From owner-freebsd-questions Sat May 12 16:30:57 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from smtp4ve.mailsrvcs.net (smtp4vepub.gte.net [206.46.170.25]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 52E1F37B423 for ; Sat, 12 May 2001 16:30:55 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from vze2j9fk@verizon.net) Received: from Skip (adsl-141-150-207-169.delval.adsl.bellatlantic.net [141.150.207.169]) by smtp4ve.mailsrvcs.net (8.9.1/8.9.1) with ESMTP id XAA30817178 for ; Sat, 12 May 2001 23:50:27 GMT Message-Id: <200105122350.XAA30817178@smtp4ve.mailsrvcs.net> Date: Sat, 12 May 2001 19:31:43 -0400 From: Skip To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Need VESA video help Mail-Followup-To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG References: <200105121620.QAA19931033@smtp7ve.mailsrvcs.net> <006a01c0db0e$ac574740$2813933f@cat> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.2.5i In-Reply-To: <006a01c0db0e$ac574740$2813933f@cat>; from pan@syix.com on Sat, May 12, 2001 at 11:09:23AM -0700 Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG pan wrote: > > From: "Skip" > > > I installed 4.2-RELEASE a few days ago and managed to get everything > > working, except changing to a decent video mode. I built a kernel with > > option VESA. But whenever I try to change to any VESA mode, I get > > 'Operation not supported by device.' > > > > I can change to many other modes but none of the VESA_132x modes. I > > have the 3 fonts loaded in rc.conf, and have also loaded them from the > > command line. > > > > Just went through that -- the video chip was manufactured with a cutdown > VESA bios extension -- max supported mode in text was 80x25. In > particular it was an ATI rage pro turbo based 8mB agp card. > > Solution was to rip the agp card out - dig out an ancient virge S3 > plain vanilla vga card, insert and then vidcontrol got me everything > I asked for. > > I guess text mode users are supposed to wither away if they don't > follow the yellow brick xwindows road. How does Linux do it then? The linux framebuffer console makes easy work of it. A dozen or so kernel options and 'vga=792' in lilo.conf and it boots into this beautiful resolution I'm used to. And from everything I've read, it uses VESA modes to do it. I don't have any ancient cards to dig out, so if this one won't work I'm afraid FreeBSD has to go :( I used to use XWindows under Linux just to have a decent looking terminal but then the framebuffer console came along. I don't think I want to go back to X. Asise from the bad video mode, FreeBSD seems awsome though. Thanks for your response. -- Skip To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message