Looking over the framebuffer how to again (fairly dated document by now) I'm beginning to wonder if maybe my video card doesn't require a special framebuffer module. There, under section 5.6 "Got an ATI card?" they mention a particular module--atyfb. In my initrd, on the other hand, I appear to have only the generic vesafb module available. To test this, I suppose my options are: 1) recompile the kernel with built in atyfb module; 2) create a new initrd with atyfb in place of vesafb [and 2a) enter the correct command for loading that module into menu.lst]. Before going to the trouble of either of those (a big distraction considering my level of ignorance and the amount of study and experimentation I'd need to do for either), I'd just like to ask for an opinion about whether anyone thinks I might be on the right track to resolving my problem with not being able to get a 1024x768 console by trying one or other of these? Feedback, please?
James
If you are using a 2.6 kernel (and maybe the 2.4), the kernel module for the ATI Rage series of graphics systems is aty128fb, not atyfb. I've had problems with vesafb myself, but with really old hardware (Trident TGUI 9660 on an old Thinkpad). With the 2.6 kernel sources, you can use "make deb-pkg" to create a .deb of the custom-compiled kernel. I'm a Red Hat/Slackware man myself, so I really can't help you on the Debian side.
If you are always going to use the framebuffer, go ahead and compile it into the kernel. Saves a bit of trouble, and if you don't need modules to load for accessing any of the devices necessary for reaching the init scripts, you can probably dump the initrd altogether. It's crucial on distro-provided kernels, since they have to support a broad array of equipment, but if this is a one-off kernel for your own personal equipment, and you don't need modules (i. e. nforce drivers from Nvidia, etc.) to access the boot disk, an initrd is not necessary. None of my systems use them.
Jim - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-newbie" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.linux-learn.org/faqs
