WSCONS(4)               NetBSD Kernel Interfaces Manual              WSCONS(4)

NAME
     wscons -- workstation console access

SYNOPSIS
     options WSEMUL_SUN
     options WSEMUL_VT100
     options WSEMUL_NO_DUMB
     options WSEMUL_DEFAULT="xxx"
     options WS_DEFAULT_FG=WSCOL_XXX
     options WS_DEFAULT_BG=WSCOL_XXX
     options WS_DEFAULT_COLATTR="(WSATTR_XXX | WSATTR_YYY)"
     options WS_DEFAULT_MONOATTR="(WSATTR_XXX | WSATTR_YYY)"
     options WS_KERNEL_FG=WSCOL_XXX
     options WS_KERNEL_BG=WSCOL_XXX
     options WS_KERNEL_COLATTR="(WSATTR_XXX | WSATTR_YYY)"
     options WS_KERNEL_MONOATTR="(WSATTR_XXX | WSATTR_YYY)"
     options WSCOMPAT_USL_SYNCTIMEOUT=nnn
     options WSDISPLAY_COMPAT_PCVT
     options WSDISPLAY_COMPAT_SYSCONS
     options WSDISPLAY_COMPAT_USL
     options WSDISPLAY_COMPAT_RAWKBD
     options WSKBD_EVENT_AUTOREPEAT
     options WSKBD_USONLY

     wsdisplay* at ...
     wskbd*     at ... mux N
     wsmouse*   at ... mux N

     pseudo-device wsmux N

DESCRIPTION
     The wscons driver provides support for machine independent access to the
     console.

     wscons is made of a number of cooperating modules, in particular

     o   hardware support for display adapters, keyboards and mice, see
         wsdisplay(4), wskbd(4), and wsmouse(4)

     o   input event multiplexor, see wsmux(4)

     o   terminal emulation modules (see below), and

     o   compatibility options to support control operations and other low-
         level behaviour of existing terminal drivers (see below)

   Terminal emulations
     wscons does not define its own set of terminal control sequences and spe-
     cial keyboard codes in terms of termcap(5).  Instead a ``terminal
     emulation'' is assigned to each virtual screen when the screen is cre-
     ated. (See wsconscfg(8).)  Different terminal emulations can be active at
     the same time on one display.  The following choices are available:

     dumb    This minimal terminal support is available unless the kernel
             option options WSEMUL_NO_DUMB was specified at build time. No
             control sequences are supported besides the ASCII control charac-
             ters. The cursor is not addressable. Only ASCII keyboard codes
             will be delivered, cursor and functions keys do not work.

     sun     The ``sun'' console emulation is available if options WSEMUL_SUN
             was specified at kernel build time. It supports the control
             sequences of SUN machine consoles and delivers its keyboard codes
             for function and keypad keys in use.  This emulation is suffi-
             cient for full-screen applications.

     vt100   is available with the kernel compile option options WSEMUL_VT100.
             It provides the most commonly used functions of DEC VT100 termi-
             nals with some extensions introduced by the DEC VT220 and DEC
             VT320 models. The features of the original VT100 which are not or
             not completely implemented are:

             o   VT52 support, 132-column-mode, smooth scroll, light back-
                 ground, keyboard autorepeat control, external printer sup-
                 port, keyboard locking, newline/linefeed switching: Escape
                 sequences related to these features are ignored or answered
                 with standard replies.  (DECANM, DECCOLM, DECSCLM, DECSCNM,
                 DECARM, DECPFF, DECPEX, KAM, LNM)

             o   Function keys are not reprogrammable and fonts can not be
                 downloaded.  DECUDK and DECDLD sequences will be ignored.

             o   Neither C1 control set characters will be recognized nor will
                 8-bit keyboard codes be delivered.

             o   The ``DEC supplemental graphic'' font is approximated by the
                 ISO-latin-1 font, though there are subtle differences.

             o   The actual rendering quality depends on the underlying graph-
                 ics hardware driver. Characters might be missing in the
                 available fonts and be substituted by more or less fitting
                 replacements.

                 Depending on the keyboard used, not all function keys might
                 be available.

             In addition to the plain VT100 functions are supported:

             o   ANSI colors.

             o   Some VT220 -like presentation state settings and -reports
                 (DECRSPS), especially tabulator settings.

