[ubuntu-uk] (K)ubuntu 6.10 Inspiron 1100 boot up screen not visible

[alan c]

Neil Greenwood wrote:
> On 28/02/07, alan c <aeclist at candt.waitrose.com> wrote:
>> I installed Kubuntu 6.10 on a Dell Inspiron 1100 Laptop recently, and
>> the boot up screens - kubuntu splash logo and the running text(?)
>> (progress bar?) - cannot be seen.
>>
>> The live CD for 6.10 has problems with screen resolution and does not
>> seem to complete even with  the Safe graphics mode, I have to use the
>> boot option F6 and append
>> live vga=771
> 
> You could try booting from the hard disk and editing the GRUB option
> to append "vga=771" to the kernel line. 

Thanks, it shows some promise and the boot up image (kubuntu logo and 
graphic progress bar) although after the session has started it is 
apparent that the text is very poor. (is the 256 an indication of 
small graphic depth?)
I searched further and found a number of kernel related vga numbers:
from 
http://www.nimblex.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14&Itemid=28#o_vesa

vga=791    -   VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x64k
vga=normal   DON'T USE FRAMEBUFFER | Standard console
vga=790    -   VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x32k
vga=773    -   VESA framebuffer console @ 1024x768x256
vga=788    -   VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x64k
vga=787    -   VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x32k
vga=771    -   VESA framebuffer console @ 800x600x256
vga=785    -   VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x64k
vga=784    -   VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x32k
vga=769    -   VESA framebuffer console @ 640x480x256

I experimented long with these, and  saw that the x256 choices, (773, 
771, 769)
all gave visible boot up image and progress bar -  the 773 gave a nice 
central display.
Unfortunately these all also led to very poor text/font display (in 
kde, kubuntu).

The poor text display became apparently good and normal again if I 
restarted the xserver (ctrl alt backspace)

All of the other vga numbers did not give any boot up image etc, 
although subsequently the session showed normal text quality.

Is there an elegant way of restarting the xserver at the start of  a 
session?

My conclusion thus far is that 6.10 does not give flexibility about 
boot up information - I would be very happy with a simple text list 
option(!) and  I wonder if I can influence the boot up resolution and 
then the normal session resolution, separately somehow (?)

[...]

> Then Bob's your Aunty's live-in lover.
shh don't tell everyone!
-- 
alan cocks
Kubuntu user#10391