Date: Thu, 28 Aug 1997 21:04:30 -0400 From: Jim Durham <durham@w2xo.pgh.pa.us> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: fixed-freq monitor syscons useage Message-ID: <3406201E.15FB7483@w2xo.pgh.pa.us>
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I've asked this question before, but I still keep hoping to get the attention of someone who may have investigated this... I have a fixed-frequency 19 inch monitor. These are readily available on the surplus market from Hitachi and Sony. They make excellent X displays. By massaging the XF86Config file, you can set the X server up with most VGA cards to work just fine with these monitors. The two that I have are 1024x768 only. They will not display 640x480. The problem is that you do not see the boot messages as the computer is booting and you can't use the syscons virtual screens because they run in 640x480 . This can be a real pain in times of trouble when something hangs up (like when you are installing new hardware or something of that sort). I have to keep an old 640x480 monitor around for these occasions, and it's very unhandy to have to carry this thing in and connect it to the computer just to see why the system didn't boot! 8-) . I believe the problem is that the ROM BIOS sets the initial resolution to 640x480, so that the resolution in which the boot messages are displayed. I don't what to comtemplate changing the ROM BIOS, but I thought that someone in the FreeBSD gang was playing with at least being able to change the scan rate immediately after BIOS passed control to FreeBSD, but I haven't seen anything about this lately. Was this wishful thinking? Anyone working on this or even interested? regards, -- Jim Durham <Television Engineer-Unitel Mobile Video, Pittsburgh> <Computer Consultant/Hobbyist> <Amateur Radio: W2XO> <Web:http://www.w2xo.pgh.pa.us>; <Packet:W2XO@W2XO.#SWPA.PA.USA.NOAM>
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