Simics 6 introduces new target consoles, which integrates into the
Simics GUI instead of relying on xterm (on Linux). They have a variety
of new features.
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There are new text console and graphics console
classes, textcon and graphcon, part
of the base package. The earlier separate telnet and host-serial
consoles are now part of the text console class, which has telnet
and host-serial servers. The graphics console has a new VNC server.
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To migrate to the new consoles, change the components created in
Simics start scripts from the old consoles to the new
consoles. The new components are txt_console_comp,
which replaces text_console_comp,
and gfx_console_comp, which
replaces graphics_console_comp
and text_graphics_console_comp.
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The new components are defined in the
console-components
module, part of the base package.
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The distinction between graphics and text graphics is no longer
visible at the component level, but is handled within the console: when the
graphics device is in text mode, this is detected by the console and
in the console GUI it becomes possible to mark and copy text.
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To use the telnet and host-serial servers,
see <textcon>.telnet-setup and <textcon>.host-serial-setup. To use the VNC server, see <graphcon>.vnc-setup.
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The new text console no longer takes simulated input via
attributes. Instead it implements the
con_input
interface. However, the <textcon>.input command is the
same. Similarly, the graphics console implements
the con_input_code interface, but still has
the <graphcon>.input command.
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The new text console does not translate LF (0xA) to CR (0xD) in
simulated input.
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The new graphics consoles supports text breakpoints, similar to
the text consoles, if the attached VGA device implements the
required interfaces (and only when running in VGA text
mode). Hence the <graphcon>.break command now creates text
breakpoints, and graphics breakpoints is created
using <graphcon>.break-gfx.
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The graphics breakpoints no longer stores comments, so the
arguments to <graphcon>.save-break-xy have changed.
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The command for creating screen shots is now
called <graphcon>.screenshot
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In general, the new component parameters are not exactly the same as the old
ones, and neither are the attributes and CLI commands on the
console classes. See the reference manual for more details.