Re: kern/71142; VESA 1024x768; (Poor Console resolution on Compaq 2103US)

From: Nikolas Britton (freebsd_at_nbritton.org)
Date: 12/24/04

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    Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2004 18:17:36 -0600
To: Mervin McDougall <mcd_advisory@yahoo.com>

    Mervin McDougall wrote:

    >I have one experience to share as a newbie, that of
    >trying to get a proper console resolution on my
    >laptop. I chose to stick with FreeBSD over Slackware
    >for my laptop for the simplicity in its init system
    >and fewer init levels, its ports and packages system
    >which reduces the stress of looking for a file and all
    >its dependencies and getting it downloaded, compiled
    >and using on my laptop and basically its speed of
    >booting- in 2/3 the time it takes slackware linux to
    >boot, bsd is at the loging prompt.However,getting the
    >proper console resolution was a pain as I favour
    >console over X.
    >
    >I tried recompiling the kernel including support for
    >Vesa by including options VESA and SC_PIXEL_MODE and
    >that didn't work.I tried compiling the kernel with
    >suppor for VGA_90WIDTH and that still did not provide
    >me with adequate space on my screen to get anything
    >else done. My console only the center of my screen and
    >only occupied a 1/3 rd of the entire screen. I was
    >very stressed until I cam across a website of someone
    >who had successfully installed FreeBSD 5.2.1 on a
    >similar laptop. I contacted him and he explained that
    >he had similar problem but got over the issue by
    >making use of a patch which allowed me to achieve
    >screen resolutions of 1024x768.
    >
    >I have gotten over the problem happily but there are
    >still some issues that the patch created in making use
    >of it as slower performance in switching from console
    >to X and the printing of error information when the
    >kernel is initiating vidcontrol but I get to use
    >console more often thankfully.
    >
    >I wish that the freebsd team would look into fixing
    >any errors in vidcontrol to get the problem with
    >screen resolutions on laptops fixed. I was able to do
    >this with ease using linux framebuffer settings with
    >slackware but had so much difficulty getting that done
    >under freebsd 5.3.
    >
    >I could have chosen to give up and simply use linux
    >but I like the way freebsd performs something about it
    >is just magically and wouldn't want to miss out on
    >using it. I just wish somethng could be done to better
    >the performance of the system as is and get rid of
    >some of those escape errors. or gett a better patch
    >from the freebsd team.
    >
    >If anyone has a similar laptop and wants to get some
    >specifics about what works and what doesn't feel free
    >to visit
    >http://demira.shopkeeper.de/~sascha/nx9005/
    >its pretty informative.
    >
    >Mervin McDougall
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    (For FreeBSD current mailing list and Cyrille Lefevre): What is the
    current status of this patch, is there an updated version of this patch
    that address console slowness, etc., and when will it be MFC'd to
    5-STABLE? (5.4_RELEASE?)
    ----------------
    This is a problem with most ATI RAGE cards including my laptop (Armada
    1750, ATI Rage LT Pro) I have successfully applied this patch to that
    system and can now use 1024x768 at the console, the patch is here:
    http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=kern/71142
    Please note that at Lines 790, 982, and 1000 are hard returns that brake
    the patch when run though the awk script so fix them before you run
    "qp2txt patch.eml | patch" or "patch <nameofpatch". after I fixed those
    problems the patch applied cleanly to 5.3-RELEASE and I then rebuilt my
    kernel with "options VESA" and "options SC_PIXEL_MODE" and rebuilt
    vidcontrol then typed in "vidcontrol MODE_279", after I tested that to
    see if it worked, I added it to my rc.conf as "allscreens_flags="MODE_279".

    For more info about this patch go here
    http://unix.derkeiler.com/Mailing-Lists/FreeBSD/current/2004-08/ and
    read the thread labeled "[PATCH TO TEST] VESA [1024x768] mode support
    for FreeBSD-CURRENT" (08/27/04 - 08/31/04)

    Also this resource is very helpful, The FreeBSD Console - Living without
    X: http://lickwid.ath.cx/~tlp/fbsd-console.html
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