On 28-Jan-00 Kazutaka YOKOTA wrote:
>>> The word at 0x463 in the BIOS data area tells at which I/O address the
>>> CRTC is sitting on. It's 0x3b4 for the monochrome adapter and EGA/VGA
>>> in a monochrome mode, and 0x3d4 for CGA and EGA/VGA in a color mode.
>>>
>>> So, we should try to set the mode 3 when we find 0x3d4 and the mode 7
>>> for 0x3b4.
>>
>>I knew someone would know. :) I'll try to work on a patch for this tonight
>>if I have time. Would it be ok if this was done very early on, like before
>>the loader binary itself was started? IOW, do it in btxldr? We might also
>>want to do it in boot1.
>
> There probably isn't much space in boot1.
I think we can fit it in boot1, at least I'm going to try. Even boot2 would
be before btxldr was run. IMO, here's what we should do:
After we run the code to detect a serial console in boot[12], or cdldr, or
the forthcoming pxeldr, if it is not a serial console, then reset the video
mode to either 3 or 7 based on the word at 0x463. Then it's done at the
very beginning of the process before btxldr is started.
> While boot2 and loader(8) print string on the video adapter via BIOS,
> btxldr appears to assume the video card is in the text mode (whether
> it is mono or color) and directly goes to the text buffer address
> (0xb8000 for color and 0xb0000 for mono).
>
> I think we may set the video mode at the very beginning of btxldr.
> But, even if we cannot find space to do so in btxldr, I won't moan.
> Because I don't think we will loose vital information even if we don't
> see btxldr's banner. So, setting the video mode during boot2 or in
> loader(8) should be sufficient, I would expect...
>
> Kazu
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