When allocating a new VC with vgacon_init(), the font is shared across all the VGA consoles. However, the font mask was always set to the default value of zero in visual_init(), even if we were using 512 character fonts at the time.
Moreover, code in vgacon.c:vga_do_font_op() didn't reset the mask if the console driver thinks it's already in 512 character mode. This means that to *fix* it, you'd actually have to take the console out of 512 character mode and then set it back. The attached sets vc_hi_font_mask in vgacon_init() for any new consoles opened if the vgacon driver is already in 512 character mode, solving this. This bug goes back to 2.4.18 at least, probably earlier. Bill
diff -ru linux-2.6.11-orig/drivers/video/console/vgacon.c linux-2.6.11/drivers/video/console/vgacon.c --- linux-2.6.11-orig/drivers/video/console/vgacon.c 2005-04-08 23:52:59.000000000 -0400 +++ linux-2.6.11/drivers/video/console/vgacon.c 2005-04-14 14:54:29.000000000 -0400 @@ -337,6 +337,8 @@ c->vc_scan_lines = vga_scan_lines; c->vc_font.height = vga_video_font_height; c->vc_complement_mask = 0x7700; + if (vga_512_chars) + c->vc_hi_font_mask = 0x0800; p = *c->vc_uni_pagedir_loc; if (c->vc_uni_pagedir_loc == &c->vc_uni_pagedir || !--c->vc_uni_pagedir_loc[1])