These are simple scripts to save the SVGA register state when in textmode to the
files
/tmp/fontdata and /tmp/textregs
or to restore it from these files.
The actual utilities used are
restorefont (1),
restoretextmode (1), and
restorepalette (1).
The purpose of these scripts program is usually to recover from a crashed console due to an
svgalib, Xfree or other program bug.
You do this by being a smart guy and running
savetextmode
right after booting of your machine,
prior
to any problems. Then, in case the SVGA state is hosed and you sit in front of a blank or
useless console, change VC (maybe login) to get to a shell. Or exist the currently running
program with
<Ctrl>-C ,
<Ctrl>-<Alt>-<Backspace> ,
or whatever applies. Once you got a shell, run
textmode
and it will hopefully render your console useable again.
To make it clear: You do all this while not seeing anything on your console screen, you
enter this information blindly or after logging in from a network. Also, if the keyboard is
left in raw mode, nothing can really help you as you cannot enter anything which a shell
will understand.