Cursor disappears on console, no frame-buffer

Cursor disappears on console, no frame-buffer

[Tim Connors]

Recently, a few kernel revisions ago, I experimented with the
frame-buffer. I don't know what I broke, but with nothing frame-buffer
related in the kernel (It could have been broken for a long time, I
don't use the console that much, but it certainly worked at one
stage):

#
# Console drivers
#
CONFIG_VGA_CONSOLE=y
CONFIG_VIDEO_SELECT=y
# CONFIG_MDA_CONSOLE is not set

#
# Frame-buffer support
#
# CONFIG_FB is not set

#
# Sound
#

I no longer have a console mode cursor (after the first screen scrolls
by at bootup - there is a cursor until the cursor hits the bottom of
the screen -- it's like it just walked off the end).

This is on a laptop with an ATI Rage128 video card. For reference, X
works fine. I turned off the lilo graphical mode, and there is no
append=vga or anything now, so everything should be at the
defaults. Dmesg output is at bottom.

I have tested 2.6.0-test9 or so, and I think the same problem came up
(as well as many new ones, so it'll be a while before I test it again).


Linux version 2.4.25-pre7 (root@scuzzie) (gcc version 3.3.3 20040110 (prerelease) (Debian)) #1 Wed Jan 28 18:42:00 EST 2004
BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
 BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009fc00 (usable)
 BIOS-e820: 000000000009fc00 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
 BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 000000000ffdb000 (usable)
 BIOS-e820: 000000000ffdb000 - 0000000010000000 (reserved)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000100a0000 - 0000000010100000 (reserved)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000ffe00000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)
255MB LOWMEM available.
On node 0 totalpages: 65499
zone(0): 4096 pages.
zone(1): 61403 pages.
zone(2): 0 pages.
Dell Inspiron machine detected. Enabling interrupts during APM calls.
Kernel command line: auto BOOT_IMAGE=linux ro root=303 hdc=ide-scsi
ide_setup: hdc=ide-scsi
Initializing CPU#0
Detected 651.490 MHz processor.
Console: colour VGA+ 80x25
Calibrating delay loop... 1300.88 BogoMIPS
Memory: 256396k/261996k available (1534k kernel code, 5212k reserved, 538k data, 96k init, 0k highmem)
Dentry cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)
Inode cache hash table entries: 16384 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
Mount cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Buffer cache hash table entries: 16384 (order: 4, 65536 bytes)
Page-cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)
CPU: L1 I cache: 16K, L1 D cache: 16K
CPU: L2 cache: 256K
Intel machine check architecture supported.
Intel machine check reporting enabled on CPU#0.
CPU:     After generic, caps: 0383f9ff 00000000 00000000 00000000
CPU:             Common caps: 0383f9ff 00000000 00000000 00000000
CPU: Intel Pentium III (Coppermine) stepping 06
Enabling fast FPU save and restore... done.
Enabling unmasked SIMD FPU exception support... done.
Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK.
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
mtrr: v1.40 (20010327) Richard Gooch (rgooch@atnf.csiro.au)
mtrr: detected mtrr type: Intel
PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xfc13e, last bus=1
PCI: Using configuration type 1
PCI: Probing PCI hardware
PCI: Probing PCI hardware (bus 00)
PCI: Discovered primary peer bus 08 [IRQ]
PCI: Using IRQ router PIIX/ICH [8086/7110] at 00:07.0
Limiting direct PCI/PCI transfers.
Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.4
Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
Initializing RT netlink socket
Starting kswapd
Journalled Block Device driver loaded
pty: 256 Unix98 ptys configured
Serial driver version 5.05c (2001-07-08) with MANY_PORTS SHARE_IRQ SERIAL_PCI enabled
ttyS00 at 0x03f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
Floppy drive(s): fd0 is 1.44M
FDC 0 is a post-1991 82077
Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00beta4-2.4
ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
