benh 2.4.21 kernel and radeonfb initialization

["Andreakis, Dean (MED)" <Dean.Andreakis@med.ge.com>]

I have an iBook w/ Debian (sid), benh 2.4.21 kernel, an external CRT 
connected, XFree86 v4.3.0, and an ATI radeon mobility 7500 video chip. 
When I boot the system the very first thing I see is some messages 
concerning opening of the display etc. (its in a different font then the 
normal boot messges) and then the external crt connected and the 
internal lcd "flash white" and then the normal boot messages startup. I 
was wondering what these first messages are. They seem to be related 
somehow to the display mode initialization and I was also wondering if 
anyone knew if somehow at this stage some parameters are being passed to 
the radeonfb driver somehow or if this had something to do with 
openFirmware somehow. I just want to understand this mechanism because I 
noticed on earlier versions of the kernel my external crt was not 
enabled at this point but with the 2.4.21-benh kernel it does.

-dean andreakis