[Pkg-sysvinit-devel] Bug#381641: Video mode change during init script disrupts fixed freq monitor

[Jack Carroll]

Package: initscripts
Version: 2.86.ds1-14.1

		Part way through the boot scripts, the bottom half of the
text mode display suddenly goes black and stays that way.  The screen isn't
compressed; the messages that have already scrolled to the top half are
still there, but all the messages in the bottom half are gone until they
scroll into the top half, and the cursor is gone.  At the end of boot, gdm
starts X Windows, and the display comes up correctly according to the custom
modeline in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.  During shutdown the text mode display
returns, and the lower half of the screen is again black, and stays that way
through shutdown.  Reboot restores the display.
	The installed distro is Etch.  This behavior began after an aptitude
update some time in the last 2 weeks.  Before that, the text mode display
worked correctly all the way through boot, and through text-mode login when
gdm was disabled.
	The display system is a Software Integrators Gemini P1
fixed-frequency video board based on a Tseng ET6000 chip.  The monitor is an
HP A1097C.  The machine is a dual Athlon MP, with an unused ATI Rage chip on
the motherboard.
	I couldn't catch the exact moment the mode change happened, because
the boot messages scroll by very fast on this machine.  The last message I
caught was "Starting portmap daemon".
	In general, it's _most_ unwise for any program to touch video modes,
until the user has logged in and taken control.  Otherwise, there is too
much risk of making the display unreadable, and making it impossible to boot
into a rescue console.  (gdm isn't necessarily an obstacle in this regard,
because it can be disabled during initial installation by deleting
/etc/rc2.d/S99gdm before gdm starts for the first time.  This is an
essential step when using a fixed-frequency monitor as an installation
console, which requires installing a custom modeline before starting X for
the first time.)


$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] AMD-760 MP [IGD4-2P]
System Controller (rev 11)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] AMD-760 MP [IGD4-2P] AGP
Bridge
00:07.0 ISA bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] AMD-768 [Opus] ISA (rev 05)
00:07.1 IDE interface: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] AMD-768 [Opus] IDE (rev
04)
00:07.3 Bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] AMD-768 [Opus] ACPI (rev 03)
00:0a.0 SCSI storage controller: Adaptec AIC-7902 U320 (rev 03)
00:0a.1 SCSI storage controller: Adaptec AIC-7902 U320 (rev 03)
00:0b.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82545EM Gigabit Ethernet
Controller (Copper) (rev 01)00:10.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD]
AMD-768 [Opus] PCI (rev 05)
02:00.0 USB Controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] AMD-768 [Opus] USB (rev
07)
02:04.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 0a)
02:04.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Live! MIDI/Game Port (rev
0a)
02:05.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3c905B Deluxe Etherlink
10/100/BNC [Cyclone]
02:06.0 VGA compatible controller: Tseng Labs Inc ET6000 (rev 30)
02:07.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Rage XL (rev 27)
02:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82557/8/9 [Ethernet Pro 100]
(rev 10)