console text problem, possibly to do with GFX card

harryman100 · 11-18-2003, 12:06 PM

Hi,

I recently reinstalled MDK 9.0 alongside my WinXP setup, after having not used linux for quite a while, and when I booted up everything appeared about 15 pixels to the left of where my screen should beso the first three characters of each line were missing to the left. this could be fixed by adjusting my monitor settings (the controls on the monitor themselves) and adjusting the position of the image, but then when I booted back into windows, I had to re-adjust again. I downloaded the newest Nvidia drivers for my g-card and installed them, this has fixed the problem in the gui, but in simple text mode, the text still appears too far to the left.

I have had this problem before, and I'm sure that I fixed it with drivers last time, does anyone else have any suggestions?

Thanks,

Harry

mcleodnine · 11-18-2003, 12:19 PM

What does your bootloader config look like? (lilo.conf or grub)

harryman100 · 11-18-2003, 12:22 PM

erm, not sure, I will check next time I boot up in linux, what would the key things in that be that I am looking for? (its grub)

Many Thanks
Harry

mcleodnine · 11-18-2003, 12:36 PM

not much of a grub user here, but in lilo.conf you could try different VGA modes. here's a snippet from one of my configs

Code:

# Normal VGA console
# vga = normal
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x64k
# vga=791
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x32k
# vga=790
# VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x256
# vga=773
# VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x64k

Essentially it's just a matter of finding a nicer framebuffer mode to run the display in. Probably try teaking your current config up. Search here on LQ for grub and vga stuff and see what comes up. You should be able to pass the options at boot time rather than mess with your config. Once you find one that works you may also want to create a 'safe' boot option that will show a basic 80x25 console in case a framebuffer driver gets whumped by a driver change/update.

harryman100 · 11-18-2003, 03:50 PM

OK, I've found it, if I use vga=791 this works quite well

apparently there is a list of possibles in /etc/X11/XF86Config-fbdev, but haven't had a chance to verify that yet.

Many Thanks for your help.