Re: video on laptop - Compaq Armada 1750
On Sunday 03 November 2002 00:25, David Pastern wrote:
> 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!
Here is the way, I have configured my /etc/lilo.conf
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.4.18-bf2.4oliv
label=Linux
read-only
append="video=vga16:off"
# restricted
# alias=1
Have you not forget to run lilo after changing this file? You can see which
kernel you are running with 'uname -r'.
For the sound card; you will not probably have to recompile the kernel. If
you use the default kernel; the correct modules will probably already exists
for you (anyway if you recompile the kernel; load the default configuration
file in /boot/config-<kernel version>; and change only the sections you
understand). To enable the sound card you will have to put the name of the
correct module in /etc/modules to tell the system to load it at boot time. To
know which module you need type "lspci -vv" to know exactly which sound card
you have and then make a search on google (you can maybe also find it
pressing the help at the configuration of the kernel; but I repeat recompile
the kernel is probably not necessary). You will then have to add yoursel to
the audio group in "/etc/group" (like audio:x:<some number>:<your name>).
After you have made all of your changes; reboot the system.
I know that Debian does not detect anyhing unlike Red Had or MS windows.
Although I am only a user of Debian; I believe that Red Hat, unlike Debian,
*have* to sell its products and that is maybe the reason. Debian has
advantages though: a lot of software and upgrading facility. If you want to
use Debian or linux in general; there are a lot of informative howto's.
Understanding the man pages is not so difficult, just persevere!
Yours,
Olivier Esser
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