Submitted 29-May-00 by Jean-Louis Debert:
| Anton Graham wrote:
| > For simple text cols x rows selection in standard resolutions, passing
| > vga=ask to the kernel at boot time will get you a menu of standard
| > text modes (up to 132x60 which is pretty unreadable on a small
| > screen in standard text modes). Then replace the vga=ask with
| > vga=mode_number. A better solution is to use an fb kernel and select
| > an appropriate graphics mode to use for text. (I use a 1024x768 24bpp
| > text mode.) The mode numbers for the fb kernel can be found in
| > /usr/src/linux/Documentation/fb/vesafb.txt
|
| This will work, but the guy who started the thread wanted something
| for more speed ... Seems to me you won't have this with a fb console,
| because you are replacing a _text_ mode with a _graphic_ mode at
| the chipset level.
| If you want speed, you are better off with SVGATextMode, which does
| use _text_ modes only, and can also use custom fonts.
Yes, SVGATextMode does present a faster display. Unfortunately it
requires manual configuration with a greater knowledge of video
hardware than most people are prepared for. Yes, many of the values
can be pulled out of an XF86Config file, but without custom
configuration, many video modes will be unavailable.
Also, by default, SVGATextMode uses setfont to change fonts, which
generates a warning message that will confuse many people.
Furthermore, certain desirable resolutions fail in SVGATextMode even
though the hardware will support them.
As far as the reduction in speed is concerned, you get hit when
scrolling large volumes of text in graphics modes. This can be
reduced somewhat if your hardware supports ypan or ywrap. (Besides,
don't you like the pretty picture? :p)
--
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_|_|_
( ) * Anton Graham
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