Name
164 .It Dv TERMINAL_KERN_ATTR Ta Dv SC_KERNEL_CONS_ATTR
165 .It Dv TERMINAL_NORM_ATTR Ta Dv SC_NORM_ATTR
166 .It Dv VT_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE Ta Dv SC_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE
167 .It Dv VT_MAXWINDOWS Ta Dv MAXCONS
168 .It none Ta Dv SC_NO_CUTPASTE
170 .Sh START-UP OPERATION WITH X86 BIOS SYSTEMS
171 The computer BIOS starts in text mode, and
175 runs, loading the kernel.
178 is set, the system remains in text mode.
181 switches to 640x480x16 VGA mode using
184 .Pq Kernel Mode Setting
185 video driver is available, the display is switched to high resolution
186 and the KMS driver takes over.
187 When a KMS driver is not available,
191 These settings can be entered at the
195 .Bl -tag -width indent
196 .It Va hw.vga.textmode
197 Set to 1 to use virtual terminals in text mode instead of graphics mode.
198 Features that require graphics mode, like loadable fonts, will be
200 .It Va hw.vga.acpi_ignore_no_vga
201 Set to 1 to force the usage of the VGA driver regardless of whether
202 ACPI IAPC_BOOT_ARCH signals no VGA support.
203 Can be used to workaround firmware bugs in the ACPI tables.
209 to choose a specific system console, overriding the default.
214 when this value is not set.
215 .It Va kern.vt.color. Ns Ar colornum Ns Va .rgb
216 Set this value to override default palette entry for color
218 which should be in a range from 0 to 15 inclusive.
219 The value should be either a comma-separated triplet of
220 red, green, and blue values in a range from 0 to 255 or
221 HTML-like hex triplet.
225 .It Va kern.vt.fb.default_mode
226 Set this value to a graphic mode to override the default mode picked by the
229 The mode is applied to all output connectors.
230 This is currently only supported by the
232 backend when it is paired with a KMS video driver.
233 .It Va kern.vt.fb.modes. Ns Pa connector_name
234 Set this value to a graphic mode to override the default mode picked by the
237 This mode is applied to the output connector
240 It has precedence over
241 .Va kern.vt.fb.default_mode .
242 The names of available connector names can be found in
244 after loading the KMS driver.
245 It will contain a list of connectors and their associated tunables.
246 This is currently only supported by the
248 backend when it is paired with a KMS video driver.
250 .Sh KEYBOARD SYSCTL TUNABLES
251 These settings control whether certain special key combinations are enabled or
253 The specific key combinations can be configured by using a
257 These settings can be entered at the
261 and can also be changed at runtime with the
264 .Bl -tag -width indent
265 .It Va kern.vt.kbd_halt
266 Enable halt keyboard combination.
267 .It Va kern.vt.kbd_poweroff
268 Enable power off key combination.
269 .It Va kern.vt.kbd_reboot
270 Enable reboot key combination, usually Ctrl+Alt+Del.
271 .It Va kern.vt.kbd_debug
272 Enable debug request key combination, usually Ctrl+Alt+Esc.
273 .It Va kern.vt.kbd_panic
274 Enable panic key combination.
276 .Sh OTHER SYSCTL TUNABLES
277 These settings can be entered at the
281 or changed at runtime with
283 .Bl -tag -width indent
284 .It Va kern.vt.enable_bell
285 Enable the terminal bell.
288 .Bl -tag -width /usr/share/vt/keymaps/* -compact
290 .It Pa /dev/consolectl
294 terminal initialization information
295 .It Pa /usr/share/vt/fonts/*.fnt
297 .It Pa /usr/share/vt/keymaps/*.kbd
301 This example changes the default color of normal text to green on a
302 black background, or black on a green background when reversed.
303 Note that white space cannot be used inside the attribute string
304 because of the current implementation of
307 .Dl "options TERMINAL_NORM_ATTR=(FG_GREEN|BG_BLACK)"
309 This line changes the default color of kernel messages to be bright red
310 on a black background, or black on a bright red background when reversed.
312 .Dl "options TERMINAL_KERN_ATTR=(FG_LIGHTRED|BG_BLACK)"
314 To set a 1024x768 mode on all output connectors, put the following line in
315 .Pa /boot/loader.conf :
317 .Dl kern.vt.fb.default_mode="1024x768"
319 To set a 800x600 only on a laptop builtin screen, use the following line instead:
321 .Dl kern.vt.fb.modes.LVDS-1="800x600"
323 The connector name was found in
326 .Dl info: [drm] Connector LVDS-1: get mode from tunables:
327 .Dl info: [drm] - kern.vt.fb.modes.LVDS-1
328 .Dl info: [drm] - kern.vt.fb.default_mode
330 To set black and white colors of console palette
332 .Dl kern.vt.color.0.rgb="10,10,10"
333 .Dl kern.vt.color.15.rgb="#f0f0f0"
357 driver first appeared in
363 device driver was developed by
364 .An \&Ed Schouten Aq Mt ed@FreeBSD.org ,
365 .An \&Ed Maste Aq Mt emaste@FreeBSD.org ,
367 .An Aleksandr Rybalko Aq Mt ray@FreeBSD.org ,
368 with sponsorship provided by the
371 This manual page was written by
372 .An Warren Block Aq Mt wblock@FreeBSD.org .
374 Paste buffer size is limited by the system value
376 the number of bytes that can be stored in the terminal
377 input queue, usually 1024 bytes