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

[alan c]

Neil Greenwood wrote:
> On 01/03/07, alan c <aeclist at candt.waitrose.com> wrote:
>> 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
>> 
> 
> 
> The three numbers in the list represent, in order: - the horizontal
> resolution - the vertical resolution - the colour depth, i.e. the
> number of different colours that can be displayed at each pixel.
> 
> You can also see colour depth expressed in terms of bits-per-pixel
> or bytes-per-pixel, e.g. 256 is 8 bits-per-pixel since 2^8 (2
> raised to the eighth power)  = 256.
> 
>> 
>> 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)
> 
> Unfortunately, I can't solve this problem. I do have one suggestion
> - maybe you can tell X not to use the framebuffer, since the
> console is now set to use the framebuffer.
> 
>> 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?
> 
> Not that I know of, and I don't know why this works...
> 
>> 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 (?)
> 
> I think someone else mentioned removing the "splash" option from
> Grub, so try that.

Thanks I will have a look

> I think your problems stem from the non-standard hardware that is
> used in most laptops, which is not fully supported in Ubuntu (and
> probably not in most Linux distros).

So what is different with ubuntu 6.06, suse 10, knoppix - (and maybe
more), which perform 'normally'  for the hardware?

It is Kubuntu 6.10 which is giving unusual problems. In fact on a few
occasions, unpredictably, 6.10 has not booted properly in the laptop - 
the display
seems not to start sometimes.

I know that the hardware is not good, and not 'made' for linux, but a
lot has been done with linux, and my experience here is that 6.10 is a
small step backwards. I might have to upgrade to 6.06!
-- 
alan cocks
Kubuntu user#10391