console in 11.0-ALPHA4

[Trond Endrestøl]

On Mon, 20 Jun 2016 11:36-0400, Ernie Luzar wrote:

> I have installed 11.0-ALPHA4-i386-20160617-r301975.
> 
> The console looks very different from all previous releases.
> I find it to be harder to read. This manifests it self with the boot log
> messages and the normal behavior of the virtual consoles.
> 
> But the real problem is in the notable hesitation when switching between
> virtual consoles.
> 
> From the boot log (ie: dmesg) I see this
> VT(vga): resolution 640x480
> 
> This must be what is making the console display so different from
> previous releases. Can VT be configured to default to present the same
> console behavior as previous releases before this version of 11.0 gets
> published as RELEASE?

If you want textmode like in the old days, add this line to 
/boot/loader.conf:

hw.vga.textmode="1"

You can also interrupt the final boot loader, and type:

set hw.vga.textmode="1"

Then type:

menu

or:

boot

> About the "hesitation when switching between virtual consoles" I am
> thinking that this reduced performance may be caused by WITNESS being
> enabled in the ALPHA series of releases. Can anyone verify that this
> hesitation will not exist in the published RELEASE?

The "hesitation" is sometimes hardware dependent. A GPU with a KMS 
driver makes it better. It's even worse in some virtualization 
environments, e.g. Microsoft Hyper-V.

> In the boot log I get this message 16 times.
> "vicontrol: setting cursor type: Inappropriate ioctl for device"
> They don't seem to cause any problems that I have stumbled across.
> Is anyone else getting these "NOTICE" type messages?

If you decide to continue with the vt console, you should consider the 
following:

With the new VT console in graphics mode, you don't need to load any 
fonts. Disable or remove any font lines from /etc/rc.conf.

I haven't tried the vt console in text mode lately, so maybe you need 
the fonts in that case.

Look for the appropriate keymap file in /usr/share/vt/keymaps/ and 
update the keymap line in /etc/rc.conf.

Here's the Norwegian keyboard layout as an example:

keymap="norwegian.iso" # Old Norwegian keymap for the sc console

keymap="no"            # New Norwegian keymap for the vt console

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