             In most applications, wscons will work sufficiently as a VT220
             emulator.

     The WSEMUL_DEFAULT kernel option is used to select one of the described
     terminal options as the default choice. The default takes effect at ker-
     nel startup, i.e.  for the operating system console or additional screens
     allocated through the WSDISPLAY_DEFAULTSCREENS option (see wsdisplay(4)),
     or if no emulation type was passed to the wsconscfg(8) utility.

   Compatibility options
     these options allow X servers and other programs using low-level console
     driver functions which were written specifically for other console driv-
     ers to run on NetBSD systems. The options are in particular:

     WSDISPLAY_COMPAT_USL
               Support the protocol for switches between multiple virtual
               screens on one display as used by most PC-UNIX variants.

     WSDISPLAY_COMPAT_RAWKBD
               Allows to get raw XT keyboard scancodes from PC keyboards as
               needed by i386 X servers.

     WSDISPLAY_COMPAT_PCVT
               Emulates enough of the NetBSD/i386 ``pcvt'' driver to make X
               servers work.

     WSDISPLAY_COMPAT_SYSCONS
               Emulates enough of the FreeBSD ``syscons'' driver to make X
               servers work. Useful with FreeBSD binary emulation.

     Linux/i386 X servers usually run successfully if the first two options
     are enabled together with the NetBSD Linux binary emulation.

     (To have programs looking for device special files of other console driv-
     ers find the wscons driver entry points, symlinks are a helpful measure.)

   Other options
     options WS_DEFAULT_FG=WSCOL_XXX,

     options WS_DEFAULT_BG=WSCOL_XXX,

     options WS_DEFAULT_COLATTR="(WSATTR_XXX | WSATTR_YYY)"
               and

     options WS_DEFAULT_MONOATTR="(WSATTR_XXX | WSATTR_YYY)"
               allow to make default console output appear in specific colors
               and attributes.  ``WS_DEFAULT_FG'' and ``WS_DEFAULT_BG'' set
               the foreground / background used on color displays. The
               ``WSCOL_XXX'' arguments are colors as defined in
               src/sys/dev/wscons/wsdisplayvar.h.  ``WS_DEFAULT_COLATTR'' and
               ``WS_DEFAULT_MONOATTR'' are additional attribute flags used on
               color or monochrome displays, respectively.  The arguments are
               defined in the same header file.  Whether the attributes are
               supported or not depends on the actually used graphics adapter.
               These options are ignored by the ``dumb'' terminal emulation.

     options WS_KERNEL_FG=WSCOL_XXX,

     options WS_KERNEL_BG=WSCOL_XXX,

     options WS_KERNEL_COLATTR="(WSATTR_XXX | WSATTR_YYY)"
               and

     options WS_KERNEL_MONOATTR="(WSATTR_XXX | WSATTR_YYY)"
               allow to make console output originating from the kernel appear
               differently than output from user level programs (via
               /dev/console or the specific tty device like /dev/ttyE0).
               Their meaning is the same as their `WS_DEFAULT_*' counterparts.

     options WSCOMPAT_USL_SYNCTIMEOUT=nnn
               The virtual screen switching protocol enabled by
               ``WSDISPLAY_COMPAT_USL'' uses a somewhat complex handshake pro-
               tocol to pass control to user programs such as X servers con-
               trolling a virtual screen. In order to prevent a non-responsive
               application from locking the whole console system, a screen
               switch will be rolled back after a 5 second timeout if the
               application does not respond.  This option can be used to spec-
               ify in seconds a different timeout value.

     options WSKBD_EVENT_AUTOREPEAT
               If set, this option enables auto repeat even in event mode.
               The auto repeat will generate key down events while the key is
               pressed.

     options WSKBD_USONLY
               In order to strip down the space usage of wscons, all keymaps
               except the US english one can be removed from the kernel with
               this option, which results in a space gain of about 10kB.

SEE ALSO
     wsdisplay(4), wskbd(4), wsmouse(4), wsmux(4), wsconscfg(8), wsconsctl(8),
     wsfontload(8), wscons(9)

NetBSD 5.0_STABLE                 May 4, 2005                NetBSD 5.0_STABLE
