[ipxe-devel] colored serial output - INT 0x10

[Michael Brown]

On 07/10/14 11:02, Wissam Shoukair wrote:
> Does iPXE code has any component that might change a color of the serial
> connection (could it be that the putty output goes black on black?)? can
> iPXE do that at all (change the serial output’s color)?

Yes; iPXE can output arbitrary ANSI escape sequences which can include 
colour change sequences.  For the BIOS (or VESA framebuffer) console, 
these are interpreted by iPXE; for the serial console they are sent 
verbatim to be interpreted by the terminal software on the other end of 
the link.

> Which INT 10 services do iPXE use for BIOS Screen Control?

All code calling INT 10 should be in 
arch/i386/firmware/pcbios/bios_console.c.  We seem to use:

   INT 10,02 : ANSI CUP
   INT 10,06 : ANSI ED
   INT 10,01 : ANSI DECTCEM

and for writing characters to the screen:

   INT 10,08 : read current attribute
   INT 10,09 : set current attribute
   INT 10,0e : print character

Michael