Date: Tue, 14 Jan 1997 12:14:33 +1100 (EST) From: Mike McGaughey <mmcg@heraclitus.cs.monash.edu.au> To: FreeBSD-gnats-submit@freebsd.org Subject: i386/2485: 2.2-BETA install kernel creates unreadable display mode Message-ID: <199701140114.MAA26447@heraclitus.cs.monash.edu.au> Resent-Message-ID: <199701140120.RAA21754@freefall.freebsd.org>
next in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
>Number: 2485
>Category: i386
>Synopsis: 2.2-BETA (install) device probe appears to screw screen
>Confidential: no
>Severity: critical
>Priority: medium
>Responsible: freebsd-bugs
>State: open
>Class: support
>Submitter-Id: current-users
>Arrival-Date: Mon Jan 13 17:20:01 PST 1997
>Last-Modified:
>Originator: Mike McGaughey
>Organization:
Monash University
>Release: FreeBSD 2.2-BETA
>Environment:
Pentium 120 on ATC-1000 motherboard, 16M ram, 256k pipeline cache,
no non-pipeline cache, 2 IDE controllers (one of which is in use).
Award PCI/PnP bios. BIOS (etc) values all at their most conservative
settings; PCI IRQ (etc) assignment is all on `auto'.
SMC elite 16 bit ISA ether card: I/O 0x300, Irq 10, addr 0xcc000
Paradise PVGA1a PCI video card. It may be a compatible - it has `ARK'
plastered all over the chips, including the SVGA BIOS chip, but various
tools (aka `games') identify it as a paradise PVGA1a.
Some floppy drives, and some hard drives.
Nothing else.
>Description:
When the kernel supplied with the 2.2-BETA boot (install) floppy
starts probing the hardware (i.e. *after* visual configuration has
been exited), the screen immediately changes to a pattern consisting
mainly of (reasonably) closely spaced vertical lines, with lines
of different colors appearing interleaved, and vaguely reflecting
the colors that (should!) be on the screen at the time. Interestingly
enough, the lines appear to be in a particular color order, with the
colors repeating vertically once per character position.
When the probes have finished, the install menu comes up - still
with an unreadable screen (though recognisably different, and now
with more colors). Very pretty, but it gets in the way of reading
the instructions.
A (cold or warm) reboot resets the screen to a sensible state.
I've never seen this happen under any other FreeBSD install or
kernel on this machine (I have never run a 2.2 install on this
particular system - only 2.1.0, 2.1.5 and 2.1.6. It is currently
running 2.1.6). Actually, I've never seen it happen at all (under
DOS, etc).
>How-To-Repeat:
Fly out to Australia, visit me. Be sure to bring a case of beer.
Fire up the install floppy on the machine described above.
In visual configuration mode (while the screen is quite usable),
delete any or all devices (except for the syscons driver).
Quit visual configuration; shortly after the probes start, the screen dies.
Look perplexed.
Look at beer.
Admire my barbequeue, suggest we take it for a test drive.
Sit back, guzzle beer and chops, tossing empty cans and gnawed T-bones
at the offending machine.
Admire cloudless sky and abundant sunshine, and resolve to visit the beach.
>Fix:
I have no idea; I suspect I am on my own here (perhaps with a screwy
configuration, or with one of a bad batch of video cards). Or, it
may have something to do with them newfangled PCI probes. However,
if you have heard of this before and can suggest a way around it,
I'll finish the install and test the rest of 2.2-BETA for you :)
Cheers,
Mike.
>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted:
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?199701140114.MAA26447>