Re: [PATCH] Set the vga cursor even when hidden

["Antonino A. Daplas" <adaplas@gmail.com>]

Samuel Thibault wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Some visually impaired people use hardware devices which directly read
> the vga screen. When newt for instance asks to hide the cursor for
> better visual aspect, the kernel puts the vga cursor out of the screen,
> so that the cursor position can't be read by the hardware device. This
> is a great loss for such people.
> 
> Here is a patch which uses the same technique as CUR_NONE for hiding the
> cursor while still moving it.

Note that this method will produce a split block cursor with EGA, which is
still supported by vgacon, but possibly not used anymore.  Why not use
this method (scanline_end < scanline_start) for VGA, and the default method
(moving the cursor out of the screen) for the rest?

Or why not just set bit 5 of the cursor start register (port 0x0a) to disable
the cursor, and clear to enable? I believe this will also work for the
other types.

Tony