12.1 legibility problem when switching between X and console (Radeon 9600)

meikitsu · 08-04-2008, 06:54 PM

Hello,

Today I installed Slackware 12.1 and so far I've left it in an almost out-of-the-box state. I encountered a new problem I've never seen before, although I've been experimenting with Linux in a permanent-newbie kind of way for quite a while: when switching from X to a text console or after shutting down X, the console text becomes very hard to read, the colours becoming very light. At first I thought it might be my TFT screen's back light that got turned off, but now that it's dark, the problem actually appears to be the text colour.

I already tried booting into a VESA high resolution console (I'm sorry if my terminology is all wrong...) instead of the standard console, but that didn't do much good.

I'm using an ATi Radeon 9600 graphics card, and I have my X server set to the "radeon" driver.

Can anyone tell me what I messed up this time?

stress_junkie · 08-04-2008, 07:45 PM

Don't feel bad. I've been using Linux since 1995 and I often feel like a newbie.

I don't think that you've messed anything up. I think that your boot parameters might be at fault. Are you using LILO or GRUB? Either way check your boot parameters and look for something like

Code:

VGA=788

That will be on the same line as the name of your kernel image in your boot parameters. This is what my GRUB boot file (/boot/grub/menu.lst) looks like for Linux.

Code:

title PCLOS 2.6.22.17.tex2 hda3
kernel (hd0,2)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22.17.tex2 BOOT_IMAGE=PCLOS_2.6.22.17.tex2_hda3 root=/dev/hda3 acpi=on splash=verbose vga=788
initrd (hd0,2)/boot/initrd-2.6.22.17.tex2.img

Here is a web page that has the VGA settings.
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/2007/05...en-resolution/
Try changing the boot parameter setting and see if that fixes the problem. It seems to me that X should not change your console text settings so this seems like a promising approach to me.

meikitsu · 08-05-2008, 04:13 AM

It was indeed in the resolution and colour depth settings, the problem has been resolved by setting the text console (in lilo, btw) to a lower colour depth (currently 256 colours instead of 24-bit). What still puzzles me is why, and what puzzles me even more is why my computer felt obliged to change my colours even in the "vga = normal" mode... Still, it works, thank you!