Bug#290366: bootloader doesn't set VESA mode on x86, so vesafb is never loaded

[Matthew Garrett <mjg59@srcf.ucam.org>]

Package: debian-installer
Severity: normal

For vesafb to work, the kernel bootloader needs to set up a VESA mode. 
This is typically done by passing something like vga=0x301 (which will 
set a 256 colour 640x480 display). If this succeeds, vesafb should load 
and work correctly. Otherwise, the system will fall back to vga16fb when 
the vesafb modprobe fails.
 
Currently, vga16fb is loaded unconditionally. I have a machine here that 
works correctly with vesafb but fails with vga16fb.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 3.1
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (600, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.10-1-686
Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)