Grub conf and vga/video

[TheLegend81]

Hey all:

I've finally got a working Gentoo installation but there is one quirk.

I have a 19" LCD monitor that I'd like to run at 1280x1024@24bit@72Hz

the console, as I understand, is configured in the grub.conf file under the tag "vga="

As the handbook indicates, 1280x1024@24bit color = 0x31B

so I have tried vga=0x31B and vga=31B. Everytime I boot the kernel, mount filesystems as well as the console itself, the text goes off of the side of the screen. the resolution looks FAR lower than 1280x1024.

how do I go about getting my console to display the right resolution?
for the record (and not that it necessarily amtters as modules are loaded much after the grub.conf file is taken into account) but I am using nvidia-kernel as my display adapter. What am I missing?

[NeddySeagoon]

TheLegend81,

There are two console drivers, the vga one which is configured with the vga statement and the framebuffer one which needs the video statement. Do you know which driver you are using ?

If you get a Penguin boot logo, its framebuffer, if not, you can't tell by looking at the boot screen.

The nvidia-kernel modules is used only for X - not the console.

[TheLegend81]

okay.

well, I'm using both vga and video

I don't have tux anywhere though.

From:http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/h ... =1&chap=10

If you have configured your kernel with framebuffer support (or you used genkernel's default kernel configuration), you can activate it by adding a vga and/or a video statement to your bootloader configuration file.

64-bit systems must use the the vesafb driver, and so will need to set the vga statement. The vga statement controls the resolution and color depth of your framebuffer screen for vesafb. As stated in /usr/src/linux/Documentation/fb/vesafb.txt (which gets installed when you install a kernel source package), you need to pass the VESA number corresponding to the requested resolution and color depth to it.

The following table lists the available resolutions and colordepths and matches those against the value that you need to pass on to the vga statement.

640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024
256 0x301 0x303 0x305 0x307
32k 0x310 0x313 0x316 0x319
64k 0x311 0x314 0x317 0x31A
16M 0x312 0x315 0x318 0x31B

The video statement controls framebuffer display options. It needs to be given the framebuffer driver (vesafb for 2.6 kernels, or vesa for 2.4 kernels) followed by the control statements you wish to enable. All variables are listed in /usr/src/linux/Documentation/fb/vesafb.txt, but we'll inform you about three most-used options:

Control Description
ywrap Assume that the graphical card can wrap around its memory (i.e. continue at the beginning when it has approached the end)
mtrr Setup MTRR registers

The result of those two statements could be something like vga=0x318 video=vesafb:mtrr,ywrap or video=vesafb:mtrr,ywrap,1024x768-32@85. Remember (or write down) this setting; you will need it shortly.

Now continue by installing GRUB.

am I right that I should be putting this in the grub.conf?

I just popped it right at the top, honestly, it doesn't follow a kernel statement or anything

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vga=0x31B
video=vesafb:mtrr,ywrap,1280x1024-24@72

title=...

should it be appended to the i.e.

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kernel = kernel-2.6.13-gentoo-r1 -doscsi vga=0x31B video=vesafb:mtrr,ywrap,1280x1024-24@72

Thanks so much!

and yes, I'm a lunix newb.[/code]

[NeddySeagoon]

TheLegend81,

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kernel = kernel-2.6.13-gentoo-r1 -doscsi vga=0x31B video=vesafb:mtrr,ywrap,1280x1024-24@72 

Is correct, on one long line with all the other stuff already there. However, you should not need both

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vga=0x31B 

and

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video=vesafb:mtrr,ywrap,1280x1024-24@72

Code: Select all

vga=ask

is worth playing with. It will give you a list of supported vga modes to choose from right after the kernel is loaded.
If you are using framebuffer, it should be the vesa-tng one.

You only get the Penguin in the framebuffer if you have configured the boot time logo too.

[TheLegend81]

thanks, I'll try that!

[ldoe3000]

vga=795 is 1280X1024, you might try that also.

[TheLegend81]

okay--I tried this but my terminals still seem to be the same size. I tried using one of the consolefonts (to make the text smaller--more like the 2005.1 live cd size) but they don't seem to work.


for example:

in /etc/X11/consolefont

CONSOLEFONT="ISO-08x08" does not work

My ultimate goal for the console is just to make the screen like the live-cd 2005.1 boot sequence and terminals. I find smaller text much more vivid and hate having to scroll as much as I do.

Any help would be appreciated.

[NeddySeagoon]

TheLegend81,

If you have some web space, please post your /usr/src/linux/.config file there and put a link in the thread.
If you must, paste your entire .config file here.