Booting in various screen resolutions
 

As a followup to my earlier post (thanks, trickykid, for the quick answer), I've got a slight problem with screen resolutions while not using X.

When I installed Slackware, it gave me the option of booting at various resolutions.. I chose "1024x768@64k colors". This worked for a while--I could boot up to the boot: prompt, and then it would switch to 1024x768, and all was hunky-dory.

Then I updated the kernel to 2.4.17. The system booted and then, after the boot: prompt, I got a blank screen. After rebooting, I tried loading my kernel image with "vga=normal", and it worked fine.

As far as I can tell, the 2.4.17 kernel is fine, but I can't get the new config to boot in a higher resolution.

Is there another config file, other than lilo.conf, that needs to be edited to make this work? Slackware took care of this for me originally, so I don't really know the extent of the job.

Thanks for the look.

man rdev
man SVGATextMode

rdev sets all kinds of device modes, including vga mode. But I think all it does is 2 modes; 80x25 and 80x50 text.

Probably what you want is SVGATextMode which uses a config file much like X to let you do all kinds of text on hi-res displays, kind of like running a full screen xterm in X.

I run a 100x75 character display on a 800x600 pixel laptop with 8 bit color.

Thanks... but, unfortunately for for me, my Slackware 7.0 install doesn't know what "SVGATextMode" is. I checked the man page for rdev, and it tells me that all it does is change the kernel's instructions as to which video mode to boot into. If I'm not mistaken, this is what changing the option "vga=" in lilo.conf, and then running lilo, would do.

ACtually, reading further down the man page, it tells me that lilo makes using rdev unecessary. If I'm wrong on either one of these counts, please tell me.

Normally, I'd just give this one up and move on to something else (like that Java homework that's due tomorrow afternoon). But I KNOW there's something going on here... There has to be a method of making this work.

You're right about rdev. Here is a link to some more info on SVGATextMode and some download sites.

http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue21/svgatext.html

Finally!

Turns out you're right, Malicious. The SVGATextMode thingy does the trick. Actually, though, there are apparantly several ways to get this done...

Here's a link I found not ten minutes ago:

http://www.digitalhermit.com/linux/hiresconsole.html

It outlines three separate ways to get "a high resolution console".

The method I was searching for, coincidentally, is the 3rd one listed on the linked page... It involved compiling the kernel with a few of the "Console Device" options set in a way that I didn't have them set up. So, I figured, rather than download some new software, I'd just recompile. The job is running right now, and hopefully it'll give me something to work with.

All told, thank you very much for the help. The only thing more frustrating than banging your head against a wall is doing it alone.

Like my gran'daddy used to say; two heads are better than one, even if one is a cabbage :-}.

I haven't even looked at the framebuffer stuff. Maybe I will now that I know some of the things it will do. Thanks for the info.

later

Just a final report on the issue...

I did (finally!) get the fscking linux machine to boot, and then start using a 1024x768@64k resolution. I feel like I've climbed a freaking mountain. I recompiled my 2.4.17 kernel, as indicated in the link above, to include the options for the framebuffer support. My lilo.conf file has a "vga=791" statement, which directs it to use the proper resolution.

I would say, as a word of warning to anyone trying this: MAKE SURE YOU FOLLOW THE EXACT INSTRUCTIONS IN THE HI-RES HOWTO (link above) AS TO WHICH KERNEL OPTIONS YOU WANT INCLUDED. It took me three kernel compilations (well, two if you discount my unrelated stupid mistake) to get it right.

And dammit, if it's not 7:00 am, EST. Goodbye, sleep. Hello, coffee.