RE: video on laptop - Compaq Armada 1750
Olivier Esser said on 2 November 2002 10:59 PM
Subject: Re: video on laptop - Compaq Armada 1750
>video="vga16:off" disable the framebuffer (a mean to use the console in
>graphic mode; which allow to see the linux pinguin).
>
>To disable it permanently put
>
>append="video=vga16:off"
>
>just after image= ...
>
>in /etc/lilo.conf
>
>(I have also had to disable it for a laptop computer)
Oliver (or anyone else for that matter),
I tried this and i'm pretty sure it does not seem to be working. This is
how i've set lilo up...
image=/vmlinuz
label=Linux
read-only
append="video=vga16:off"
# restricted
# alias=1
image=/vmlinuz.old
label=LinuxOLD
read-only
optional
append="video=vga16:off"
# restricted
# alias=2
Now I did a kernel recompile last nite to try and get my soundcard working
on my machine (separate issue) and that seems to have fixed the video issue
from what I can see/test. I had the vmlinuz and a vmlinuz.old kernel in
lilo.conf, so I edited the new image details (as above) to include the
append details for vga...I then booted into it and video worked fine. So I
tried the same with the old kernel image (vmlinuz.old) - resultant attempt
to boot into that linux kernel ended up with the same white screen much to
my angst - leading me to think that the append isn't working. I then tested
it further by removing the append details from the vmlinuz in lilo.conf and
it still booted up ok. I find that really odd, since I didn't touch video
cards at all during recompile. Really odd. New kernel recompile should not
work without the append. The only thing I can think of is that i've put the
append in the wrong place. If so corrections much appreciated.
Now onto the 2nd part of my post...don't get me wrong guys i'm not bagging
Debian here - i'm offering constructive criticisms here. Surely, if a much
older version of Redhat (version 7.0) can successfully autodetect and pickup
both my video card and soundcard on this laptop then surely Debian should be
able to. Debian did NOT auto detect either video or soundcard. I'd say
this is the sort of thing that sparked the debate on those 2 debian reviews
a week and a bit ago. The ATI rage pro light is a commonly used card on
laptops and has been supported since v4 of XF86 I believe. It SHOULD be
autodetected and setup during install of Debian IMHO. I shouldn't have to
manually tell debconf etc to use the ATI module. Sure I knew to select
that, but a lot of other people would have gotten caught out by that.
Why is it some distributions can autodetect hardware better than others?
Surely linux is linux and if they're using the same kernel/kernel tree then
it shouldn't matter what distribution you are using. Sure you can argue
that i'm a newbie and therefore shouldn't be using Debian as it's not
intended for newbies (and therefore should go back to the Redhat circus et
al) but then you're going to lose a lot of new people to Debian (I make
reference to the article is debian losing mindshare last month with this
point). This can only lead back to there being problems with the Debian
install, ie. if it's not the kernel, or XF86, then it can only be the way
they are being utilised and probed by the install process.
As an example, with my soundcard, sndconfig (which has always worked on
Redhat) wouldn't work (ie no sound) with the ess1869 sound chipset (which I
KNOW works with this soundcard). So...I recompiled the kernel, adding
support for OSS. Out of habit I installed OSS into the kernel (as opposed
to a module). I tried sndconfig again and it warned me that OSS needed to
be configured as a module. So...back to compiling a kernel again...I made
OSS a module, did all the necessary stuff. Tried sndconfig again - and what
does it tell me? It can't work because it can't find soundcore.o. This is
the sort of thing that frustates a new user. sndconfig work/s/ed perfectly
with Redhat (out of the box), why the hell can't it work with Debian? Why
all the mucking about? It makes me feel that Redhat installs things
*properly* and Debian only half installs things (which if this was the case
is NOT satisfactory). There *should* be NO variance between distributions
in terms of hardware detection/configuration. As an example...if Windows 95
detects a piece of hardware, I can almost guaranted that Win98, Win98se, Win
ME, Win 2000 pro, Win XP will also detect it. That is not the case with
linux in general and it is a extremely frustrating issue - and a very bad
point of linux in its current development cycle. There is absolutely no use
in saying linux supports heaps of hardware if it doesn't auto detect it!
For those that want to jump and bag me, I did take the time to read the man
pages for lilo, lilo.conf, the BootPrompt-HOWTO, and did various google
searches (reading several pages on the video issue) as well as reading
several articles in various linux books that I own. In this instance, the
man pages were totally useless to me. I've said it before and i'll keep
saying it again - MAN pages are very badly designed. They are cryptic, lack
examples and are overly technical. Sure they have a hell of a lot of
information, but that information is worthless if it cannot be translated by
the end user into something that they can comprehend. This is something
i've seen posted by others on these lists...I'd happily re-write these man
pages (and boy do they need it badly IMHO) but my technical knowledge is
nowhere near sufficient to do so. As a writer (especially technical) you
*MUST* fully understand and comprehend what you are writing about. If it is
a user help file it must be clearly and succinctly written so that even the
most basic of users can fully understand the gist of the help file. For
those that want to argue with me on that point, i've actually done
Australian recognised courses that have modules on writing user
documentation - so I feel I have some conceptual idea of what i'm talking
about here.
Anyways, that's my bitch for the month of November out of the way, if anyone
can confirm that i've edited the lilo.conf file incorrectly for my video
issues please do so. If i've fucked up and edited it wrong feel free to bag
me on that point. But remember - the man pages don't even touch on the
option, so i'm not wholly to blame. If anyone has any ideas on the sound
issue (which i'm still working on and investigating) feel free to drop me a
line. If anyone feels that my comments on various other issues in this
email are unfair, say so. A discussion forum is about discussing topics in
a coherent manner (ok, ok so I ramble here and there ;-) ).
Dave
aussie aussie aussie oi! oi! oi!
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