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VGA(4)			     Kernel Interfaces Manual			  VGA(4)

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  ker-
     nel 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 oc-
     casionally,  do  not  add the VESA option.  And load the vesa module as de-
     sired:

	   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 Soren Schmidt <sos@FreeBSD.org> and	Kazutaka
     Yokota  <yokota@FreeBSD.org>.   This  manual  page  was written by Kazutaka
     Yokota.

FreeBSD ports 15.1		  June 30, 1999 			  VGA(4)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=vga&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+15.1-RELEASE+and+Ports>

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