PIIX4: IDE controller at PCI slot 00:07.1
PIIX4: chipset revision 1
PIIX4: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
    ide0: BM-DMA at 0x0860-0x0867, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:pio
    ide1: BM-DMA at 0x0868-0x086f, BIOS settings: hdc:DMA, hdd:pio
hda: IBM-DJSA-220, ATA DISK drive
blk: queue c0347920, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
hdc: TEAC CD-ROM CD-224E, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
hda: attached ide-disk driver.
hda: host protected area => 1
hda: 39070080 sectors (20004 MB) w/1874KiB Cache, CHS=2432/255/63, UDMA(33)
hdc: attached ide-scsi driver.
Partition check:
 hda: hda1 hda2 hda3 hda4 < hda5 hda6 hda7 >
SCSI subsystem driver Revision: 1.00
scsi0 : SCSI host adapter emulation for IDE ATAPI devices
  Vendor: TEAC      Model: CD-224E           Rev: 3.7C
  Type:   CD-ROM                             ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0 at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
sr0: scsi3-mmc drive: 24x/24x cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.12
Linux Kernel Card Services 3.1.22
  options:  [pci] [cardbus] [pm]
PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 00:03.0
PCI: Sharing IRQ 11 with 00:03.1
PCI: Sharing IRQ 11 with 00:07.2
PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 00:03.1
PCI: Sharing IRQ 11 with 00:03.0
PCI: Sharing IRQ 11 with 00:07.2
usb.c: registered new driver hub
Yenta ISA IRQ mask 0x0698, PCI irq 11
Socket status: 30000006
Yenta ISA IRQ mask 0x0698, PCI irq 11
Socket status: 30000020
host/uhci.c: USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver v1.1
PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 00:07.2
PCI: Sharing IRQ 11 with 00:03.0
PCI: Sharing IRQ 11 with 00:03.1
host/uhci.c: USB UHCI at I/O 0xdce0, IRQ 11
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 2 ports detected
Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
usb.c: registered new driver usb-storage
USB Mass Storage support registered.
Initializing Cryptographic API
NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP, IGMP
IP: routing cache hash table of 2048 buckets, 16Kbytes
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 16384 bind 32768)
NET4: Unix domain sockets 1.0/SMP for Linux NET4.0.
cs: cb_alloc(bus 6): vendor 0x115d, device 0x0003
PCI: Enabling device 06:00.0 (0000 -> 0003)
kjournald starting.  Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
VFS: Mounted root (ext3 filesystem) readonly.
Freeing unused kernel memory: 96k freed
Adding Swap: 514040k swap-space (priority -1)
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on ide0(3,3), internal journal
mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
i8k: unable to get SMM BIOS version
Dell laptop SMM driver v1.13 14/05/2002 Massimo Dal Zotto (dz@debian.org)
Linux agpgart interface v0.99 (c) Jeff Hartmann
agpgart: Maximum main memory to use for agp memory: 203M
agpgart: Detected Intel 440BX chipset
agpgart: AGP aperture is 64M @ 0xf4000000
[drm] AGP 0.99 Aperture @ 0xf4000000 64MB
[drm] Initialized r128 2.2.0 20010917 on minor 0
xircom_tulip_cb.c derived from tulip.c:v0.91 4/14/99 becker@scyld.com
 unofficial 2.4.x kernel port, version 0.91+LK1.1, October 11, 2001
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 06:00.0 to 64
eth0: Xircom Cardbus Adapter rev 3 at 0x4800, 00:10:A4:8A:06:A3, IRQ 11.
eth0:  MII transceiver #0 config 3100 status 7809 advertising 01e1.
eth0: Link is up, running at 100Mbit half-duplex
Real Time Clock Driver v1.10f
PCI: Found IRQ 5 for device 00:08.0
maestro3: enabled hack for 'Dell Inspiron 4000'
apm: BIOS version 1.2 Flags 0x03 (Driver version 1.16)
hda: dma_intr: status=0x58 { DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest }

hda: set_drive_speed_status: status=0x58 { DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest }
hda: dma_intr: status=0x58 { DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest }

hda: set_drive_speed_status: status=0x58 { DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest }
Installing knfsd (copyright (C) 1996 okir@monad.swb.de).


