From: erc@unislc.uucp (Ed Carp) Subject: [KERNEL PATCH] Make the cursor BIG... Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 18:54:09 GMT
You know, I *hate* wimpy little blinking cursors. Half the time, I have to
search the screen to find out where the syupid thing is. I tried 386BSD a
while back, and one of the things that really impressed me was the BIG cursor.
I mean, you could SEE the thing! So, in a pique of fury at the wimpy cursor
that linux gives us, I wrote a 9-byte .COM program to set my cursor before I
use bootlin to bring up linux. But, I thought, what if I boot from floppy?
That I lose my lovely big cursor! Not to fear, Ed is here! :)
So, what I did was work up this itsy-bitsy patch to linux to let me set
my cursor to something other than Mr. Wimp. It works great on my monochrome
screen, and it should work great on any other terminal, too. I'm not sure
about VGA/SVGA, though - if it doesn't, let me know and I'll think of
something.
I'd really like to see this thing make it into the next kernel - not in it's
present form, of course - it'd be nice to put the define in the top Makefile.
Here it is. Short enough to be understandable by even the most neophyte
hardware hacker... :)
================================= cut here ===================================
*** linux/kernel/chr_drv/Makefile.orig Fri Dec 18 11:33:47 1992
--- linux/kernel/chr_drv/Makefile Fri Dec 18 11:33:36 1992
***************
*** 29,35 ****
sync
console.o: console.c
! $(CC) $(CFLAGS) -c -o console.o console.c
keyboard.o: keyboard.c
$(CC) $(CFLAGS) $(KEYBOARD) -c -o keyboard.o keyboard.c
--- 29,35 ----
sync
console.o: console.c
! $(CC) $(CFLAGS) -DBIG_CURSOR -c -o console.o console.c
keyboard.o: keyboard.c
$(CC) $(CFLAGS) $(KEYBOARD) -c -o keyboard.o keyboard.c
*** linux/kernel/chr_drv/console.c.orig Thu Dec 3 16:32:41 1992
--- linux/kernel/chr_drv/console.c Fri Dec 18 11:24:05 1992
***************
*** 1320,1325 ****
--- 1320,1335 ----
}
currcons = fg_console = 0;
+ /* Make the cursor big if requested */
+ #ifdef BIG_CURSOR
+ outb_p(10, video_port_reg);
+ outb_p(0, video_port_reg+1);
+ outb_p(11, video_port_reg);
+ if(video_type == VIDEO_TYPE_MDA)
+ outb_p(13, video_port_reg+1);
+ else
+ outb_p(7, video_port_reg+1);
+ #endif
video_mem_start = video_mem_base;
video_mem_end = video_mem_term;
origin = video_mem_start;
-- Ed Carp, N7EKG erc@apple.com, khijol!erc@saturn.upl.com 801/538-0177"There is nothing to seek and nothing to find. You're already enlightened, and all the words in the world won't give you what you already have. The wise seeker, therefore, is concerned with one thing only: to become aware of what he already is, of the True Self within." -- Zen maxim
-- Ed Carp erc@apple.com, erc@saturn.upl.com 801/538-0177
Who and what would you be if you went beyond your deepest fears?