setting vga= in lilo doesn't work - penguin interference ...
 

I have just installed a Debian (Woody - stable) system on my old computer, to set it up as a server. As it is going to be a server, I don't want X on it. But I would like to be able to change the resolution of the console, so that I make more use of the space ...

I've read in other threads (here and in other forums) and understood that this should be possible to do by editing the "vga= ..." option in lilo.conf but this doesn't work as expected. I've tried with both the one digit values and with the three digits codes (which I think has something to do with framebuffers - a phenomena I haven't really understood, though I've read the Howto). In both cases it seems to work at first. After Lilo starts (with the message "Lilo 22.2") it changes the resolution.

But before I've said "yes" the boot-up procedure changes it back! It happens when the coloured :Pengy: shows up. At the same time the top most lines (which are at the same height on the screen as the penguint and partly covered by it) freeze and stops scrolling like the rest of the text. (This phenomena continues to exist when loggin in and entering the console. "Clear" does clear the screen, but when it is full and starts to scroll the same lines freeze. I've managed to get rid of the problem by starting Vi and then quit ...)

This is very anoying. As the resolution set by lilo.conf vga= ... actually shows up at first I can't believe that I'm missing some drivers I ought to have - or am I wrong?

Does anyone know why this is happening? And if someone would like to explain to me what this framebuffer phenomena is and how I can use it I would be grateful!

(My graphics card is an old S3 Trio V64+, and the monitor a Samsung Syncmaster 15GLe, 15")

/Daniel S

PS. While trying to solve this I've realized that my system doesn't automatically produces a boot.log in /var/log/ - how can I set it to? DS.

vga
 

hi,

i know how much of a headache it can be. in addition to the vga
oarameter you have to add a video=vesa line though it's not very
clear in the documentation.
for the exact parameter to vga check /usr/src/linux/Documentation/fb/framebuffer.txt
and vesafb.txt

plus you may have to convert the parameters from hex to decimal or vice versa depending on whether you are using lilo or grub

regards
penseur2