Re: [PATCH] Video mode fixes in linux loader

[phcoder <phcoder@gmail.com>]

Pavel Roskin wrote:
> On Mon, 2009-04-13 at 21:05 +0200, Robert Millan wrote:
>> On Mon, Apr 13, 2009 at 11:41:36AM -0400, Pavel Roskin wrote:
>>> I actually installed GRUB with gfxterm on a laptop that has Intel
>>> framebuffer support.  Now the kernel starts in VESA mode and then the
>>> screen goes blank because intelfb cannot deal with it.  Sure, intelfb
>>> should be fixed, but we should be liberal in what we accept.
>> We could detect this situation by checking video= parameter, and setting
>> text mode if intelfb is found.  But then again do we want to prevent
>> future versions of intelfb from gracefuly transitioning from vesa mode
>> without screen glitch?
> 
> No, that would be bad.  It's even possible that intelfb would work
> correctly in other configurations.  The laptop has resolution 1440x900
> that doesn't match any VESA mode.
> 
With proposed autodetections bootloader becomes overzealous. I think it 
should be configirable but in a more modern way. I think gfxpayload with 
the same syntax as gfxmode plus additional platform-specific keywords 
like text80x25 and text80x50 should be fine. If to gfxpayload variable 
set, then use current mode.
I object against a solution of just using current mode because of the 
current state on EFI: code to retrieve framebuffer address isn't yet 
used for gfxterm. If this is fixed then I could agree with "last mode" 
solution.

vga= option could be deleted altogether and replaced by warning if 
someone passes it. If we do so it's better to do before debian switches

-- 

Regards
Vladimir 'phcoder' Serbinenko