display(HW)

display -- system console display

Synopsis

   #include <sys/kd.h>
   #include <sys/vt.h>
   #include <sys/ws/ws.h>

Description

The system console (and user's terminal) is composed of two separate pieces: the keyboard. and the display. (See keyboard(HW) for information about the keyboard.) Because of their complexity, and because there are three possible display interfaces (monochrome, color graphics, and enhanced graphics adapters), they are discussed in separate manual entries.

The display normally consists of 25 lines of 80 columns each; 40-column lines are also supported by the color/graphics adapter, and 43 lines of 80-columns each are supported by the enhanced graphics adapter. When characters are written to the console or one of its virtual screens (/dev/console or /dev/vtxx), the output depends on the specific characters. All characters written to /dev/console are first processed by the terminal interface (See termio(HW).) For example, mapping new-line characters to carriage return plus new-line, and expanding tabs to spaces, will be done before the following processing:

x: Displays x. x cannot be one of the other values in this list.
BEL: Generates a bell (audible tone, no modulation).
CR: Places the cursor at column 1 of the current line.
LF, VT: Places the cursor at the same column of the next line (scrolls if the current line is line 25).
FF: Clears the screen and places the cursor at line 1, column 1.
BS: If the cursor is not at column 1, it is moved to the left one position on the same line. If the cursor is at column 1 but not line 1, it is moved to column 79 of the previous line. Finally, if the cursor is at column 1, line 1, it is not moved.

The display can be controlled by using specific sequences of characters that are ANSI X3.64 escape sequences preceded by the ASCII character ESC. The escape sequences, which work on either the monochrome, color graphics, or enhanced graphics adapter, are the following:

ESC c

Clears the screen and places the cursor at line 1, column 1.

ESC Q n 'string'

Defines the function key n with string. The string delimiter ' may be any character not in string. Function keys are numbered 0 through 11 (F1 = 0, F2 = 1, and so on.)

ESC[ n @

Insert character--inserts n blanks at the current cursor position.

ESC[ n `

Horizontal Position Absolute--moves active position to column

ESC[ n A

Cursor up--moves the cursor up n lines (default: n=1).

ESC[ n a

Horizontal Position Relative--moves active position n characters to the right (default: n=1).

ESC[ n B

Cursor down--moves the cursor down n lines (default: n=1).

ESC[ n C

Cursor right--moves the cursor right n columns (default: n=1).

ESC[ n c

Set Cursor Type--where n is 0 (underline cursor), 1(blockcursor), or 2(no cursor). 0 is the default value for n.

ESC[ n D

Cursor left--moves the cursor left n columns (default: n=1).

ESC[ n d

Vertical Position Absolute--moves active position to line given by n.

ESC[ n E

Cursor next line--moves the cursor to column 1 of the next line, then down n-1 lines (default: n=1).

ESC[ n e

Vertical Position Relative--moves the active position down n lines (default: n=1).

ESC[ n F

Cursor previous line--moves the cursor to column 1 of the current line, then up n lines (default: n=1).

ESC[ n G

Cursor horizontal position--moves the cursor to column n of the current line (default: n=1).

ESC[ n ; m H

Position cursor--moves the cursor to column m of line n (default: n=1, m=1).

ESC[ n ; m f

Position cursor--moves the cursor to column m of line n (default: n=1, m=1).

ESC[ n J

Erase window--erases from the current cursor position to the end of the window if n=0, from the beginning of the window to the current cursor position if n=1, and the entire window if n=2 (default: n=0).

ESC[ n K

Erase line--erases from the current cursor position to the end of the line if n=0, from the beginning of the line to the current cursor position if n=1, and the entire line if n=2 (default: n=0).

ESC[ n L

Insert line--inserts n lines at the current cursor position (default: n=1).

ESC[ n M

Delete line--deletes n lines starting at the current cursor position (default: n=1).

ESC[ n P

Delete character--deletes n characters from a line starting at the current cursor position (default: n=1).

ESC[ n S

Scroll up--scrolls the characters in the current window up n lines. The bottom n lines are cleared to blanks (default: n=1).

ESC[ n T

Scroll down--scrolls the characters in the current window down n lines. The top n lines are cleared to blanks (default: n=1).

