Re: More than 256/512 glyphs on the Liinux console

[Alan Mackenzie <acm@muc.de>]

[ Following a break of ~18 months ]

On Sat, Feb 22, 2025 at 09:48:32 +0100, Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 21, 2025 at 03:35:59PM +0000, Alan Mackenzie wrote:
> > 
> > Dear Linux Maintainers,
> > 
> > The Linux console is currently restricted to 256/512 glyphs, the VGA
> > standard from the 1980s.  I would like that restriction to be lifted, and
> > believe that many other console users would agree.

> First off, why?  What about the move to get rid of the vt code entirely,
> if you do that, can't you get proper glyphs with the drm subsystem?

We talked back then about kmscon.  It doesn't look to me to be a
suitable replacement for the Linux console yet, at least for me anyway,
for quite a few reasons.

> Doing huge changes for a subsystem that almost everyone agrees should
> only be kept around for legacy reasons is a rough undertaking.

> <snip>

> > I would very much like further to develop and to refine this code to the
> > point where it is suitable for inclusion in the mainline kernel.  What do
> > you say?

> Only you can decide what you want to work on.  If you have working
> patches, and submit them so that they can be reviewed, we'll be glad to
> do so.

I've just submitted a series of patches to a few mailing lists and
several people, including yourself.

> But again, you are going to have to answer the reason "why" first.

The main reason I don't like kmscon (yet) is that it has no key bindings
<Alt>-<Fn> to switch to a specific VT (or something analogous).  This
would make it unusable for my current work flow, where I have 20 tty's
running, and switch between them frequently using <Alt>-<Fn> or
<Shift>-<Alt>-<Fn>.

Even though kmscon has been included in some distributions (including
Fedora), I have failed to find any user reviews of it in a web search.
In particular, I'm looking for somebody writing something like "I've
been using kmscon for <n> weeks, and I find it delightful.".

> thanks,

> greg k-h

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).