lwasserm
Ya I found that now.

The SliTaz Kernel also provides a video output mode for the VGA Vesa framebuffer - this is what displays the tux logo and manages the display of the Linux terminal. Once the system has started you have access to six pseudo terminals via the key combinations Ctrl+alt+F1, Ctrl+alt+F2, and so on.

vga=XXX - VGA Kernel modes
So do I need to activate something?
And what should I choose for an NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 graphics card along with an older Panasonic monitor to which I usually prefer 1024x768?
My menu.lst looks like...

# /boot/grub/menu.lst: GRUB boot loader configuration.
#

# By default, boot the first entry.
default 0

# Change the colors.
color yellow/brown light-green/black

# For booting SliTaz from : /dev/hda1
#
title SliTaz GNU/Linux (cooking) (Kernel vmlinuz-2.6.24.2-slitaz)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24.2-slitaz root=/dev/hda1

So what will it look like after adjustment?

ErV

I have tried as you mentioned so I think that something need be adjusted in my grub as we see above.
I thought that was screen not terminal.
I only ever seen a terminal under X or other graphical desktop.
Sorry if I'm wrong.

Change this line:
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24.2-slitaz root=/dev/hda1

to

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24.2-slitaz root=/dev/hda1 vga=792


The screen you get when you press Ctrl+Alt+F1 (through f6) is usually called a "vt" for Virtual Terminal. The name goes back to a time when computers didn't have graphic systems like they do today, but instead a terminal, with display (usually text-mode only) and keyboard was connected to the system via a serial port or dedicated interface. Often more than one terminal was so connected. The early PC unix and linux systems emulated this environment by having several "virtual" terminals that could be selected with the Alt-Fx keys.

The terminal window or terminal emulator that runs under X is often just referred to as a "terminal" The terms are used somewhat informally and might mean different things to different people in different contexts. To me, a "real terminal" would be one that connected to a serial port as described.

O my bad.
Thanks for all your help.
I will try adding vga=792 to the line today and see what happens.

It doesn't matter how do you call them. For me these are "virtual terminals". If links -g doesn't work by default, try different drivers for links ("-driver" switch) and install/try svgalib.

I thank you for helping me get framebuffer up and running but now I still have a problem with Links2 and graphics.
I've tried and tried compiling Links in different ways but still get the same message of.

I attempted links -g -driver svgalib didn't work.
I don't get it whats wrong.

Did you get the man pages with your copy of links2?

the error message with "display 0:0" indicates that it is looking for an X display. svgalib is not the same as framebuffer. Try this:

links2 -g -driver fb


If you need to get the mouse working on a vt see if you can find and install "gpm"

I think that the libpng patch may be the issue.

Slitaz uses libpng-1.2.31 and libpng-dev-1.2.29 so I used the patch mentioned in the instructions but I must no have dun so correctly.

Any one know the right way to patch libpng or if I even need to?

I'm looking at the developers download page for links,

http://links.twibright.com/download.php

According to that page only libpng 1.2.28 causes trouble. See step 5 on that page, did you use the "--enable-graphics " option during ./configure ? I think if you read over and follow the instructions there, maybe read through some of the docs, you can get it working OK

If you still have trouble, does slitaz use any kind of package manager? Can you install .deb or .rpm packages? If so maybe there is a precompiled version you can use.

I looked that over and it seems your wright that only the 1.2.28 causes trouble but when I compile without the patch it fails to even see libpng installed.
I think that it might only work with Libpng.1.2.28 so I am to if I understand this I install the older lib along with the patch (or) use the precompiled Links found in the repos namely links-2.1pre32.tazpkg only I don't think that that was configured to use framebuffer support because I get the same error about

Could I somehow reconfigure it to use framebuffer?

Did you use the "--enable-graphics " option during ./configure ?

Yes So can I reconfigure or should I look for a different patch?

JohnGotLinuxed
Read links output of ./configure --help. I don't have source code for links nearby, so I can't check what options it supports, but I think there were some configure switches related to drivers. Also make sure svgalib is installed before compiling links. links from slackware 12.1 work without problems in graphical mode in terminal without X. BTW, I suppose you are using this version, not links 0.99?

I thought I installed svgalib but I may have not so I did it again but no /etc/vga/libvga.config is created so I think that svgalib not installing.
I don't know how come.

OK this should maybe a in a separate posting but does anyone know of a small Linux that has framebuffer and Links already installed and able to run graphically?
I really don't need anything els and the smaller the better.

I see blueflops a 2-floppy Distro but I'd rather have a CD or harddrive install because my floppy drive is busted.
anyone know of such a thing?
I guess I could try to build a qemu.img from the floppies and do an install from that if I can figure out how.