no you're supposed to state whether you want a 'silent' that is no words, or 'verbose' the boot messages on top of a picture. Would trying the newest kernel source 2.6.8-13 work?

Having the exact same problem. trying now whithout the vesa fb, let you know how it goes

O.k. Have tried a few different things now. Have had the vesa fb compiled with the radeon driver, then had just the radeon driver and then both again without loading the initrd. Heres some kernel log snippets, if anyone can make sense of it all.

This with vesa and radeon driver compiled and trying to load initrd.splash
Feb 6 18:20:21 localhost kernel: Freeing initrd memory: 108k freed
Feb 6 18:20:21 localhost kernel: radeonfb: Retreived PLL infos from BIOS
Feb 6 18:20:21 localhost kernel: radeonfb: Reference=27.00 MHz (RefDiv=12) Memory=183.00 Mhz, System=183.00 MHz
Feb 6 18:20:21 localhost kernel: Non-DDC laptop panel detected
Feb 6 18:20:21 localhost kernel: radeonfb: Monitor 1 type LCD found
Feb 6 18:20:21 localhost kernel: radeonfb: Monitor 2 type no found
Feb 6 18:20:21 localhost kernel: radeonfb: panel ID string: Samsung LTN150P1-L02
Feb 6 18:20:21 localhost kernel: radeonfb: detected LVDS panel size from BIOS: 1400x1050
Feb 6 18:20:21 localhost kernel: radeondb: BIOS provided dividers will be used
Feb 6 18:20:21 localhost kernel: radeonfb: Power Management enabled for Mobility chipsets
Feb 6 18:20:21 localhost kernel: radeonfb: ATI Radeon LW DDR SGRAM 32 MB
Feb 6 18:20:21 localhost kernel: vesafb: abort, cannot reserve video memory at 0xe0000000
Feb 6 18:20:21 localhost kernel: vesafb: framebuffer at 0xe0000000, mapped to 0xe1819000, size 3072k
Feb 6 18:20:21 localhost kernel: vesafb: mode is 1024x768x16, linelength=2048, pages=20
Feb 6 18:20:21 localhost kernel: vesafb: protected mode interface info at c000:53cf
Feb 6 18:20:21 localhost kernel: vesafb: scrolling: redraw
Feb 6 18:20:21 localhost kernel: vesafb: directcolor: size=0:5:6:5, shift=0:11:5:0
Feb 6 18:20:21 localhost kernel: fb1: VESA VGA frame buffer device
Feb 6 18:20:21 localhost kernel: vga16fb: initializing
Feb 6 18:20:21 localhost kernel: vga16fb: mapped to 0xc00a0000
Feb 6 18:20:21 localhost kernel: fb2: VGA16 VGA frame buffer device
Feb 6 18:20:21 localhost kernel: Simple Boot Flag at 0x35 set to 0x1
Feb 6 18:20:21 localhost kernel: Initializing Cryptographic API
Feb 6 18:20:21 localhost kernel: isapnp: Scanning for PnP cards...
Feb 6 18:20:21 localhost kernel: isapnp: No Plug & Play device found
Feb 6 18:20:21 localhost kernel: Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 175x65
Feb 6 18:20:21 localhost kernel: RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 4096K size 1024 blocksize
Feb 6 18:20:21 localhost kernel: NET: Registered protocol family 17
Feb 6 18:20:21 localhost kernel: PM: Reading pmdisk image.
Feb 6 18:20:21 localhost kernel: PM: Resume from disk failed.
Feb 6 18:20:21 localhost kernel: RAMDISK: Couldn't find valid RAM disk image starting at 0.

Now without the radeon driver but with vesafb


Feb 6 19:17:28 localhost kernel: checking if image is initramfs...it isn't (ungzip failed); looks like an initrd
Feb 6 19:17:28 localhost kernel: Freeing initrd memory: 108k freed
Feb 6 19:17:28 localhost kernel: vesafb: framebuffer at 0xe0000000, mapped to 0xe0813000, size 3072k
Feb 6 19:17:28 localhost kernel: vesafb: mode is 1024x768x16, linelength=2048, pages=20
Feb 6 19:17:28 localhost kernel: vesafb: protected mode interface info at c000:53cf
Feb 6 19:17:28 localhost kernel: vesafb: scrolling: redraw
Feb 6 19:17:28 localhost kernel: vesafb: directcolor: size=0:5:6:5, shift=0:11:5:0
Feb 6 19:17:28 localhost kernel: fb0: VESA VGA frame buffer device
Feb 6 19:17:28 localhost kernel: vga16fb: initializing
Feb 6 19:17:28 localhost kernel: vga16fb: mapped to 0xc00a0000
Feb 6 19:17:28 localhost kernel: fb1: VGA16 VGA frame buffer device
Feb 6 19:17:28 localhost kernel: Simple Boot Flag at 0x35 set to 0x1
Feb 6 19:17:28 localhost kernel: Initializing Cryptographic API
Feb 6 19:17:28 localhost kernel: RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 4096K size 1024 blocksize
Feb 6 19:17:28 localhost kernel: RAMDISK: Couldn't find valid RAM disk image starting at 0.



and now with both the vesafb driver and the radeon driver compiled but not loading the initrd.splash

Feb 6 19:25:52 localhost kernel: radeonfb: Retreived PLL infos from BIOS
Feb 6 19:25:52 localhost kernel: radeonfb: Reference=27.00 MHz (RefDiv=12) Memory=183.00 Mhz, System=183.00 MHz
Feb 6 19:25:52 localhost kernel: Non-DDC laptop panel detected
Feb 6 19:25:52 localhost kernel: radeonfb: Monitor 1 type LCD found
Feb 6 19:25:52 localhost kernel: radeonfb: Monitor 2 type no found
Feb 6 19:25:52 localhost kernel: radeonfb: panel ID string: Samsung LTN150P1-L02
Feb 6 19:25:52 localhost kernel: radeonfb: detected LVDS panel size from BIOS: 1400x1050
Feb 6 19:25:52 localhost kernel: radeondb: BIOS provided dividers will be used
Feb 6 19:25:52 localhost kernel: radeonfb: Power Management enabled for Mobility chipsets
Feb 6 19:25:52 localhost kernel: radeonfb: ATI Radeon LW DDR SGRAM 32 MB
Feb 6 19:25:52 localhost kernel: vesafb: probe of vesafb0 failed with error -6
Feb 6 19:25:52 localhost kernel: vga16fb: initializing
Feb 6 19:25:52 localhost kernel: vga16fb: mapped to 0xc00a0000
Feb 6 19:25:52 localhost kernel: fb1: VGA16 VGA frame buffer device
Feb 6 19:25:52 localhost kernel: Simple Boot Flag at 0x35 set to 0x1
Feb 6 19:25:52 localhost kernel: Initializing Cryptographic API

Dont think its the vesa fbd as the bootsplash doesnt load in any instance. Any ideas

My screen resolution is 1400x1050. Anyone know if this may have something to do with it. In bootsplash the res I set is 1024x780 (or close to that)