illumos framebuffer?

[billy_bazooka]

hey guys,
i have a weird question.
i do almost all my work from the console on unix like systems, but on occasion i need to startx.
now, on linux and all bsd's the system always turns on framebuffer (kms) and i have huge resolution in console instead of 80x25 normal text mode. BUT, when i turn off framebuffer to get 80x25 text console i cannot startx in full hd resolution.

my question is this, recently i started toying around with openindiana and since i installed it with a live-dvd it automatically boots to gui. i turned graphical login off and restarted the system to boot into 80x25 text console.. and then i noticed when i typed startx, voila! x was in full hd resolution! no more that annoying framebuffer crap that linux and bsd's do.

what makes illumos different from linux / all bsd's to be able to do that?
and is such a thing (80x25 text console, and then startx in FULL HD resolution) possible in linux / any bsd?

[roddierod]

I don't know anything about linux, but what BSD are you talking about? In FreeBSD startx is part of x11/xorg-apps...so it will start Xorg/X and depending on what graphic card you have also long as you have the correct driver installed you'll get "full hd" as you say. So in short on the BSD what did you install? That what the difference is.

[Beastie]

The Linux framebuffer (fbdev API) is not the same as KMS (Kernel mode-setting).

I'm not sure what you're complaining about. Are you trying to get a low-resolution console back after running Xorg? Or are you trying to get the highest resolution possible on your hardware on Xorg and are unable to?

Just assuming by BSD you mean FreeBSD ... After FreeBSD boots, it's running a low-resolution console. You will have a high-resolution console only if you explicitly load the KMS kernel module or run xinit/startx and then exit Xorg.

You can use vidcontrol(1) to control the mode of your console.

If it's the latter you're asking about, then Xorg may be using the vesa driver by default either because it's having trouble using your VGA's driver (its model is unsupported by the current FreeBSD port of the KMS driver, the VGA driver has a bug, the hardware has a bug and is blacklisted, etc.) or simply because the vesa driver is the only one you've installed and your Xorg installation is missing the proper driver for your VGA (e.g. x11-drivers/xf86-video-intel).

[IdOp]

Originally Posted by billy_bazooka

hey guys,
i have a weird question.
i do almost all my work from the console on unix like systems, but on occasion i need to startx.
now, on linux and all bsd's the system always turns on framebuffer (kms) and i have huge resolution in console instead of 80x25 normal text mode. BUT, when i turn off framebuffer to get 80x25 text console i cannot startx in full hd resolution.

Interesting observation, I hadn't noticed that since I generally want a high (but not necessarily huge) resolution console. In the old days, before KMS, what you're asking for used to be very possible ... and I'd thought it still would be, but when I tried with Linux last night adding a "nomodeset" to the kernel command line, indeed I couldn't start X.

my question is this, recently i started toying around with openindiana and since i installed it with a live-dvd it automatically boots to gui. i turned graphical login off and restarted the system to boot into 80x25 text console.. and then i noticed when i typed startx, voila! x was in full hd resolution! no more that annoying framebuffer crap that linux and bsd's do.

what makes illumos different from linux / all bsd's to be able to do that?

I don't know.

and is such a thing (80x25 text console, and then startx in FULL HD resolution) possible in linux / any bsd?

One possibility is to go back to something pre-KMS. For example NetBSD 6.1.x should do it and it's still supported. Maybe an older Linux like Slackware 13.0, which still receives patches, could be tried? In this approach you'll miss out on the latest features of the OS if you need them.

Another thought is to go with KMS but adjust the console to your liking. I can't advise about this on BSD (lack of knowledge), but it can be done on Linux. Usually people want a high-res console, so that's what you get by default, but you can change the video mode and font. Use the "video=..." Linux kernel command line parameter to set a video mode, and the "setfont" program to switch fonts. Maybe you can get an 80x25 (or similar) console that looks nice to you in this way? As an example, I happen to use this:

video=1280x800-8@60

This may be too hi-res for you, but it's less than my monitor's native 1920x1080 resolution.

[billy_bazooka]

@roddierod -- no, all three big bsd's do the thing I mentioned, netbsd, openbsd and freebsd too.

@beastie - yes, thats exactly what i want. i want low resolution 80x25 old school vga text console after i quit xorg. in freebsd xorg started in full hd resolution, but when i quit xorg the console went super high res, too and it couldnt go back to 80x25, on my system freebsd's vidcontrol exhibited some extremely buggy behaviour.

@idop - yes, i know about the video kernel command line parameter in linux, but text looks ugly even in 640x480 mode, at first you go "hey, this looks simmilar to 80x25 vga mode, i could work with this", but after a week you go "jesus, cant stand to look at this anymore".. its not the same as old school 80x25 vga text mode.

thanks for the replies.. i will try illumos oses instead of bsd's for a bit..

[gpatrick]

i will try illumos oses instead of bsd's for a bit

I noticed you tried OpenIndiana which hasn't been updated for years. There is a development branch of OpenIndiana called Hipster that receives regular updates. Also there is XStreamOS by Sonicle, which is newer than OpenIndiana, but itself hasn't been updated in 2 years.