Bug#606110: installation-report: gtk installer fail to start with PXE boot of Dell Latitude D505

[Petter Reinholdtsen <pere@hungry.com>]

[Cyril Brulebois]
> Yes, try passing vga=788. Failing that, you're probably going to
> lack a framebuffer, and X won't be able to start. You would then
> have a scrolling log on vt1 in which you should be able to see a
> “(EE) no screens found” line.

I did not have time to test PXE at the moment, but I did download
<URL: ftp://ftp.uio.no/debian-cd/current/i386/iso-cd/debian-7.4.0-i386-CD-1.iso >
and stored it on a USB stick to test.  The boot line is already
"video=vesa:ywrap,mtrr vga=788" when booting from USB stick.

The graphical installer boot failed.  It is a bit hard to read the
error, but I believe something like "Undefined video mode number: 314
Undefined video mode number 314\nle. <SPACE> to continue, or wait 08
seconds.  <SPACE> or continue ..."  was written (a bit hard to read,
as the screen is garbled).

After waiting a bit, something start scrolling on the upper 1.5 cm of
the screen, but it is impossible to read, as there is no text, only
colored dots.

Using vga=ask instead, I get the same result, unreable text and the
looping colors after a while.

Based on my test, I believe thus bug still exist in Wheezy.  To me it
look like the graphical syslinux menu messes up the the video mode,
making it impossible to continue with the installation.  It look just
like the behaviour of pxelinux. :)

-- 
Happy hacking
Petter Reinholdtsen