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Re: Newbie installation prob: Screen zonky



On Sat, 6 Nov 1999, Christian T. Steigies wrote:

>Which "StartInstall" did you use? There should be 4, _the_ StartInstall plus
>StartInstall_CV64, _CV3D and _clgen. The last three are for graphics boards,
>the first one (StartInstall) should work for you.

Yeah, that's the one I used too.

>It worked for me, AFAIR it
>uses the current native mode or pal or something. Maybe you have to specify
>it, since you are using an AGA machine. The kernel docs list: video=pal or
>video=pal-lace, both have been working for me. Maybe you want to use ntsc or
>ntsc-lace. The 31kHz modes probably don't work with the 8833.

Whatever the mode it tried to open by default, it wasn't compatible with
the 8833. Specifying video=pal got me out of the jam and the screen
works now without any problems whatsoever, thanks ever so much!!

>or pal-lace, ntsc or ntsc-lace. Details are in the kernel-source (and in 
>the FAQ I bet ;-)

On a quick glance thru the FAQ, I catch a reference to setting the
'video=vga' if there's problems, but nothing about setting video=pal...
Of course, the smart installer (which I evidently wasn't :) ) would've
figured it out from there. It's weird, actually. I'd have expected the
default video mode to have been a pal or ntsc one. Have times really
changed so much that most people have multisync monitors? I guess I'd
better look into getting a new monitor if that's true. :)

>linux/Documentation/m68k/kernel-options.txt

Ahh, thanks. Must've missed that one on my quest for solutions.

>> goes gray for a moment, then it gives a black and white screen, but the
>> screen is all zonky and spins around with no recognizable graphics or
>> text to be seen.

>Cool, thats a feature not a bug ;-)

*grin*

>Honestly, this might be bad for your monitor...

Really, no kidding? :) :)

>maybe we need a
>StartInstall_AGA_on_A1084S/CM8833 script? Or scripts specifically for pal,
>pal-lace ntsc, ntsc-lace and the aga mode(s?) I see 20 in total, it might get
>crowded in that drawer. Or the Install guides get some polishment, Michael?

Honestly, I don't think there's any need to create different scripts, at
least because of a minor bug like this. IMO, all that'd be needed to fix
this would be making the default of AmiBoot be a pal or ntsc video mode --
assuming more monitors are capable of displaying that than whatever mode
is the current default -- or otherwise just putting in a
README_VIDEO_MODES or something which would point out that there is a
'video=xxx' commandline argument, and give the possible video modes one
could use with that keyword. That'd be the simplest solution, and it'd
have been sufficient even for a dummy like me. :)

>The CM8833 is a bit limited in its frequency range (15.6kHz?) but it can be
>used for Linux, it has been working fine at my A2k under Linux until it
>broke down.

Yeah, it's working fine with my Linux right now.

>pal-lace gives you a reasonable large display, but its interlaced and quite 
>a pain in X.

Oh? Maybe I should try that... I haven't managed to get X-Windows quite
set up yet... We'll see if I manage to set Linux up into a functioning
environment for myself before my brain experiences meltdown. :)

I downloaded a 400MB installation yesterday and installed it, and
frankly, I'm starting to think it was a huge mistake. Having 30000+
files on your Linux partition and knowing what about 1/1000 of them do
is probably not a good thing. :) I'm tempted to re-install and go back
to the minimum installation, and install only the packages I desperately
need. Which reminds me, anyone have any clue if there are m68k binaries
for pico, pine, or ssh? I tried looking but couldn't find those, and I'm
going to tear vi to shreds if I have to use it one more time. :)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
| -- Samy Merchi / EMAIL: samerc@utu.fi / URL: http://mash.yok.utu.fi    |
|    Undergraduate student of English at University of Turku, Finland    |
|    Reader & fan of superhero comics; writer of superhero fanfiction    |
|    Female supremacist; anarchist; personal pacifist; mass darwinist    |
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