ESC[ n X

Erase character--erases n character positions starting at the current cursor position (default: n=1).

ESC[ n Z

Cursor Backward Tabulation--moves active position back n tab stops.

ESC[ 2 h

Locks the keyboard and ignores keyboard input until unlocked. Characters are not saved.

ESC[ 2 i

Sends the screen to the host. The current screen display is sent to the application.

ESC[ 2 l

Unlocks the keyboard. Re-enables keyboard input.

ESC[ Ps ; Ps; . . . m

Character attributes--each Ps is a value in the table below; multiple characters are separated by semicolons. These parameters apply to successive characters being displayed, in an additive way (for example, both bold and underscoring can be selected). Only the parameters through 7 apply to the monochrome adapter; all parameters apply to the color or graphics adapter and the enhanced graphics adapter. (Default: Ps=0).

Ps Meaning

0 All attributes off (normal display)
(white foreground with black background)

1 Bold intensity

4 Underscore on
(white foreground with red background on color)

5 Blink on

6 VGA only: if blink (5) is on, turn blink off and background color to its light equivalent (that is, brown to yellow)

7 Reverse video

30 black (gray) foreground

31 red (light red) foreground

32 green (light green) foreground

33 brown (yellow) foreground

34 blue (light blue) foreground

35 magenta (light magenta) foreground

36 cyan (light cyan) foreground

37 white (bright white) foreground

40 black (gray) background

41 red (light red) background

42 green (light green) background

43 brown (yellow) background

44 blue (light blue) background

45 magenta (light magenta) background

46 cyan (light cyan) background

47 white (bright white) background

Ps	Meaning
0	All attributes off (normal display) (white foreground with black background)
1	Bold intensity
4	Underscore on (white foreground with red background on color)
5	Blink on
6	VGA only: if blink (5) is on, turn blink off and background color to its light equivalent (that is, brown to yellow)
7	Reverse video
30	black	(gray)	foreground
31	red	(light red)	foreground
32	green	(light green)	foreground
33	brown	(yellow)	foreground
34	blue	(light blue)	foreground
35	magenta	(light magenta)	foreground
36	cyan	(light cyan)	foreground
37	white	(bright white)	foreground
40	black	(gray)	background
41	red	(light red)	background
42	green	(light green)	background
43	brown	(yellow)	background
44	blue	(light blue)	background
45	magenta	(light magenta)	background
46	cyan	(light cyan)	background
47	white	(bright white)	background

Note that for character attributes 30-37, the color selected for foreground will depend on whether the bold intensity attribute (1) is currently on. If not, the first color listed will result; otherwise the second color listed will result.

Similarly, for character attributes 40-47, the color selected for background will depend on whether the blink attribute (5) is currently on and bright background (6) has been turned on. If blink is not turned on or bright background has not been selected, the first listed color will result. Otherwise, the second color listed will result.

ESC[ 8 m

sets blank (non-display)

ESC[ 10 m

selects the primary font

ESC[ 11 m

selects the first alternate font; lets ASCII characters less than 32 be displayed as ROM characters

ESC[ 12 m

selects a second alternate font; toggles high bit of extended ASCII code before displaying as ROM characters

ESC[ 38 m

enables underline option; white foreground with white underscore (see ``Notices''. )

ESC[ 39 m

disables underline option (see ``Notices''.)

The following non-ANSI X3.64 escape sequences are supplied:

ESC[= c A: Sets overscan color.
ESC[= p ; d B: Sets bell parameters (where p is the pitch in Hz and d is the duration in milliseconds)
ESC[= s ; e C: Sets cursor parameters (where s is the starting and e is the ending scanlines of the cursor).
ESC[= x D: Enables/disables intensity of background color (where x is 0 for enable and 1 for disable).
ESC[= x E: Sets/clears blink versus bold background (where x is 0 for set and 1 for clear).
ESC[= c F: Sets normal foreground color. See GIO_ATTR for the valid values for c.
ESC[= c G: Sets normal background color. See GIO_ATTR for the valid values for c.
ESC[= n g: Displays graphic character n.
ESC[= c H: Sets reverse foreground color. See GIO_ATTR for the valid values for c.
ESC[= c I: Sets reverse background color. See GIO_ATTR for the valid values for c.
ESC[= c J: Sets graphic foreground color. See GIO_ATTR for the valid values for c.
ESC[= c K: Sets graphic background color. See GIO_ATTR for the valid values for c.
ESC[ n z: Makes virtual terminal number n active.
ESC 7: Saves cursor position.
ESC 8: Restores cursor position to saved value.
ESC[ 0 k: Disables the key-click feature (the default).
ESC[ 1 k: Enables the key-click feature. A tone is produced for each key press.

