Setting GRUB's video resolution

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peppyy
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#1 Post by peppyy »

Since we are talking about grub, I have a question about grub and video settings.

From Keenerd's 600e post.
1.0.4 works fairly well. Sound and cardbus are still good. However, video has gotton much more interesting. After X loads, everything goes wrong. Xvesa makes X look fine (small distortion at the right edge of the screen, but very minor). However, the command line is gone. I just get a flat blue screen. I can blindly type "startx" and X loads normally. This only happens after loading X. The boot looks normal, not blue.
I also have the same problems with a 600e.
When I was installing grub it asked which video mode I wanted to use and I chose standard, "the safe selection". Since I know that the display works correctly only at 1024x768x16,should I have used that setting when grub asked?

Can I just edit the line in grub that refers to video and change kernel

Code: Select all

/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda5 ro vga=normal
to

Code: Select all

/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda5 ro vga=1024x768x16
?
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Guest

#2 Post by Guest »

No the vga argument take 3 numbers


you want vga=796

But that only as affect on X when you use the Framebuffer driver....tho it will give you a 1024x768 console and pretty TUX in the left hand corner during boot

Bruce B

#3 Post by Bruce B »

Some more values

default vga=normal

1024x768x64k vga=791
1024x768x32k vga=790
1024x768x256 vga=773
800x600x64k vga=788
800x600x32k vga=787
800x600x256 vga=771
640x480x64k vga=785
640x480x32k vga=784
640x480x256 vga=769

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peppyy
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#4 Post by peppyy »

Thanks, gonna reboot and see what happens.

Edit:

If I try to put anything but a single digit in there it gives me an error and a set of choices. None of them seemed to make a difference and by mistake I commented the video line. Now the text is fullscreen, stretched a bit tall but really easy to read as it flies by during boot.

The biggest problem is that once x has been started if you exit to prompt there is nothing but blue. I was hoping that the boot selection would cure this problem but it dosn't seem to help.
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Bruce B

#5 Post by Bruce B »

Peppyy, by editing the post you don't top it. The people following the thread don't know anything has changed. Therefore no response. I happened to stumble on this.

As far as I'm concerned bladehunter and I gave you correct instructions. Based on what you wrote I'm inclined to think your card doesn't have the vesa text mode support you wanted.

I ran into something like this with an nvidia chip just recently. I didn't try and solve the problem. Just left at vga=normal

For my own information, I'm curious - do you have an nvidia video chipset?

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#6 Post by peppyy »

I believe the 600e has a "neomagic" chipset but I am not sure. There has been a lot of discussion about this older chipset and frim what I have found it seems to be pretty much a lost cause.

Unfortunatly I don't have the laptop handy to see exactly what it is. It is all boxed up and ready to ship. I just thought it was a shame there wasn't driver support that would allow it to use the dvd player. I have seen the same machine running win98 play dvds fine.

The best info I have found was at xfree86. As far as I can tell the driver they are talking about is already part od Puppy 1.0.4 but I am not sure.
http://www.xfree86.org/4.4.0/neomagic.4.html
The only problem is that I couldn't identify if it was one of the listed sets.
Puppy Linux...
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Bruce B

#7 Post by Bruce B »

> When I was installing grub it asked which video mode I wanted to use and I chose standard, "the safe selection". Since I know that the display works correctly only at 1024x768x16,should I have used that setting when grub asked?

Sorry you are still having problems. As far as I'm concerned the answer to your question is no.

Not no that you should have. There is no reason that you should have insofar as the interaction with Xvesa.

In other words I don't know of any relationship between the grub vga=mode setting and Xvesa.

To me, it is entirely conceivable that Xvesa supports 1024x768x16 but the the non X mode would not support it because of the video card or chip design.

In my computer 1024x768x16 is supported in both modes.

I don't know anyting in particular about framebuffer, but theoretically we should be able to use framebuffer as a video option by virtue of downloads via pupget.

In another topic Barry wrote some tips on installing the framebuffer support. I tried it on my computer but it didn't take. I didn't and debug it or report it, because I don't actually need framebuffer video support.

I'm wondering if installing the framebuffer support would make a difference or help you. Perhaps someone reading this post can answer with some authority.

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#8 Post by peppyy »

What version of XF86 does 1.0.4 use? is it already XFree86 4.0.1? I have been changing a few options and I have gotten closer to being able to play DVDs. I was wondering if upgradingto the latest XFree86 version was an option in puppy?
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#9 Post by Guest »

My latest release with XFree86 has 4.5.0 which is the latest and will run on the noemagic chipsets.......No need to use Framebuffer just pick Vesa when you first configure...it will start xf86config on first boot

budden
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video settings -- vesa and 1024x480

#10 Post by budden »

I'm in Xvesa Video wizard, which banners as Puppy Video Wizard.

Hardware: Sony Vaio Picturebook, Model PCG-C1X. Neomagic video chip. This box is circa 1999. The one oddball is that screen is 1024x480.

Both 0x0111 (640x480) and 0x0118 (1024x762) work. But the former only uses about half the screen (wide black stripes on either side). And the latter only shows the top 480 of the 762 pixels.

There are no entries in the Video Wizard for this particular screen shape. How do you calculate those values and what would be a correct one for this toy?
Rex Buddenberg

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edoc
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Re: video settings -- vesa and 1024x480

#11 Post by edoc »

budden wrote:I'm in Xvesa Video wizard,
While we are on the subject of Xvesa ...

Why does it crash all of the open apps when the settings are changed?

I have never seen that on any other distro.

doc
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#12 Post by rarsa »

I have never seen that on any other distro.
How many other distros with XVesa have you seen?

XVesa receives the -mode parameter at initizalization time. If you change the mode, then XVesa has to restart.

When XVesa shuts down all the applications that depend on the X server have to shutdown as well.

So, closing down (not crashing) all the X applications is expected... unless I'm missing something here I don't know?

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#13 Post by edoc »

rarsa wrote:
I have never seen that on any other distro.
How many other distros with XVesa have you seen?

XVesa receives the -mode parameter at initizalization time. If you change the mode, then XVesa has to restart.

When XVesa shuts down all the applications that depend on the X server have to shutdown as well.

So, closing down (not crashing) all the X applications is expected... unless I'm missing something here I don't know?
I now understand. I had guessed that the open apps might be stored in memory and re-displayed with the new settings.

I have not used XVesa before, to be more precise I have not seen this behavior from any other screen painting app and was just surprised when it happened and immediately suspected I had done something wrong! ;-)

Thanks for the explanation ... still learning ... doc
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