[techtalk] window manager preference?

[David Merrill]

On Fri, May 18, 2001 at 12:13:25PM +0100, Telsa Gwynne wrote:
> On Fri, May 18, 2001 at 11:01:33AM +0100 or thereabouts, Conor Daly wrote:
>  
> > gnome-terminal and can read all the all of the subject lines in mutt.  So
> > now, the point of these ramblings...  Can I set the console to 128x50 or
> > something like that?  Had a look at stty but couldn't find anything
> > helpful there.
> 
> Yes, you can. My laptop needed a newer kernel, and rather than do it 
> myself, I got husband to do it. (I know I can, so it's easier to make 
> him do it these days :)) 
> 
> And along what he was supposed to be doing, he had turned on some 
> option I never knew about and added an extra line to lilo.conf 
> (which irritated me, I just asked him for a kernel, I didn't ask 
> him to go and install it and mess with my /etc :)). 
> 
> And wow. 
> 
> It booted to provide smaller letters and far more lines and columns
> on the console. I'm not sure quite how many lines and columns it is,
> because it's upstairs, and it's a lot of stairs just to go and check 
> that :)
> 
> I must find out what he did. I want to do it on my other machine
> now! All I know is "framebuffer". Potentially useful-looking bits
> in the lilo entry for that kernel are: 
> 	label=vesafb
> 	vga=0x317

You should start with the line

	vga=ask

Which will cause it to prompt for possible video modes on boot.
And once you know exactly which of the possible values actually
*work*, then you can specify one as Telsa indicates above. The one she
uses may not work for everyone!

And, it doesn't have to be in a specific kernal's area. I put my
`vga=0x122' in the general section (up on top) so it applies to any
kernel I boot.

> There's also something called svgatextmode, I think. (At least, I
> think that's different.)

Yep. It's different but does essentially the same thing. It also can
save and restore all your card's registers, set fonts, etc. I played
with it for an afternoon but never accomplished what I wanted. :-/

Let us know how it works for you!

-- 
Dr. David C. Merrill                     http://www.lupercalia.net
Linux Documentation Project                   david at lupercalia.net
Collection Editor & Coordinator            http://www.linuxdoc.org
                                       Finger me for my public key

Bus error -- please leave by the rear door.