
This directory contains several utilities not directly linked to
SVGATextMode, but in one way or another useful to SVGATextMode users.


Ultra2Linux:

	A utility to convert UltraVision fonts to Linux fonts.  Ultravision
        is a commercial (!) DOS program with similar functionality as
        SVGATextMode. Those of you who bought a copy of Ultravision should
        be able to use this tool to convert some fonts from Ultravision to
        the linux format used by "setfont" (also in this directory). 
        Author: Kenneth Albanowski (kjahds@kjahds.com).
        

setfont:

	A small tool to set the text mode font. It was taken from the
        "keytbls" package included in the Slackware distribution. It can
        also be found in the "kbd-0.87.tar.gz" package (or any newer
        version) available on many FTP sites that carry Linux software.
        Authors: Eugene Crosser & Andries Brouwer (aeb@cwi.nl)
        
        Also note the "8x8plus" font. It is a normal PC font (instead of
        Cyrillic). It will load as an 8x32 font but will work for 8x8 to
        ~8x14. The letters will all fit in an 8x8 cell, but the line drawing
        chars are a full 8x32. (contributed by Albert Cahalan
        <albert@ccs.neu.edu>).
        
        It would be a nice thing if ALL fonts used "extended" (full 32-pixel
        high) line drawing chars, so they can be used for bigger font sizes
        as well, without compromising boxes and lines.
 


vgaset:

	Another hacking tool. It can be used to fine-tune text modes (or
        X-Windows graphics modes). It allows you to move the screen
        position, set sync widths, and many more. See the documentation in
	the vgaset directory for more information.
	Author: Greg Lehey (grog@lemis.de)


svgalib:

        Some sample applications of how the tools from SVGATextMode can be
        used in svgalib, and for other applications also. 
        
        'et4000.grab_svgalib_mode' is a script to grab an svgalib-compatible
        mode from your vga card. It outputs a block of text you can put into
        the libvga.config file.
        
        'libvga.et4000-320x200x16M' contains a libvga.config entry for an
        320x200 mode with 16M colors, which is normally unavailable for
        those cards (they have 640x400 at 16M colors, but that makes those
        MPEG files as big as stamps.)
        
        There is also an s3.grab_svgalib_mode script, which does the same
        for S3 as the previous one for ET4000. I didn't need this for
        svgalib, but both scripts can be very usefull to determine what
        register in the chipset is responsible for a problem. Comparing
        register dumps for a "good" and a "bad" case. We used the ET4000
        script to pin down a problem in X (mouse cursor garbage on PCI
        cards)


spawn_login:

       A small utility by Andries Brouwer (aeb@cwi.nl) (the author of the
       VT_RESIZE kernel routine!), that can spawn login consoles by pressing
       "ALT-<up_arrow>". Putting
       
               spawn_login &
       
       in your /etc/rc.local enabled it when linux boots. This allows you to
       have only 2 VT's active at boot-up time (just an example), and create
       new ones on the fly. They are automatically removed when logging out
       from that console.

       The real advantage of this is that VT_RESIZE will not get an "out of
       memory" so soon, since there will not be that many ACTIVE VT's (all
       non-spawned VT's are not active, and do not need resizing, and thus
       don't require memory when resizing the screen).


loadfont:

       An alternative to the "setfont" program from svgalib. Written by
       Albert Cahalan <albert@ccs.neu.edu>.
       
       It understands more font files than setfont, and it can extract fonts
       to raw files. It still spits out weird/extra messages sometimes.


probe_clocks:

       A small and rudimentary script that probes for the available clocks,
       like the XFREE probe does.
        

scripts: 

       This directory contains some useful scripts for SVGATextMode:
       
       - rc.font can be put in /etc/rc.d, and will change the text mode to
         100x37 chars at boot time.

       - STMmenu is a script that shows a dialog box with all allowed text
         modes in it - supposing your TextConfig file is configured
         correctly.
       
       - STM_reset is an example script of a reset program, which can be
         executed automatically after SVGATextMode has finished. Anything
         you want to get done when changing text modes can be put in here
         (like restarting some screen-size dependent programs).
         
       - resize_patch is a kernel patch to make the SIGWINCH work for e.g. gpm.
       
       - cleanup_TextConfig formats the mode lines in the TextConfig file so
         they all use the same spcing (easy for further grepping/cutting/...)


DOS

       The DOS directory contains (what else!) tools which could be useful
       to configure both SVGATextMode and XFREE86, using the modes known by DOS.
       
       - grabmode.exe is, just like the Linux version, a mode grabber that
         reports a mode line comatible with SVGATextMode and XFREE.
         
       - scanmode.exe scans all DOS (and VESA, when available) text and
         graphics modes, and outputs two files (tconfig and xconfig)
         containing resp. config lines for SVGATextMode and XFREE86.


changefont

	Two small quick-and-dirty programs to make changes to a font - or
        create a new one if you're VERY courageous). Far from user-friendly,
        but they work.

