Re: changing console

[mlelstv%serpens.de@localhost (Michael van Elst)]

will.senn%gmail.com@localhost (Will Senn) writes:

>1. How do I change the console to use the vesa framebuffer console 
>(1024x768x32) which is available and works from the boot menu (is it 
>something in /etc/rc.conf)?

When you boot with UEFI, you get a framebuffer console and you can
tell the EFI bootloader to select a vesa graphics mode with the
"gop" command.

A DRM driver then may attach later and take over the display. To
avoid this, you can disable the driver with a "userconf" command
in the bootloader. The commands can be stored in /boot.cfg.

https://man.netbsd.org/boot.cfg.5

gives an example.


BIOS boot gives you initially a VGA text display. You can build
a custom kernel (options VGA_RASTERCONSOLE) to get a framebuffer
instead and the bootloader command "vesa" lets you chose a
supported mode. You still need to turn off DRM drivers so
that they don't take over the display.


>2. This changing from green on black of the kernel messages. Is this 
>only possible by rebuilding kernel with those options set? (wsconsctl 
>will let me set them, but I don't see how that works during boot).

To use different colors already during boot, you need a custom
kernel. There is only a very small number of options passed
to the kernel, and the method varies between platforms. So
no option exists to pass message colors.