-- 
TimC -- http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/staff/tconnors/
Press any key to continue, any other key to abort
           -- thrillbert's code

Re: Cursor disappears on console, no frame-buffer

[David Martínez Moreno]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

El Miércoles, 28 de Enero de 2004 11:46, Tim Connors escribió:
> Recently, a few kernel revisions ago, I experimented with the
> frame-buffer. I don't know what I broke, but with nothing frame-buffer
> related in the kernel (It could have been broken for a long time, I
> don't use the console that much, but it certainly worked at one
> stage):

	Have you followed Dave's doc to console new style in 2.6?

http://www.codemonkey.org.uk/docs/post-halloween-2.6.txt

	There you can find a lot of possible problems for an unexistent console.

	Regards,


		Ender.
- -- 
And need I remind you that I am naked in the snow...? I
 can't feel any of my extremities, and I mean *any* of them...
		-- Skinner (The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen)
- --
Servicios de red - Network services
RedIRIS - Spanish Academic Network for Research and Development
Madrid (Spain)
Tlf (+34) 91.585.51.50
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Re: Cursor disappears on console, no frame-buffer

[Tim Connors]

On Wed, 28 Jan 2004, David [iso-8859-15] Martínez Moreno wrote:

> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> El Miércoles, 28 de Enero de 2004 11:46, Tim Connors escribió:
> > Recently, a few kernel revisions ago, I experimented with the
> > frame-buffer. I don't know what I broke, but with nothing frame-buffer
> > related in the kernel (It could have been broken for a long time, I
> > don't use the console that much, but it certainly worked at one
> > stage):
>
> 	Have you followed Dave's doc to console new style in 2.6?
>
> http://www.codemonkey.org.uk/docs/post-halloween-2.6.txt
>
> 	There you can find a lot of possible problems for an unexistent console.

Bugger. I forgot to mention the kernel version (although it is in the
dmesg output); realising full well this is a FAQ for 2.6.

2.4.23 originally, still a problem in 25-pre7.

I'll have to do some testing to find out how much earlier it is still
there.

-- 
TimC -- http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/staff/tconnors/
So there you have it, supplicant. The Europeans aren't morally superior
to you [USAnians] at all. Just intellectually.       -- The Usenet Oracle

Console off by one error: (Was Re: Cursor disappears on console, no frame-buffer)

[Tim Connors]

Tim Connors <tconnors+linuxkml@astro.swin.edu.au> said on Thu, 29 Jan 2004 00:02:07 +1100 (EST):
> On Wed, 28 Jan 2004, David [iso-8859-15] Martínez Moreno wrote:
> > El Miércoles, 28 de Enero de 2004 11:46, Tim Connors escribió:
> > > Recently, a few kernel revisions ago, I experimented with the
> > > frame-buffer. I don't know what I broke, but with nothing frame-buffer
> > > related in the kernel (It could have been broken for a long time, I
> > > don't use the console that much, but it certainly worked at one
> > > stage):
> 
> 2.4.23 originally, still a problem in 25-pre7.

More info: Seems there is an off by one error

I can manage to refresh the cursor position by flicking to another VT
and back. When the cursor reaches the bottom of the screen, for every
line output, the cursor moves further "down". So when I reset the cursor
position with a ctrl-l or go to some cursor position within an ncurses
app, then the cursor is now n lines below where it should be, where n
is how many lines were output once the cursor got to the bottom of the
screen.

I mentioned that I don't have the frame-buffer on. I removed all
references to svgalib from my debian sid install, and boot lilo with
the text menu, rather than the graphic logo. dmesg says there are no
strange args passed to the kernel:

Kernel command line: auto BOOT_IMAGE=linux ro root=303 hdc=ide-scsi

kernel build was 
Linux version 2.4.25-pre7 (root@scuzzie) (gcc version 3.3.3 20040110
(prerelease) (Debian)) #1 Wed Jan 28 18:42:00 EST 2004

Despite there being no framebuffer, when the cursor is hanging around
the bottom of the screen, the bottom of the display flashes blue - I
don't recall this happening until recently.

This is all on a Dell Inspiron 4000 laptop, with a Rage 128 Mobility
M3 video card.

-- 
TimC -- http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/staff/tconnors/
A new verb was accidently created during a discussion about KDE 3 and Debian.
It was said that KDE 3 will sid soon. -- Debian Weekly News Jan 14,2003