NAME

       vga — generic video card interface

SYNOPSIS

       options VESA
       options VESA_DEBUG=N
       options VGA_ALT_SEQACCESS
       options VGA_NO_FONT_LOADING
       options VGA_NO_MODE_CHANGE
       options VGA_SLOW_IOACCESS
       options VGA_WIDTH90
       device vga

       In /boot/device.hints:
       hint.vga.0.at="isa"

DESCRIPTION

       The  vga  driver  is  a  generic  video card driver which provides access to video cards.  This driver is
       required for the console driver syscons(4).  The console driver will call the vga  driver  to  manipulate
       video hardware (changing video modes, loading font, etc).

       The  vga  driver  supports  the standard video cards: MDA, CGA, EGA and VGA.  In addition, the driver can
       utilize VESA BIOS extensions if the video card supports them.  VESA  support  can  either  be  statically
       included in the kernel or can be loaded as a separate module.

       In  order  to statically link the VESA support to the kernel, the VESA option (see below) must be defined
       in the kernel configuration file.

       The vesa module can be dynamically loaded into the kernel using kldload(8).

DRIVER CONFIGURATION

   Kernel Configuration Options
       The following kernel configuration options (see config(8)) can be used to control the vga driver.   These
       options provide compatibility with certain VGA cards.

       VGA_ALT_SEQACCESS
              You  may  want to try this option if the mouse pointer is not drawn correctly or the font does not
              seem to be loaded properly on the VGA card.  However, it may cause flicker on some systems.

       VGA_SLOW_IOACCESS
              Older VGA cards may require this option for proper operation.  It makes the driver  perform  byte-
              wide I/O to VGA registers and slow down a little.

       VGA_WIDTH90
              This  option  enables  90  column  modes:  90x25, 90x30, 90x43, 90x50, 90x60.  These modes are not
              always supported by the video card and the display.  It is highly likely that LCD  display  cannot
              work with these modes.

       The following options add optional features to the driver.

       VESA   Add  VESA  BIOS  support to the driver.  If the VGA card has the VESA BIOS extension 1.2 or later,
              this option will utilize the VESA BIOS service to switch to high resolution modes.

       VESA_DEBUG=N
              Set the VESA support debug level to N.  The default value is zero, which suppresses all  debugging
              output.

       The following options will remove some features from the vga driver and save kernel memory.

       VGA_NO_FONT_LOADING
              The  vga  driver  can  load software font to EGA and VGA cards.  This option removes this feature.
              Note that if you use this option and still wish to use the mouse on the console then you must also
              use the SC_ALT_MOUSE_IMAGE option.  See syscons(4).

       VGA_NO_MODE_CHANGE
              This option prevents the driver from changing video modes.

EXAMPLES

       Your kernel configuration should normally have:

             device vga

       And you need the following line in /boot/device.hints.

             hint.vga.0.at="isa"

       The following lines should be included in the kernel configuration file in order to enable the VESA  BIOS
       Extension support.

             options VESA
             device vga

       If you do not want VESA support included in the kernel, but want to use occasionally, do not add the VESA
       option.  And load the vesa module as desired:

             kldload vesa

SEE ALSO

       vgl(3), syscons(4), config(8), kldload(8), kldunload(8)

STANDARDS

       Video Electronics Standards Association, VESA BIOS Extension (VBE).

HISTORY

       The vga driver first appeared in FreeBSD 3.1.

AUTHORS

       The  vga  driver was written by Søren Schmidt <sos@FreeBSD.org> and Kazutaka Yokota <yokota@FreeBSD.org>.
       This manual page was written by Kazutaka Yokota.

Debian                                            June 30, 1999                                           VGA(4)