ioctl calls

The following ioctl calls may be used to change the display used for the video monitor. If the virtual terminal has not been put in process mode (see the VT_SETMODE ioctl), setting the display mode to a non-text mode will turn off VT switching. VT switches will be re-enabled after the display mode has been reset to a text mode.

Note: All the following ioctls are performed on either a file descriptor to the virtual terminals or to the special file /dev/video. ioctls to /dev/video are indicated with an asterisk (*). For the ioctls to /dev/video to work, the controlling tty for the process must be the virtual terminal on which the operation is to be performed. If the tty is not a virtual terminal, the return value will be -1 and errno will be set to EINVAL.

SWAPMONO (*): This call selects the monochrome adapter as the output device for the system console.
SWAPCGA (*): This call selects the color/graphics adapter as the output device for the system console.
SWAPEGA (*): This call selects the enhanced graphics adapter as the output device for the system console.
SWAPVGA (*): This call selects the video graphics array as the output device for the system console.

The following ioctl call may be used to obtain more information about the display adapter currently attached to the video monitor:

CONS_CURRENT (*): This call returns the display adapter type currently attached to the video monitor. The return value can be one of: MONO, CGA, or EGA.

The following ioctl calls may be used to switch display modes on the various video adapters:

SW_B40x25 (*): This call selects 40x25 (40 columns by 25 rows) black and white text display mode. It is valid only for CGA and EGA devices.
SW_C40x25 (*): This call selects 40x25 (40 columns by 25 rows) color text display mode. It is valid only for CGA and EGA devices.
SW_B80x25 (*): This call selects 80x25 (80 columns by 25 rows) black and white text display mode. It is valid only for CGA and EGA devices.
SW_C80x25 (*): This call selects 80x25 (80 columns by 25 rows) color text display mode. It is valid only for CGA and EGA devices.
SW_BG320 (*): This call selects 320x200 black and white graphics display mode. It is valid only for CGA and EGA devices.
SW_CG320 (*): This call selects 320x200 color graphics display mode. It is valid only for CGA and EGA devices.
SW_BG640 (*): This call selects 640x200 black and white graphics display mode. It is valid only for CGA and EGA devices.
SW_CG320_D (*): This call selects EGA support for 320x200 graphics display mode (EGA mode D). It is valid only for EGA devices.
SW_CG640_E (*): This call selects EGA support for 640x200 graphics display mode (EGA mode E). It is valid only for EGA devices.
SW_EGAMONOAPA (*): This call selects EGA support for 640x350 graphics display mode (EGA mode F). It is valid only for EGA devices.
SW_ENH_MONOAPA2 (*): This call selects EGA support for 640x350 graphics display mode with extended memory (EGA mode F*). It is valid only for EGA devices.
SW_CG640x350 (*): This call selects EGA support for 640x350 graphics display mode (EGA mode 10). It is valid only for EGA devices.
SW_ENH_CG640 (*): This call selects EGA support for 640x350 graphics display mode with extended memory (EGA mode 16). It is valid only for EGA devices.
SW_EGAMONO80x25 (*): This call selects EGA monochrome text display mode (EGA mode 7), which emulates support provided by the monochrome adapter. It is valid only for EGA devices.
SW_ENHB40x25 (*): This call selects enhanced 40x25 black and white text display mode. It is valid only for EGA devices.
SW_ENHC40x25 (*): This call selects enhanced 40x25 color text display mode. It is valid only for EGA devices.
SW_ENHB80x25 (*): This call selects enhanced 80x25 black and white display mode. It is valid only for EGA devices.
SW_ENHC80x25 (*): This call selects enhanced 80x25 color text display mode. It is valid only for EGA devices.
SW_ENHB80x43 (*): This call selects enhanced 80x43 black and white text display mode. It is valid only for EGA devices.
SW_ENHC80x43 (*): This call selects enhanced 80x43 color text display mode. It is valid only for EGA devices.
SW_MCAMODE (*): This call reinitializes the monochrome adapter. It is valid only for monochrome adapters.
SW_ATT640 (*): This call selects 640x400 16 color mode, when an AT&T^® Super-Vu video controller is attached.

