On Saturday 02 November 2002 11:08, David Pastern wrote: > Hi guys, > > Hopefully simple question that sort of has me stumped. I have a Compaq > Armada 1750, that i've installed Debian Woody bf24 kernel onto. I've > chosen the ATI module for Xfree86 (which is the correct module I believe). > Interestingly at bootup the LCD screen flashes white, making text or > anything for that matter impossible to read. I shut the laptop down at > this point as I believe it will damage the video card/LCD screen. Now i'm > not sure why it does this, and would love an explanation (or a pointer to a > website etc that specifically explains it). I end up booting linux as: > > linux video=vga16:off > > That fixes the issue. I'm not sure what all of that line actually means, I > can guess the vga refers to vga = 16 bit, I have no idea what the off > means. My question is how do I automate this? It becomes tiresome to have > to do this each time I boot the machine up. I've had a look at lilo.conf > and it has a line for "vga=". I've read the man pages for lilo, lilo.conf > and also read the BootPrompt -HOWTO, and also a few linux books I have > lying around here at home, but none of them clearly indicate what I should > do, or how. As far as I can see, if I set vga in lilo to "vga=ask" it will > prompt me for video settings the next time I boot up. I'm not sure if > that's what I want and i'm hesitant to try it without some good > confirmation that i'm heading in the right direction. > > My lilo file is a standard lilo file on a fresh debian install. Laptop is > not on the network and will not easily be placed on the network here (I > seem to have lost the dongle for the pcmcia network card and despite 6 > months of looking have not found it). I've had a look at the XF86Config-4 > file and it looks OK to my eyes. Here are details of the monitor section > from said config file: > > Identifier "Generic Monitor" > HorizSync 28-48 > VertRefresh 43-72 > Option "DPMS" > > Here are screen details: > > Section "Screen" > Identifier "Default Screen" > Device "Generic Video Card" > Monitor "Generic Monitor" > DefaultDepth 24 > SubSection "Display" > Depth 1 > Modes "800x600" "640x480" > EndSubSection > SubSection "Display" > Depth 4 > Modes "800x600" "640x480" > EndSubSection > SubSection "Display" > Depth 8 > Modes "800x600" "640x480" > EndSubSection > SubSection "Display" > Depth 15 > Modes "800x600" "640x480" > EndSubSection > SubSection "Display" > Depth 16 > Modes "800x600" "640x480" > EndSubSection > SubSection "Display" > Depth 24 > Modes "800x600" "640x480" > EndSubSection > EndSection > > I hope that helps, if anyone wants more information let me know and i'll do > my best to provide it (above was typed out not copied/pasted). > > Interestingly i've had Redhat 7, 7.1 and 7.2 and Suse 8 pro on this said > laptop previously without a single issue with X or any need to edit the > XF86 config file. > > One other thing and this perplexes me - Linux will either NOT run 1024*768 > on this laptop (Redhat 7, 7.1 and 7.2) or will run it (Suse 8 pro) but the > display is larger than the screen size (sort of hard to explain). Now i've > had Windows 2000 and Windows 95 on this very same laptop and have ran > 1024*768 without a single issue. So it's not a hardware limitation. I can > only think it's a limitation of X. I have told the machine to use 1024*768 > (with Redhat it just caused the X server to crash, in fact linux wouldn't > even boot into a working system as it crashed as well [until I killed the X > server with ctl alt backspace]). Suse 8 pro will do it, but the display is > larger than the screen size as mentioned before and makes it very awkward > to navigate around the desktop. Anyone got any ideas (please no "go back > to windows" replies)? > > Dave
video="vga16:off" disable the framebuffer (a mean to use the console in graphic mode; which allow to see the linux pinguin). To disable it permanently put append="video=vga16:off" just after image= ... in /etc/lilo.conf (I have also had to disable it for a laptop computer) -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
