All,

Ok, so I've got Mandrake 9.0 working nicely, but the bootup screen annoys me.

Mandrake 8.2 seemed to use a standard text mode during the bootup procedure, except I noticed that somehow the text was smaller than normal. Not bad though because it was still readable, just gave more lines per screenful.

Mandrake 9.0 on the other hand has a sort of graphical background that gives a relatively small window, and a text-like progress bar below it. Text shows up in the window, but there are fewer lines available, thus less info onscreen at once. Plus the annoying clicks of my monitor changing graphic modes before it comes up.


I'd much prefer either the Mandrake 8.2 style, or just a standard text screen with all the messages coming up during bootup.

Is there a way to make Mandrake 9.0 do this?

Indeed there is. Go into Mandrake control centre - Boot - Boot Config - then configure lilo or grub. You should be able to opt for Lilo or Grub with text menu. That should do it. Alternatively, choose Linux-non-fb as your default in the menu. That stops the use of Frame buffer mode during booting, giving large lines of text instead. It depends on exactly what you prefer.

You could also try uninstalling the package 'bootsplash'- this controls the boot screen

Already had LILO with text menu. However, I never realized what the linux-nonfb thing was for! Thanks for that tip.

Also removed bootsplash as suggested . . now the framebuffer version gives me the, I don't know, 30-odd or 40 lines of text, whereas nonframebuffer the standard 24 lines.

Thanks very much for the pointers!