Switching to an invalid display mode for a display device will result in an error.

The following ioctls may be used to obtain information about the current display modes:

CONS_GET (*)

This call returns the current display mode setting for whatever display adapter is being used. Possible return values include:

M_B40x25 (0): Black and white 40 columns. CGA and EGA only.
M_C40x25 (1): Color 40 columns. CGA and EGA only.
M_B80x25 (2): Black and white 80 columns. CGA and EGA only.
M_C80x25 (3): Color 80 columns. CGA and EGA only.
M_BG320 (4): Black and white graphics 320 by 200. CGA and EGA only.
M_CG320 (5): Color graphics 320 by 200. CGA and EGA only.
M_BG640 (6): Black and white graphics 640 by 200 high-resolution. CGA and EGA only.
M_EGAMONO80x25 (7): EGA-mono 80 by 25. EGA only.
M_CG320_D (13): EGA mode D.
M_CG640_E (14): EGA mode E.
M_EFAMONOAPA (15): EGA mode F.
M_CG640x350 (16): EGA mode 10.
M_ENHMONOAPA2 (17): EGA mode F with extended memory.
M_ENH_CG640 (18): EGA mode 16.
M_ENH_B40x25 (19): EGA enhanced black and white 40 columns.
M_ENH_C40x25 (20): EGA enhanced color 40 columns.
M_ENH_B80x25 (21): EGA enhanced black and white 80 columns.
M_ENH_C80x25 (22): EGA enhanced color 80 columns.
M_ENH_B80x43 (0x70): EGA black and white 80 by 43.
M_ENH_C80x43 (0x71): EGA color 80 by 43.
M_MCA_MODE (0xff): monochrome adapter mode.

MCA_GET (*)

This call returns the current display mode setting of the monochrome adapter. See CONS_GET for a list of return values. If the monochrome adapter is not installed, the call will fail and errno will be set to 22 (EINVAL).

CGA_GET (*)

This call returns the current display mode setting of the color/graphics adapter. See CONS_GET for a list of return values. If the color graphics adapter is not installed, the call will fail and errno will be set to 22 (EINVAL).

EGA_GET (*)

This call returns the current display mode setting of the enhanced graphics adapter. See CONS_GET for a list of return values. If the enhanced graphics adapter is not installed, the call will fail and errno will be set to 22 (EINVAL).

The following ioctl calls may be used to map the video adapter's memory into the user's data space.

MAPCONS (*): This call maps the display memory of the adapter currently being used into the user's data space.
MAPMONO (*): This call maps the monochrome adapter's display memory into the user's data space.
MAPCGA (*): This call maps the color/graphics adapter's display memory into the user's data space.
MAPEGA (*): This call maps the enhanced graphics adapter's display memory into the user's data space.
MAPVGA (*): This call maps the video graphics array's display memory into the user's data space.

You can use ioctl calls to input a byte from the graphics adapter port or to output a byte to the graphics adapter port. The argument to the ioctl uses the port_io_arg data structure:

	struct port_io_arg {
			struct port_io_struc_args[4];
	};

The previous example shows that the port_io_arg structure points to an array of four port_io_struc data structures. The port_io_struc has the following format:

	struc port_io_struc {
		char   dir;		/*direction flag (in vs. out)*/
		ushort port;		/*port address*/
		char   data;		/*byte of data*/
	};

You can specify one, two, three, or four of the port_io_struc structures in the array for one ioctl call. The value of dir can be either IN_ON_PORT (to specify a byte being input from the graphics adapter port) or OUT_ON_PORT (to specify a byte being output to the graphics adapter port). Port is an integer specifying the port address of the desired graphics adapter port. Data is the byte of data being input or output as specified by the call. If you are not using any of the port_io_struc structures, load the port with 0, and leave the unused structures at the end of the array. Refer to your hardware manuals for port addresses and functions for the various adapters.

