scrambled screen

scrambled screen

[qwms-avib]

Over the years, I have used Linux on a dozen different computers 
and have never run into this problem before.  I've just installed 
Slackware 7.1 on a Compaq 400 (MMX) with S3 Virge video card.  
Everything is working OK (including the XFree 3.3.6 S3V server) 
except that when, I exit X and return to the console, the screen 
is scrambled. 

I don't mean the messed-up characters you get when you cat a non-
text file (which is easily fixed).  That only affects the current 
tty.  The problem I am getting affects all ttys and isn't just a 
character problem.  The whole screen layout is stuffed.  Lines are 
fragmented and scattered all over the screen, and the cursor is 
way over on the right side of the screen.  I can type (and execute)
at the cursor, but everything I type appears in two or three 
different places around the screen.

I have tried everything I can think of (clear, reset, exit and re-
logon) and nothing fixes the problem.  Switching ttys doesn't help.  
The only way to get a normal CLI screen is to reboot.  The X screen 
is not effected (even from the scrambled CLI screen I can startx).

Some further data:  The problem occurs as soon as the S3V server 
starts -- if I CTRL-ALT-F4 while X is running, I see a scrambled 
screen.  The problem does *not* occur when I run the VGA16 server.  
Both of those servers work perfectly in every other respect.

Any ideas?

Cheers,
Steven


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RE: scrambled screen

[Riley Williams]

Hi Stephen.

 > Over the years, I have used Linux on a dozen different computers
 > and have never run into this problem before. I've just installed
 > Slackware 7.1 on a Compaq 400 (MMX) with S3 ViRGE video card.
 > Everything is working OK (including the XFree 3.3.6 S3V server)
 > except that when, I exit X and return to the console, the screen
 > is scrambled.
 >
 > I don't mean the messed-up characters you get when you cat a non-
 > text file (which is easily fixed). That only affects the current
 > tty. The problem I am getting affects all ttys and isn't just a
 > character problem. The whole screen layout is stuffed. Lines are
 > fragmented and scattered all over the screen, and the cursor is
 > way over on the right side of the screen. I can type (and execute)
 > at the cursor, but everything I type appears in two or three
 > different places around the screen.
 >
 > I have tried everything I can think of (clear, reset, exit and re-
 > logon) and nothing fixes the problem. Switching ttys doesn't help.  
 > The only way to get a normal CLI screen is to reboot. The X screen 
 > is not affected (even from the scrambled CLI screen I can startx).
 >
 > Some further data: The problem occurs as soon as the S3V server 
 > starts -- if I CTRL-ALT-F4 while X is running, I see a scrambled 
 > screen. The problem does *not* occur when I run the VGA16 server.  
 > Both of those servers work perfectly in every other respect.
 >
 > Any ideas?

Is that by any chance the S3 ViRGE/GX ??? If so, I reported exactly
the same problem to this list about two years ago, and the ONLY
response I got was a post stating that the symptoms as reported
indicated a faulty video card, and claiming that there were a large
number of faulty GX cards on the market. The problem apparently
doesn't affect the other ViRGE models as I understand it.

Best wishes from Riley.
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Re: scrambled screen

[Richard Dawson]

I have had the same problem!!!  You should see the mess you get in 
X-windows if you try to use version 4.X!

I was told that there is a program called vgareset that one can run to 
get the command line console squared away.  I was never able to find 
that probram, so I finally bought a different video card.

By the way, how did you get the sound card to run?  Mandrake 9.1's 
autoprobe doesn't seem to be able to find the sound card.

Rich Dawson
rcdawson@att.net

qwms-avib@dea.spamcon.org wrote:

>Over the years, I have used Linux on a dozen different computers 
>and have never run into this problem before.  I've just installed 
>Slackware 7.1 on a Compaq 400 (MMX) with S3 Virge video card.  
>Everything is working OK (including the XFree 3.3.6 S3V server) 
>except that when, I exit X and return to the console, the screen 
>is scrambled. 
>
>I don't mean the messed-up characters you get when you cat a non-
>text file (which is easily fixed).  That only affects the current 
>tty.  The problem I am getting affects all ttys and isn't just a 
>character problem.  The whole screen layout is stuffed.  Lines are 
>fragmented and scattered all over the screen, and the cursor is 
>way over on the right side of the screen.  I can type (and execute)
>at the cursor, but everything I type appears in two or three 
>different places around the screen.
>
>I have tried everything I can think of (clear, reset, exit and re-
>logon) and nothing fixes the problem.  Switching ttys doesn't help.  
>The only way to get a normal CLI screen is to reboot.  The X screen 
>is not effected (even from the scrambled CLI screen I can startx).
>
>Some further data:  The problem occurs as soon as the S3V server 
>starts -- if I CTRL-ALT-F4 while X is running, I see a scrambled 
>screen.  The problem does *not* occur when I run the VGA16 server.  
>Both of those servers work perfectly in every other respect.
>
>Any ideas?
>
>Cheers,
>Steven
>
>
>-
>To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-newbie" in
>the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
>More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
>Please read the FAQ at http://www.linux-learn.org/faqs
>
>  
>


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