While booting the new kernel gentoo-dev-sources-2.6.8-r1 with parameter vga=0x317 kernel says "undefined mode number". Booting gentoo-dev-sources-2.6.8 (and all kernels prior 2.6.8) with same parameter is ok. Tried two different machines. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1.install kernel gentoo-dev-sources-2.6.8-r1 2.reboot Portage 2.0.50-r9 (default-x86-1.4, gcc-3.3.3, glibc-2.3.3.20040420-r1, 2.6.8-gentoo) ================================================================= System uname: 2.6.8-gentoo i686 Pentium III (Coppermine) Gentoo Base System version 1.4.16 distcc 2.13 i686-pc-linux-gnu (protocols 1 and 2) (default port 3632) [disabled] Autoconf: sys-devel/autoconf-2.59-r4 Automake: sys-devel/automake-1.8.5-r1 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86" AUTOCLEAN="yes" CFLAGS="-O3 -march=i686 -funroll-loops -pipe" CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" COMPILER="gcc3" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3.2/share/config /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/lib/mozilla/defaults/pref /usr/share/config /usr/share/texmf/dvipdfm/config/ /usr/share/texmf/dvips/config/ /usr/share/texmf/tex/generic/config/ /usr/share/texmf/tex/platex/config/ /usr/share/texmf/xdvi/ /var/bind /var/qmail/control" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d" CXXFLAGS="-O3 -march=i686 -funroll-loops -pipe" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" FEATURES="autoaddcvs ccache sandbox" GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://192.168.200.1/ http://ftp-stud.fht-esslingen.de/pub/Mirrors/gentoo/ ftp://ftp.linux.ee/pub/gentoo/distfiles/ http://ftp.linux.ee/pub/gentoo/distfiles/ http://src.gentoo.pl" MAKEOPTS="-j3" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage" SYNC="rsync://192.168.200.1/gentoo-portage" USE="X Xaw3d aalib acl alsa apache2 apm arts audiofile avi berkdb bonobo bzlib cdr cpdflib crypt cups curl dbm divx4linux dvd emacs encode esd flac flash foomaticdb ftp gd gdbm ggi gif gmp gnome gnutls gphoto2 gpm gtk gtk2 gtkhtml guile icq imagemagick imap imlib java jpeg kde lcms ldap leim libg++ libwww mad maildir mhash mikmod milter mime ming mmx mng motif mozilla mpeg mysql mysqli nas ncurses nls nocardbus odbc oggvorbis openal opengl oss pam pcmcia pcre pda pdflib perl php plotutils png posix ppds python qt quicktime readline recode sasl scanner sdl shared sharedmem simplexml slang slp soap sockets speex spell spl ssl svg svga szip tcltk tcpd tetex theora tidy tiff tokenizer truetype unicode usb wmf wxwindows x86 xine xml xml2 xmlrpc xmms xpm xsl xv xvid zlib"
You need to choose 'vesafb' and not 'vesafb-tng' as your VESA driver if you want to use the vga= parameter. Please check that you haven't selected 'vesafb-tng'.
I'm having a similar problem, with NO framebuffer. Pre 2.6.8-r1, using vga=9 gave me a 132 column text mode console. With 2.6.8-r1, I get an invalid mode message. This is with framebuffer support completely disabled, and text mode selection enabled. I'm running an Nvidia Geforce 3 board, BTW.
Mike: could you check if that problem still occurs in -r2? In -r1 there was a Makefile bug that could be causing just that..
Nope, still doesn't work in -r2. It's weird, if I do vga=ask, it lists 9 as 132x50, but it wont accept it if I enter it.
Alright, upon further testing, my vga=9 parameter works, IFF the standard VESA framebuffer is compiled into the kernel. This is not the case for kernels without the vesafb-tng patch. I took a look at the patch in question, and I believe this behavior might be caused by an inappropriate "#ifdef CONFIG_FB_VESA_STD". This statement is probably causing the kernel to not accept the vga parameter when the standard VESA framebuffer is not compiled in. A possible fix might be to change it to "#ifndef CONFIG_FB_VESA_TNG", although I haven't tried this; I'm not sure which #ifdef statement(s) is the problem.
The problem is fixed in the latest vesafb-tng patch. The fix will be included in g-d-s when we release a new version of the package.
The updated vesafb-tng patch is included in the latest g-d-s versions, so I'm closing this bug.
