Baslinux mailing list

[Sindi Keesan <keesan AT iamjlamb.com>]

> postings, then something from linux-kernel-org about improvements to 
> vgacon such that it now has a scroll buffer (don't know which kernel 
> number).  vgacon - vga console.  My lack of scroll was on a TTL monitor 
> using mdacon.  I will try viewing in VGA.  I may be stuck using VGA online 
> with Kermit if I want a scroll buffer.  DOS Kermit comes with its own 
> buffer.  For linux they say to use the scrollbar, but that requires using 
> X (and xterm or rxvt).  Shift-PgUp works in X (on other computers anyway, 
> did not try here).


As a test, I just plugged a 104-key keyboard into a two-monitor 
computer with BL3 and used Shift-Page Up and Page Down to scroll 
successfully in VGA mode.  It does NOT work in MDA (TTL,Hercules) mode.

Another online search found me a short discussion of mdacon at a
linux-kernel mail list (three responses - why would anyone want to work on
a module for hardware from the early 80s, they ask someone who improved
his kernel code to work with later non-Herc cards), so I have subscribed
and will ask list members if I can copy over code from vgacon.c to
mdacon.c before attempting to compile my own kernel. This is nothing that
a good course in C programming cannot fix (if I can manage to compile a
kernel module, having flunked one for an ethernet card.)

BL2 is supposed to support old hardware so why not MDA?