NAME    [Toc]    [Back]

     wscons - console access

SYNOPSIS    [Toc]    [Back]

     option WSEMUL_SUN
     option WSEMUL_NO_VT100
     option WSEMUL_DEFAULT="xxx"
     option WS_KERNEL_FG=WSCOL_XXX
     option WS_KERNEL_BG=WSCOL_XXX
     option WSDISPLAY_COMPAT_PCVT
     option WSDISPLAY_COMPAT_SYSCONS
     option WSDISPLAY_COMPAT_USL
     option WSDISPLAY_COMPAT_RAWKBD

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

     pseudo-device wsmux [count]

DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]

     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).

     +o    Compatibility options to support control operations and
other lowlevel
 behaviour of existing terminal  drivers  (see  below).

   Terminal emulations    [Toc]    [Back]
     wscons  does  not define its own set of terminal control sequences and special
 keyboard codes in  terms  of  termcap(5).   Instead,  a
``terminal
     emulation''  is  assigned  to  each  virtual screen when the
screen is created
     (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 always available.
No control sequences
 are supported besides the ASCII control characters.  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 by default
on sparc and
            sparc64 architectures, or if
            option 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 (as far
as present on
            the actually used keyboard).

            ANSI colors are also supported on this emulation,  if
the TERM environment
 variable is set to rcons-color.

            This emulation is sufficient for full-screen applications.

     vt100  is available by default, but can be disabled with
            option WSEMUL_NO_VT100.  It provides the most commonly used functions
 of DEC VT100 terminals 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 background,
  keyboard  autorepeat  control,  external
printer support,
                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 graphics
 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, the following features
            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 allows selecting one of the
described
     terminal options as the default choice.   The  default  goes
into effect at
     kernel  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 running X servers
or other
     programs using low-level console driver functions which were
written
     specifically for other console drivers  to  run  on  OpenBSD
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  getting  raw XT keyboard
scancodes from
                                PC keyboards as needed by i386  X
servers.

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

     WSDISPLAY_COMPAT_SYSCONS    Emulates  enough  of  the   i386
FreeBSD
                                ``syscons''   driver  to  make  X
servers work.
                                Useful with FreeBSD binary emulation.

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

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


     Other options:

     option WS_KERNEL_FG=WSCOL_XXX

     option WS_KERNEL_BG=WSCOL_XXX

     option WS_KERNEL_COLATTR="(WSATTR_XXX | WSATTR_YYY)"

     option WS_KERNEL_MONOATTR="(WSATTR_XXX | WSATTR_YYY)"
          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/ttyC0).   ``WS_KERNEL_FG''
and
          ``WS_KERNEL_BG''  set  the foreground / background used
on color displays.


          The ``WSCOL_XXX'' arguments are colors as defined in
          /usr/include/dev/wscons/wsdisplayvar.h.       ``WS_KERNEL_COLATTR'' and
          ``WS_KERNEL_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.

     option WSCOMPAT_USL_SYNCTIMEOUT=nnn
          The virtual screen switching protocol enabled by
          ``WSDISPLAY_COMPAT_USL''  uses a somewhat complex handshake protocol
          to pass control to user programs as X servers  controlling a virtual
          screen.   To avoid a non-responsive application locking
the whole
          console system, a screen switch will be rolled back  if
the user application
  does  not respond to a screen switch request
within some
          time.  This option sets the timeout (in  seconds);  the
default value
          is 5 seconds.

SEE ALSO    [Toc]    [Back]

     intro(4),  wsdisplay(4), wskbd(4), wsmouse(4), wsmux(4), wsconscfg(8),
     wsconsctl(8), wsfontload(8), wsmoused(8)

OpenBSD     3.6                           July      26,      1998