The following ioctl calls may be used to input or output bytes on the graphics adapter port:

MCAIO (*): This call inputs or outputs a byte on the monochrome adapter port as specified.
CGAIO (*): This call inputs or outputs a byte on the color/graphics adapter port as specified.
EGAIO (*): This call inputs or outputs a byte on the enhanced graphics adapter port as specified.
VGAIO (*): This call inputs or outputs a byte on the video graphics array port as specified.

To input a byte on any of the graphics adapter ports, load dir with IN_ON_PORT and load port with the port address of the graphics adapter. The byte input from the graphics adapter port will be returned in data.

To output a byte, load dir with OUT_ON_PORT, load port with the port address of the graphics adapter, and load data with the byte you want to output to the graphics adapter port.

The following ioctls may be used with either the monochrome, color graphics, or enhanced graphics adapters:

GIO_FONT8x8 (*)

This call gets the current 8x8 font in use.

GIO_FONT8x14 (*)

This call gets the current 8x14 font in use.

GIO_FONT8x16 (*)

This call gets the current 8x16 font in use.

KDDISPTYPE (*)

This call returns display information to the user. The argument expected is the buffer address of a structure of type kd_disparam into which display information is returned to the user. The kd_disparam structure is defined as follows:

struct kd_disparam {
	long type;	/*display type*/
	char *addr;	/*display memory address*/
	ushort ioaddr[MKDIOADDR];	/*valid I/O addresses*/
}

Possible values for the type field include:

KD_MONO (0x01): IBM monochrome display adapter
KD_HERCULES (0x02): Hercules monochrome graphics adapter
KD_CGA (0x03): IBM color graphics adapter
KD_EGA (0x04): IBM enhanced graphics adapter
KD_VGA (0x05): IBM video graphics adapter

KIOCSOUND (*)

Start sound generation. Turn on sound. The argument is the frequency desired. A frequency of 0 turns off the sound.

KDGETLED

Get keyboard LED status. The argument is a pointer to a character. The character will be filled with a boolean combination of the following values:

LED_SCR 0x01 flag bit for scroll lock

LED_CAP 0x04 flag bit for caps lock

LED_NUM 0x02 flag bit for num lock

LED_KANA 0x08 flag bit for Japanese keyboard, for KANA lock virtual LED

LED_ALCK 0x10 flag bit for <Alt> lock virtual LED

KDSETLED

Set keyboard LED status. The argument is a character whose value is the boolean combination of the values listed under KDGETLED.

KDMKTONE (*)

Generate a fixed length tone. The argument is a 32 bit value, with the lower 16 bits set to the frequency and the upper 16 bits set to the duration (in milliseconds).

KDGKBTYPE

Get keyboard type. The argument is a pointer to a character type. The character will be returned with one of the following values:

KB_84 0x01: 84 key keyboard
KB_101 0x02: 101 key keyboard
KB_OTHER 0x03: 101 key keyboard

KDADDIO (*)

Add I/O port address to list of valid video adaptor addresses. Argument is an unsigned short type that should contain a valid port address for the installed video adaptor.

KDDELIO (*)

Delete I/O port address from list of valid video adaptor addresses. The argument is an unsigned short type that should contain a valid port address for the installed video adaptor.

KDENABIO (*)

Enable in and out calls to video adaptor ports. Does not take an argument.

KDDISABIO (*)

Disable in and out calls to video adaptor ports. Does not take an argument.

KDQUEMODE (*)

Enable and disable special queue mode. Queue mode is used by AT&T's X-Windows software to establish a shared queue for access to keyboard and mouse event information. The argument is a pointer to a structure kd_quemode. If a NULL pointer is sent as an argument, the queue will be closed and the mode disabled. The structure kd_quemode is as follows:

struct kd_quemode {
	int	qsize;	/* desired # of elements in queue */
	int	signo;	/* signal number to send when queue
			   goes non-empty */
	void	char  *qaddr;	/* user virtual address of queue
			   (set by driver) */
	};

KDSBORDER (*)

Set screen color border in EGA text mode. The argument is of type character. Each bit position corresponds to a color selection. From bit position 0 to bit position 6, the color selections are respectively; blue, green, red, secondary blue, secondary green, and secondary red. Setting the bit position to a logic one will select the desired color or colors. See the ``Notices'' section.

