Stephen Powell <zlinux...@wowway.com> writes: > On Mon, 24 May 2010 13:38:55 -0400 (EDT), Ferenc Wagner wrote: >> Stephen Powell <zlinux...@wowway.com> writes: >>> On Mon, 24 May 2010 05:29:56 -0400 (EDT), Ferenc Wagner wrote: >>>> Stephen Powell <zlinux...@wowway.com> writes: >>>>> Both grub-legacy and grub-pc use sectors on the hard disk outside of >>>>> the master boot record [...] >>>> >>>> You may want to try extlinux, it works much like LILO in this respect. >>> >>> Thanks for the tip. That may be an option. I looked at the documentation >>> online, and there does not appear to be an option equivalent to lilo's >>> vga option, though, which I use a lot, especially since svgatextmode >>> has already been pulled from squeeze. >> >> I'm not sure what you're after, I haven't used LILO for ages. But >> typing vmlinuz-2.6.32 vga=0xf07 at the pxelinux boot prompt gives me a >> 80x60 console. The other variants use the same code. > > Interesting. At one point, the kernel itself had de-supported the > vga boot option, relying on the boot loader to set the video mode > before transferring control to the kernel. And now you're saying > it's back. Hmm. According to Documentation/svga.txt in the kernel > source tree: > > This small document describes the "Video Mode Selection" feature which > allows the use of various special video modes supported by the video BIOS. > Due to usage of the BIOS, the selection is limited to boot time (before > the kernel decompression starts) and works only on 80X86 machines. > > Note the wording "before the kernel decompression starts". That to me > implies "done by the bootloader", because the bootloader decompresses > the kernel (if it is compressed) before transferring control to it, > does it not?
It does not, the kernel is sort of a self-decompressing binary. However, the vga= parameter is indeed parsed by the bootloader and passed to the kernel by a special protocol. It's then used before the kernel parses its command line. > I'm going to have to try installing Squeeze using extlinux as the boot > loader. (No doubt I'll have to change bootloaders after installation, > as the Debian Installer won't offer that option.) Yes, you'll have to back out of Grub installation, start a shell, chroot into /target, and install exlinux. Take care to have /boot on an ext2 partition. -- Good luck! Feri. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-boot-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/87iq6dytpl....@tac.ki.iif.hu
