Vga mode during startup

Boczkowski_D · Apprentice Joined: 06 Aug 2007 Posts: 160 Location: Poland

I've just installed Gentoo 2007.0 with kernel 2.6.21 and I wanted to enable graphics mode while sturtup. I chose Vesa option in the kernel and set vga mode in lilo but still I get an error: You passed an undefined mode number. To be honest I tried many mode numbers but nothing worked. I think something is wrong with the kernel. Should I pick something else than Vesa option to make it work well?

nanoczar · Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 4:27 pm Post subject:

What kind of video card do you have?
Also, do you know what resolution your card/monitor can handle? If you had windoze installed previously it would be the resolution you were running then...
-nanoczar
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Boczkowski_D · Apprentice Joined: 06 Aug 2007 Posts: 160 Location: Poland

There is an old GeForce 2Ti installed in my computer. The resolution I want to get is 1280x1024 and I know that my system can handle it cause I have had Gentoo 2006.1 before and vga mode was activated during sturtup. But previously there was kernel-2.6.9 used.

nanoczar · Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 4:38 pm Post subject:

Are you using the same xorg.conf?
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Don't fight the LaTeX. WORK with the LaTeX!! Become one with the LaTeX!!! - JIC

Boczkowski_D · Apprentice Joined: 06 Aug 2007 Posts: 160 Location: Poland

Not for sure for I removed the old system completly and I have just installed a new one with stage 3. The previous one was set with LiveCD. Can that matter?

nanoczar · Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 4:44 pm Post subject:

If you spent time in your previous installation and modified the xorg.conf file for your specific video card then the liveCD one might not match to the degree you would like.
A few questions:
1. Are you able to boot into your installation or are you stuck in lilo?
2. If you can, what do you get when you type "startx"?
_________________
Don't fight the LaTeX. WORK with the LaTeX!! Become one with the LaTeX!!! - JIC

Boczkowski_D · Apprentice Joined: 06 Aug 2007 Posts: 160 Location: Poland

Answers

1. I am able to boot into. When the mode is set to other than "normal" lilo just throws up the warning and gives a list of text mode resolution.
2. I haven't installed window manager yet. I am planning to get Xfce4.

nanoczar · Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 4:51 pm Post subject:

Can you post your lilo configuration file?
I am a grub man myself...
_________________
Don't fight the LaTeX. WORK with the LaTeX!! Become one with the LaTeX!!! - JIC

Boczkowski_D · Apprentice Joined: 06 Aug 2007 Posts: 160 Location: Poland

I edited lilo.conf myself. The only thing that concerns graphics mode is following line:

nanoczar · Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 5:07 pm Post subject:

You may need to turn on other VGA options in the kernel such as VGA_CONSOLE. Here is a link that has other lilo modes that you can try. Maybe you need to turn down your color depth...
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?t=152575
_________________
Don't fight the LaTeX. WORK with the LaTeX!! Become one with the LaTeX!!! - JIC

Boczkowski_D · Apprentice Joined: 06 Aug 2007 Posts: 160 Location: Poland

I've tried many mode numbers but nothing worked. I've tried also to reconfigure kernel, but I set something that causes multicolor screen (some kind of chessboard, but in 16 colors) after the given warning message and choosing the text mode in booting. Don't know what setting causes this (tried to fix it but nothing helped). Of course I didn't save the previous kernel so I can't compare the settings. The system will boot normally when I remove line vga=XXX in /etc/lilo.conf. In my opinion there is something wrong with the video card settings but no idea what exactly. Could someone help? At least how to get to know what is the root cause.