Bug#250354: 2.6.5 kernel: Dialogs not shown correctly during base-config

[Frans Pop <aragorn@tiscali.nl>]

Package: debian-installer
Version: 20040513

For my Toshiba Satellite A40 laptop, I have tried installations with both 2.4 
and 2.6 kernels.

If I install with 'linux26' and select the 2.6.5 kernel during base 
installation and reboot, all borders and lines are shown as the Πcharacter 
('O' and 'E' combined) for all base configuration dialogs, debconf dialogs 
and also for dselect.
During 1st stage installation the dialogs are shown correctly.

With a 2.4 based install, the dialogs are also correct after the reboot for 
base configuration.

It looks like this is framebuffer or maybe /etc/console-screen.sh related.

If I manually load the vga16fb and fbcon modules, the dialogs are shown 
correctly. However, this introduces a new problem after I install X11: if I 
switch from vt7 (X) to a character based VT, the screen is dirty with random 
pixels (after 'reset' the screen is shown normally).

Modules loaded during a 2.6 installation:
      Module           Loaded before reboot     Loaded after reboot
      cfbcopyarea               yes                     yes
      cfbimgblt                 yes                     yes
      cfbfillrect               yes                     yes
      font                      yes                     yes
      vgastate                  yes                     no
      vga16fb                   yes                     no
      fbcon                     yes                     no

Modules loaded during a 2.4 installation:
      Module            Loaded before reboot     Loaded after reboot
      vga16fb                   yes                     no
      fbcon-vga-planes          yes                     no
      fbcon-cf8                 yes                     no