Re: [Sheflug] Weird Consoles

[James Wallbank <xxxxx [at] xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Will,

Thanks to your advice. The previous machines which we installed had
Linux configured to boot in FrameBuffer mode (so you get those fancy,
information-hiding boot graphics which I hate... but never mind). These
new machines were configured to boot from a non-fb kernel (or is it the
same kernel with non-fb options?).

Linux with FrameBuffer works. Non-FrameBuffered Linux mangles the
consoles after X starts. Even if you change back to runlevel 3 then the
consoles don't recover - they're wazzed-up for good!

So I reconfigured LILO to boot with the FrameBuffer option and now the
consoles are fine. I think (just so that other people know, too) that
the problem relates to the strange Compaq S3 cards in the DeskPro
series. They're bog-standard S3's... NEARLY. Ho, hum... they probably
were bankrupt stock, or fell of the back of a lorry. Why don't hardware
manufacturers ever ADHERE to standards?

Thanks again,

James
=====

On Sat, 2002-04-27 at 22:14, Will Newton wrote:
> On Saturday 27 Apr 2002 9:56 pm, James Wallbank wrote:
> 
> > Tony at Access Space said that he thinks it's some kind of memory
> > location error with the display...but I'm not so sure. Have you any
> > thoughts? Have you seen anything like this before?
> 
> Does it only occur when running X? It sounds like X is clobbering data in the 
> framebuffer for the console. I would suggest looking through XFree86 errata, 
> or if you are using a framebuffer console, using VGA text mode instead (you 
> can do this through kernel parameters).
> ___________________________________________________________________
> 
> Sheffield Linux User's Group -
> http://www.sheflug.co.uk/mailfaq.html
> 
>   GNU the choice of a complete generation.
> 
-- 
James Wallbank
Redundant Technology Initiative
Access Space, 1 Sidney Street,Sheffield S1 4RG UK
T: +44 (0)114 2495522
F: +44 (0)114 2495533
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http://www.sheflug.co.uk/mailfaq.html

  GNU the choice of a complete generation.