Re: [gentoo-user] Frame-buffer modes on an eee-pc

[Peter Humphrey <peter@humphrey.ukfsn.org>]

On Tuesday 22 September 2009 12:33:59 Willie Wong wrote:

> Is the framebuffer working? I mean, when you boot with the parameters
> listed up there, are you stuck in 80x25 or are you in a framebuffer
> mode that you don't like?

No, the fram buffer is not active - I just get 80x25, or some others if I 
pass a vga= parameter to the kernel.

> If you are stuck in 80x25 text-mode, the intelfb kernel documentation
> suggests you try setting the vga mode, see the file vesafb.txt in your
> kernel documentation directories for details. (The problem is that the
> vesafb modes do not include one that is the native resolution for the
> 16:9 aspect ratio displays; on LCDs this will make the text look
> crappy).

And I haven't been able to get the fesa fb to work either.

Incidentally, if I have both intelfb and vesafb compiled in (*), vesafb 
takes over in spite of have intelfb specified via grub. Not what I 
expected.

> If the framebuffer is working, maybe you just want to play with the
> screen resolution? I think that 1024x600 is correct for the 1000
> series though. Do you just want a certain number of rows and columns
> of text on your console? That I think is determined by the FONTS
> symbol, the configuration should be somewhere around where you enabled
> framebuffer support. Changing the font size should also change the
> number of rows and columns.

1024x600 is correct, I'm sure of it. Fiddling with the fonts may help but 
I'd rather get the underlying screen resolution right first if I can.

> On yres of 600, if you want something close to 60 lines, then you may
> want to try using the 8x8 VGA font. The standard 8x16 fonts will
> provide 30 someodd lines.

Thanks for the ideas.

* Thanks also to Daniel; I'd overlooked gentoo-wiki, where there seems to be 
lots of good advice. I'll have a go at that later.

-- 
Rgds
Peter