Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2004 14:46:20 -0800 (PST) From: Mervin McDougall <mcd_advisory@yahoo.com> To: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org Subject: Poor Console resolution on Compaq 2103US Message-ID: <20041223224620.62812.qmail@web61205.mail.yahoo.com>
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I have one experience to share as a newbie, that of trying to get a proper console resolution on my laptop. I chose to stick with FreeBSD over Slackware for my laptop for the simplicity in its init system and fewer init levels, its ports and packages system which reduces the stress of looking for a file and all its dependencies and getting it downloaded, compiled and using on my laptop and basically its speed of booting- in 2/3 the time it takes slackware linux to boot, bsd is at the loging prompt.However,getting the proper console resolution was a pain as I favour console over X. I tried recompiling the kernel including support for Vesa by including options VESA and SC_PIXEL_MODE and that didn't work.I tried compiling the kernel with suppor for VGA_90WIDTH and that still did not provide me with adequate space on my screen to get anything else done. My console only the center of my screen and only occupied a 1/3 rd of the entire screen. I was very stressed until I cam across a website of someone who had successfully installed FreeBSD 5.2.1 on a similar laptop. I contacted him and he explained that he had similar problem but got over the issue by making use of a patch which allowed me to achieve screen resolutions of 1024x768. I have gotten over the problem happily but there are still some issues that the patch created in making use of it as slower performance in switching from console to X and the printing of error information when the kernel is initiating vidcontrol but I get to use console more often thankfully. I wish that the freebsd team would look into fixing any errors in vidcontrol to get the problem with screen resolutions on laptops fixed. I was able to do this with ease using linux framebuffer settings with slackware but had so much difficulty getting that done under freebsd 5.3. I could have chosen to give up and simply use linux but I like the way freebsd performs something about it is just magically and wouldn't want to miss out on using it. I just wish somethng could be done to better the performance of the system as is and get rid of some of those escape errors. or gett a better patch from the freebsd team. If anyone has a similar laptop and wants to get some specifics about what works and what doesn't feel free to visit http://demira.shopkeeper.de/~sascha/nx9005/ its pretty informative. Mervin McDougall __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - 250MB free storage. Do more. Manage less. http://info.mail.yahoo.com/mail_250
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