Subject: Re: /dev/fb, rcons, and changing resolutions
To: Matt Thomas <matt@3am-software.com>
From: Andy Doran <ad@netbsd.org>
List: tech-kern
Date: 08/12/1999 17:39:25
Matt Thomas wrote:

> This leads into a different problem: how does one
> inform rcons that the format of the framebuffer is
> different and it needs to select a new set of rasops
> that are appropriate for reconfigured display.

WRT 'rasops', as a 'side effect' rasops_setfont() does all the work 
for you, provided you've changed the 'struct rasops_info'. [The name
of that function and semantics will change a bit when I fix PR 8121].

> Speaking of rcons, it would be nice to be able to tell
> it what to use for fg pixel and bg pixel. Also if it

If you're talking about ANSI color, that's possible. For actual pel
values, there's nothing there to let you do that at the moment.

> could keep (at least) a screenful of the display in
> memory so that when /dev/fb is closed, the screen could
> be refreshed. (I assume wscons supports this for
> alternate VTs).

Do you mean a pel-by-pel screen capture, or text-and-attributes?
The latter might just make VTs fairly easy to accomplish. 

- ad