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[Installing Florence beta-2 from Local CD-ROM on some older 486 hardware, using "linux dd" at the LILO: prompt. It attempted to start X as follows:] Using X server /usr/X11R6/bin/XF86_FBDev Can't open /dev/fb0 going to test the x server tested the x server Waiting for X server to start .......... X server started successfully. [Now at this point the screen streched a little taller so that the lowest line was only half-visible; I believe it was something like:] GUI installer startup failed - falling back to text mode [Then a horizontal black band appeared in the upper-middle of the screen. The familiar blue background of the TUI installer appeared, but the black band was obscuring it, even when the menus began to appear, etc. Installing became impossible because you can't read what's under the black band. Hardware: 486DX-100 with 48MB RAM, Weitek P9000 video, NANAO FLEXSCAN F550i monitor.]
Try booting with 'lowres' on the boot command line with any other parameters you require.
Same result after adding the "lowres" option (I used "linux dd lowres"). (And how would a user know to do this?) I noticed this time that just before "GUI installer startup failed" the screen fills momentarily with random text-mode characters in lots of different fore/background colors. It looks (to my uneducated eye) like it's writing something to the video memory that messes up text mode after that?
This defect is considered MUST-FIX for Florence Gold release
Fisher 7.090 appears to have taken care of this; pressing Enter at LILO: now goes right into text mode without trying graphical; an explicit "text" is no longer required.