Re: What controls monitor parameters during booting?

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Date: 21 Jul 2004 17:58:15 GMT

["Followup-To:" header set to comp.os.linux.hardware.]
On Wed, 21 Jul 2004 11:25:02 -0600, John McFee staggered into the Black
Sun and said:
> I am running Fedora Core 1 (2.4.22-1.2194.nptl kernel) on an 660MHz HP
> Pavilion computer. The 4 yr old HP M50 CRT monitor crapped out and I
> bought a new Samsung SyncMaster 712N LCD monitor to replace it. [...]
> In Run state 5, the monitor is great. However, on booting, the
> command lines appear to be shifted about 3 characters to the left and
> the 1st 3 characters of each line are off screen. (The screen
> resolution onbooting is low, like an 80 or so-wide character
>
> What file, program, service or whatever. controls monitor parameters
> during the boot process? And more specifically, how can I adjust the
> boot screen so I can see the whole command line?

Before X starts, the console is controlled by the vga= parameter that's
passed to the kernel at boot time by LILO or GRUB. Valid values for
vga= depend on the monitor and whether you have VESA framebuffer support
compiled into your kernel. You can always put in "vga=ask" for a list
of non-framebuffer modes. Valid framebuffer modes are documented in
/usr/src/linux/Documentation/fb/vesafb.txt . I don't know whether stock
Fedora kernels have VESA support compiled in or not, but try it and see.

For GRUB, edit /boot/grub/grub.conf and find the lines like

kernel /boot/2.4.24 hdc=ide-scsi root=/dev/hda6

...and add "vga=NNN" to the end of those lines.

For LILO, edit /etc/lilo.conf so that the line "vga=NNN" is present in
the image stanzas for your kernels, then rerun lilo.

> Lastly, is there a monitor model in the display configuration tool
> that is a better choice than the generic LCD?

If "generic LCD" works well for you (you said it did) then don't change
it. If you want to run at resolutions other than the LCD's native
resolution (for games or whatever) you might have to adjust the
HorizSync and VertRefresh parameters in your /etc/X11/XF86Config file to
prevent X from saying "HSync out of range for mode '800x600' ". I use
HSync 20-150 and VSync 10-400 on my Thinkpad A22p, which is way in
excess of what the LCD can really do, but it gives me all the modes from
640x480 up to 1600x1200 without problems. If I use the sync ranges from
"generic LCD", I only get 1600x1200. YMMV. HTH,

-- 
Matt G|There is no Darkness in Eternity/But only Light too dim for us to see
Brainbench MVP for Linux Admin /    mail: TRAP + SPAN don't belong
http://www.brainbench.com     /                Hire me! 
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