[329] in linux-announce channel archive
SVGATextMode version 0.6, the new way of looking at text modes
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Lars Wirzenius)
Sat Mar 18 12:44:20 1995
Date: Sat, 18 Mar 1995 17:13:09 +0200
From: Lars Wirzenius <wirzeniu@cc.helsinki.fi>
To: linux-activists@niksula.hut.fi, linux-announce@vger.rutgers.edu
X-Mn-Key: announce
From: kmg@barco.be
Subject: SVGATextMode version 0.6, the new way of looking at text modes
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.announce
Keywords: SVGA console text screen monitor clock
Organization: ?
Approved: linux-announce@news.ornl.gov (Lars Wirzenius)
Followup-to: comp.os.linux.setup
Hi, linux users!
Here's the announcement of the newest version of SVGATextMode, as described
below in the Linux SoftWare Map file entry:
Begin3
Title: SVGA textmode manipulation/enhancement
Version: 0.6
Entered-date: 13MAR95
Description: Uses extra features found in all SVGA video cards to enhance
Linux text modes independently of what the BIOS can do. It is
configured with an XF86Config-like file, and allows setting of
pixel clock, H/V timings, font size, etc. Now you can use your
video card AND your monitor to the MAX in textmode, as you
used to do in XWindows. Current support includes S3, ET4000,
Cirrus Logic, Trident, Western Digital, ATI and Video7
(Headland techn.) cards. It can also use an external clock
program. Supports S3 special clock chips (largely untested).
Includes: palette changer, clock probe, text/graphics mode
grabber (for Linux and DOS), automatic font loading, monitor
definition (H/V frequency limits), cursor size setting.
Keywords: SVGA console text screen monitor clock
Author: kmg@barco.be (Koen Gadeyne)
Maintained-by: kmg@barco.be (Koen Gadeyne)
Primary-site: sunsite.unc.edu pub/Linux/utils/console (or "incoming")
185k SVGATextMode-0.6.tar.gz
Alternate-site: tsx-11.mit.edu pub/linux/sources/sbin (or "incoming")
Original-site:
Platform: Linux PC with one of the supported VGA cards, kernel 1.1.54 or newer.
Copying-policy: Freely Redistributable
End
The previous version (0.5) was SEVERELY braindamaged (lots of bugs).
Hopefully this time I REMOVED more bugs then I added...
The most important changes relative to my previous version (0.5) consist of
the following:
- Added support for Video7 (Headland Technologies) chipset. Untested!
- fixed a bug in OPT_SWAP_HIBIT for WDC cards. Using the "option swap_hibit"
flag didn't work.
- added automatic font loading. This is a major feature improvement. You can
define a font loading program and a font table in the TextConfig file, and
from then on, SVGAtextMode will automatically start the font loading
program with the appropriate font for the selected text mode. At last,
you only need to run just ONE program to change the entire text mode.
SVGATextMode runs all other programs by itself. Now let's hope it works...
- fixed a stupid bug that produced an error about using a 0 MHz clock when
using ClockChip ICD2061A.
- fixed ANOTHER stupid bug that found an incomplete clockchip line when
there was none defined, after having found a ClockProg line. I must have
had a bad day there...
- added flags: -r : don't run ResetProg
When used in the /etc/rc.d/rc.font file to load a new
mode at boot time, the ResetProg doesn't need to be
run yet: there's nothing to restart yet. This flag
avoids running the ResetProg.
-f : don't run FontProg
-c : don't program clock (but do the rest)
Interesting to use when clock selection doesn't seem to
function properly.
- programmable cursor position and size: lets you define what the cursor
looks like. Underline cursor, block cursor, whatever you like!
- added 'HorizSync' and 'VertRefresh' parameters to config file, to define
monitor's limits, and avoid loading a mode that the monitor cannot handle.
Same syntax as in XF86Config.
NOTE that the default is to only allow VGA timings (30-32 kHz!), so if you
switch from an older version (that didn't check this) to 0.6, all your
extended modes will be REFUSED! You must add these two lines to TextConfig
if you want to use your extended text modes again!
Enjoy!
Koen.
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