KDSETMODE (*)

Set virtual terminal in text or graphics mode. The argument is of type integer. It should contain one of the following values:

KD_TEXT 0x00: Sets virtual terminal to text mode.

KD_GRAPHICS 0x01: Sets virtual terminal in graphics mode.

If the mode is set to KD_GRAPHICS and the Virtual Terminal is not in process mode (see the VT_SETMODE ioctl), no virtual terminal switches will be possible until the mode is reset to KD_TEXT, KD_TEXT0, or KD_TEXT1. KD_TEXT and KD_TEXT0 are synonymous.

Note, the user is responsible for programming the color/graphics adaptor registers for the appropriate graphical state.

KDGETMODE (*)

Get current mode of virtual terminal. Returns integer argument containing either KD_TEXT, KD_TEXT1, or KD_GRAPHICS as defined in the KDSETMODE ioctl description.

KDMAPDISP (*)

Maps display memory into user process address space. The argument is a pointer to structure type kd_memloc. The structure definition is as follows:

struct kd_memloc {
	char	*vaddr;		/* virtual address to map to */
	char	*physaddr;	/* physical address to map from */
	long	length;		/* size in bytes to map */
	long	ioflg;		/* enable i/o addresses if set */
	}

KDUNMAPDISP (*)

Unmap display memory from user process address space. No argument is required.

KDNOAUTOFOCUS (*)

Controls whether new virtual terminals are automatically focused when they are created. The argument is an unsigned long. If KDNOAUTOFOCUS is set to 0, virtual terminals will be focused when they are created. If the argument is non-zero, virtual terminals will not be focused when they are created. See vtautofocus(C) for information about the user utility to set this behavior.

CON_MEM_MAPPED (*)

Informs the kernel that a process is about to use mmap(S) or a similar function to map memory. The driver is not responsible for mapping memory, but must still perform any other operations required to initalize the active channel in graphics mode.

The argument is a pointer to structure type con_mem_map_req. The structure definition is as follows:

typedef struct con_mem_map_req {
	size_t	length;		/* requested length */
	paddr_t	address;	/* Physical address to map */
	pid_t	proc_id;	/* PID of calling process */
	pid_t	proc_id;	/* PID of calling process */
	}
con_mem_map_req_t;

length is the length of the memory that the process would like to map. address is the physical address at which it asks for the mapping to start. The driver may overwrite these fields. The process must therefore read the values returned (typically for multiconsoles) in these fields.

proc_id is the process identifier of the calling process.

KDVDCTYPE

This call returns VDC controller/display information.

PIO_FONT8x8 (*)

This call uses the user supplied 8x8 font.

PIO_FONT8x14 (*)

This call uses the user supplied 8x14 font.

PIO_FONT8x16 (*)

This call uses the user supplied 8x16 font.

VT_OPENQRY

Finds an available virtual terminal. The argument is a pointer to an int. The int will be filled with the number of the first available VT that no other process has open, or -1 if none is available.

VT_GETMODE (*)

Determine what mode the active virtual terminal is currently in, either VT_AUTO or VT_PROCESS. The argument to the ioctl is the address of the following type of structure:

struct vt_mode {
	char	mode;	/* VT mode */
	char	waitv;	/* if set, hang on writes when not active */
	short	relsig;	/* signal to use for release request */
	short	acqsig;	/* signal to use for display acquired */
	short	frsig;	/* signal to use to force VT switch */
	}

#define	VT_AUTO		0x00	/* automatic VT switching */
#define	VT_PROCESS	0x01	/* process controls switching */

The vt_mode structure will be filled in with the current value for each field.

VT_GETSTATE (*)

The VT_GETSTATE ioctl returns global virtual terminal state information. It returns the active virtual terminal in the v_active field, and the number of active virtual terminals and a bit mask of the global state in the v_state field, where bit x is the state of vt x (1 indicates that the virtual terminal is open).

