Bug#498016: xserver-xorg-video-intel: non-xserver virtual consoles do not display with large virtual display

[Brice Goglin <Brice.Goglin@ens-lyon.org>]

Kevin Mitchell wrote:
> Package: xserver-xorg-video-intel
> Version: 2:2.3.2-2+lenny4
> Severity: normal
>
>
> Ok, I know I've got a 945, and DRI only works if my virtual screen is
> inside a 2048x2048 box, but I like putting an external 1280x1024 VGA
> montor to the left of my 1280x800 LVDS flatpanel. The good news is that
> this seems to work pretty much the way I want with
>
> xrandr --output LVDS --pos 0x224 --output VGA --pos -1280x0
>
> Of course, for this to work, I have to have
>
>  Virtual 2560 1024   
>
> in the "Display" subsection of my "Screen" section in my xorg.conf.
>
> The bad news is that even if I never connect the external monitor or run
> the xrandr command, my command line virtual consoles completely
> disappear. That is, I cannot hit Ctrl-Alt-F1 to get a command line. In
> fact, even after I have stopped the offending xserver, the command line
> virtual consoles still don't work. Only after I have started an xserver
> with a virtual screen smaller than 2048x2048 does the command line
> console return. Maybe this is just a limitation of my hardware, but 
> I just thought I'd document it in case there is some way to make
> command line virtual consoles work with large frame buffers.
>   

It's a known limitation of the <=i945 hardware. It might be worked
around in software one day but it will require a huge amount of work so
it's not likely to happen any time soon.

Brice