Bug 49425

Summary:	default boot AND nofb boot fail on RIVA TNT2
Product:	[Retired] Red Hat Linux	Reporter:	greg hosler <greg>
Component:	anaconda	Assignee:	Brent Fox <bfox>
Status:	CLOSED WONTFIX	QA Contact:	Brock Organ <borgan>
Severity:	low	Docs Contact:
Priority:	medium
Version:	7.3
Target Milestone:	---
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	i386
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	Bug Fix
Doc Text:		Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:	2001-07-19 21:11:17 UTC	Type:	---
Regression:	---	Mount Type:	---
Documentation:	---	CRM:
Verified Versions:		Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description greg hosler 2001-07-19 14:41:26 UTC

From Bugzilla Helper:
User-Agent: Mozilla/4.76 [en] (X11; U; Linux 2.4.3-2.9.2smp i686)

Description of problem:
Video card:  nVidia Corporation Riva TnT2, 3D Blaster AGX, 32MB
Monitor: HP A4033A

problem, default boot uses a frame buffer that causes the screen to flicker
so bad that reading the screen is out of the question, much less doing an
install.

reboot, select "nofb" - slightly better. The initial boot gote ok, then X
starts, and the flickering is again terrible.

reboot, select lowres - this time everything is ok.

In all 3 cases, the video card is properly identified as RIVA TNT2, and the
monitor
is misidentified as UNIDENTIFIED MONITOR

I'm wondering out loud here, is there some way to drop into lowres mode 
without rebooting, if the installer can tell that the user can't read
the screen (such as by a timeout, or something)?


How reproducible:
Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Boot with the following video card: nVidia Riva TnT2, 3D Blaster AGX,
32MB

	

Actual Results:  screen flickers, constantly. unreadable.

Expected Results:  no flicker.

Additional info:

Work around is to boot "lowres", but that's not as documented as well as it
could be.

Comment 1 Glen Foster 2001-07-19 21:11:13 UTC

This defect considered SHOULD-FIX for Fairfax.

Comment 2 Michael Fulbright 2001-07-20 01:46:14 UTC

The monitor settings we have selected in the case of a undetected monitor are
extremely conservative (equivalent to an IBM XGA display in 1989).  It is rare
(first report I've heard actually) for it to cause problems.

There is no easy way to make X and anaconda switch to a lower resolution once
running.

You did the proper thing and tried lowres mode, which is what it exists for.