VT_SETMODE (*)

Set the virtual terminal mode (Auto or Proced). The argument is a pointer to a vt_mode structure, as defined above.

VT_SENDSIG (*)

The VT_SENDSIG ioctl specifies a signal (in v_signal) to be sent to a bit mask of virtual terminals (in v_state).

The data structure used by the VT_GETSTATE and VT_SENDSIG ioctls is:

struct vt_stat {
	ushort v_active;	/* active vt*/
	ushort v_signal;	/* signal to send (VT_SENDSIG) */
	ushort v_state;	/* vt bit mask (VT_SENDSIG and
	               	   VT_GETSTATE)*/
};

It is defined in /usr/include/sys/vt.h.

VT_RELDISP (*)

Used to tell the virtual terminal manager that the display has or has not been released by the process. A zero value indicates refusal to release the display. A value of VT_ACKACQ indicates an acquisition of a device. EINVAL is returned if a non-zero value that is not equal to VT_ACKACQ is received and the virtual terminal has not yet been acquired. Otherwise, the virtual terminal will be released.

VT_ACTIVATE (*)

Makes the virtual terminal number specified in the argument the active VT. The VT manager will cause a switch to occur in the same way as if a hotkey sequence had been typed at the keyboard. If the specified VT is not open or does not exist, the call will fail and errno will be set to ENXIO.

KIOCINFO

This call tells the user what the device is. The local virtual terminal will return the string ``kd''; multi-consoles will return the string ``MC''; non-terminal devices fail the ioctl with -1.

GIO_SCRNMAP (*)

This call gets the screen mapping table from the kernel.

GIO_ATTR

This call returns the current screen attribute. The bits are interpreted as follows:

Bit 0

Determines underlining for black and white monitors (1=on).

Bits 0-2 (color monitors only)

Selects the foreground color. The following list indicates which colors are selected by the given value:

0: black
1: red
2: green
3: brown
4: blue
5: magenta
6: cyan
7: white

Bit 3

Determines bold intensity (1=on).

Bits 4-6 (color monitors only)

Selects the background color. For a list of colors and their values, see the list under foreground colors.

Bit 7

Determines blinking (1=on).

GIO_COLOR (*)

This call returns a non-zero value if the current display is a color display, otherwise, it returns a zero.

PIO_SCRNMAP

This call puts the screen mapping table in the kernel.

The screen mapping table maps extended ASCII (8-bit) characters to ROM characters. It is an array [256] of char (typedef scrnmap_t) and is indexed by extended ASCII values. The value of the elements of the array are the ROM character to display.

Files

/dev/console
/dev/vt00-n
/dev/video
/usr/include/sys/kd.h
/dev/tty
/usr/include/sys/ws/ws.h
/usr/include/sys/ws/vt.h

References

console(HW), ioctl(S), keyboard(HW), stty(C), termio(HW)

Notices

Although it is possible to write character sequences that set arbitrary bits on the screen in any of the three graphics modes, this mode of operation is not currently supported.

Monochrome adaptors support underscore option as the default. EGA and VGA adaptors require the use of the ESC[38m and ESC[39m escape sequences to enable and disable the underscore option respectively. After the underscore option has been enabled on a EGA or VGA adaptor by using the ESC[38m sequence and until the underline option has been disabled by using the ESC[39m sequence, characters that have blue foreground attributes will be displayed in cyan foreground and characters that have blue background attributes will be displayed in white background attributes.

It is currently not possible to access the 6845 start address registers. Thus, it is impossible to determine the beginning of the color monitor's screen memory.

The alternate/background color bit (bit 4) of the color select register does not appear to affect background colors in alphanumeric modes.

KDSBORDER ioctl calls will not work with AT&T's Super-Vu enhanced color/graphics video adaptor. It will however, work with the IBM EGA card and other EGA compatible video adaptors.

The low-resolution graphics mode appears to be 80 across by 100 down.

LED_SCR	0x01	flag bit for scroll lock
LED_CAP	0x04	flag bit for caps lock
LED_NUM	0x02	flag bit for num lock
LED_KANA	0x08	flag bit for Japanese keyboard, for KANA lock virtual LED
LED_ALCK	0x10	flag bit for <Alt> lock virtual LED