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  • From: sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>
  • To: baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [BL] Xvesa and resizecons
  • Date: Tue, 22 Mar 2005 19:14:18 +0000 (UTC)

Resizecons is not my only problem with this Virge card - when I use an svgalib program (zgv) and exit the screen is covered with vertical stripes that won't go away with a reset. I think the card is a problem, but so was the previous Trio64V (with resizecons).

The same chip can of course be used in different cards.

Has anyone else been using restoretextmode/resizecons with these or other video cards? I don't seem to have these problems with ATI but have not checked it out very much.

On Tue, 22 Mar 2005, sindi keesan wrote:

I was able to use aliases as suggested to restore the console screen to where it was before using Xvesa:

alias x30='startx;resizecons 80x30'
alias o30='xinit /etc/.xinitrc.opera -- /usr/X11R6/bin/Xvesa -screen 1280x1024x16 -terminate; resizecons 80x30'

This should also work for different charsets but I did not test it.
Xvesa dumps this sort of information otherwise, unlike regular X.

To use 80x30 columns first boot (BL2 or BL3 with the BL2 kernel) with loadlin but append vga=ask to the loadlin line. You will probably need kbd.tgz to get restoretextmode and resizecons programs.

Choose the mode you want during boot and after booting mkdir /usr/lib/kbd/videomodes. Let's say for example 80x30. Mode 3 (?).

cd /usr/lib/kbd/videomodes

restoretextmode -w 80x30

You will then have a file 80x30 in .../videomodes.

In the case of S3 Virge the screen will go blank except for the cursor but you can then type resizecons 80x30 and get it back.

Reboot for every mode you want (including 80x25 to start with) and repeat the procedure.

I had to resizecons 4 times to get 80x30 to actually fill the 17" screen (S3 Virge) otherwise it showed fewer than 30 lines, but in the expected smaller font. On a 15" screen I think it took only 3 loadings (with S3 Trio64V). I was able to put resizecons 80x30 three times in a row in rc.S to get it working right.

Maybe different video cards and monitors would do it better.

The Xvesa alias works fine to get back your original (or even some other) video mode.

Restoretextmode is not working well, however, at least with S3 Trio64V and S3 Virge. With the former I lose my cursor in other virtual terminals after resizing one console. With the latter, after I resize the console and even resize it back to where it was, the two MDA vts no longer work at all (cannot log in) and the second VGA console works but the cursor is misplaced until after you login. Maybe the dual-monitor setup is the problem here. Xvesa was not the cause of these problems as I originally thought. I may limit my use of resizecons (not put it in rc.S) and just use it to go online with a text browser where I need more columns.

keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org
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keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org




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