Bug 261909 - vt / drm-kmod: hw.vga.textmode is ignored if drm-kmod driver is loaded
Summary: vt / drm-kmod: hw.vga.textmode is ignored if drm-kmod driver is loaded
Status: Closed Works As Intended
Alias: None
Product: Base System
Classification: Unclassified
Component: kern (show other bugs)
Version: Unspecified
Hardware: Any Any
: --- Affects Some People
Assignee: freebsd-bugs (Nobody)
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2022-02-12 22:04 UTC by Stefan B.
Modified: 2022-02-21 04:32 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

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Description Stefan B. 2022-02-12 22:04:45 UTC 
If one loads the drm-kmod driver (i915kms, radeonkms, amdgpu) to make suspend/resume work, then the vt newcons setting "hw.vga.textmode" is ignored.

This is very annoying, as with high resolution screens the letters become very small and hard-to-read.

For people with bad eyesight, this is very annoying.
And this is also aggravated by the fact that vt, unlike sc, only allows white-on-black negative display, but no ergonomic positive display, as it ignores any custom color settings, see https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=261311
Comment 1 Graham Perrin freebsd_committer freebsd_triage 2022-02-13 02:38:17 UTC 
My /boot/loader.conf includes the lines below. 

People with eyesight difficulty might prefer 12x24, or greater, for screen.font

----

# hw.vga.textmode="0"

# 12x24 is slightly oversized in normal mode
# screen.font="10x20"
screen.font="8x16"
efi_max_resolution="1600x900"
Comment 2 Ed Maste freebsd_committer freebsd_triage 2022-02-14 18:57:01 UTC 
This is as expected, the drm-kmod drivers do not offer the option to switch back to text mode.
Comment 3 commit-hook freebsd_committer freebsd_triage 2022-02-14 19:05:44 UTC 
A commit in branch main references this bug:

URL: https://cgit.FreeBSD.org/src/commit/?id=004b0aa86967213d0773ec95b5efd28d8a3c9538

commit 004b0aa86967213d0773ec95b5efd28d8a3c9538
Author:     Ed Maste <emaste@FreeBSD.org>
AuthorDate: 2022-02-14 19:03:52 +0000
Commit:     Ed Maste <emaste@FreeBSD.org>
CommitDate: 2022-02-14 19:05:09 +0000

    vt.4: clarify that a KMS driver switches to graphics mode

    PR:             261909
    MFC after:      3 days
    Sponsored by:   The FreeBSD Foundation

 share/man/man4/vt.4 | 5 ++++-
 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
Comment 4 Stefan B. 2022-02-14 20:25:32 UTC 
@Ed Thanks, that man page addition indeed clarifies things!
@Graham Thanks too, will try out these fonts soon!
Comment 5 commit-hook freebsd_committer freebsd_triage 2022-02-17 01:07:25 UTC 
A commit in branch stable/13 references this bug:

URL: https://cgit.FreeBSD.org/src/commit/?id=1fa9903bee3b642049d1705a714bd775b7d4e678

commit 1fa9903bee3b642049d1705a714bd775b7d4e678
Author:     Ed Maste <emaste@FreeBSD.org>
AuthorDate: 2022-02-14 19:03:52 +0000
Commit:     Ed Maste <emaste@FreeBSD.org>
CommitDate: 2022-02-17 01:03:53 +0000

    vt.4: clarify that a KMS driver switches to graphics mode

    PR:             261909
    MFC after:      3 days
    Sponsored by:   The FreeBSD Foundation

    (cherry picked from commit 004b0aa86967213d0773ec95b5efd28d8a3c9538)

 share/man/man4/vt.4 | 5 ++++-
 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
Comment 6 commit-hook freebsd_committer freebsd_triage 2022-02-17 01:08:27 UTC 
A commit in branch stable/12 references this bug:

URL: https://cgit.FreeBSD.org/src/commit/?id=9ad3ccb816a314804d53a2e5f071c64b4c5c727d

commit 9ad3ccb816a314804d53a2e5f071c64b4c5c727d
Author:     Ed Maste <emaste@FreeBSD.org>
AuthorDate: 2022-02-14 19:03:52 +0000
Commit:     Ed Maste <emaste@FreeBSD.org>
CommitDate: 2022-02-17 01:07:30 +0000

    vt.4: clarify that a KMS driver switches to graphics mode

    PR:             261909
    MFC after:      3 days
    Sponsored by:   The FreeBSD Foundation

    (cherry picked from commit 004b0aa86967213d0773ec95b5efd28d8a3c9538)

 share/man/man4/vt.4 | 5 ++++-
 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)