Description of problem:

After upgrading F10 to F11 (2.6.27.24-170.2.68.fc10 to 2.6.29.4-167.fc11) the VESA framebuffer console no longer works.

The laptop boots succesfully, however without a working VESA framebuffer.

The top 1/5th (approx) of the console is now some video noise (mostly horizontal purple lines in some moire-like pattern), the lower 4/5th is a blank screen. There's some garbled animation going on in the upper 1/5th of the screen that suggests that plymouth is running and doing its thing.

Once the laptop finishes booting and x.org takes over, the system continues to function normally. x.org initializes the video chipset, and proceeds to run as usual.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):

Linux laptop.email-scan.com 2.6.29.4-167.fc11.i586 #1 SMP Wed May 27 17:14:37 EDT 2009 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

How reproducible:

Always

Steps to Reproduce:

Upgraded F10 to F11 on a laptop with the following video chipset:

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon RV250 [Mobility FireGL 9000] (rev 01) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
        Subsystem: Uniwill Computer Corp Device 2301
        Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping+ SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx-
        Status: Cap+ 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
        Latency: 64 (2000ns min), Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 16
        Region 0: Memory at d0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
        Region 1: I/O ports at b000 [size=256]
        Region 2: Memory at ffcf0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
        Expansion ROM at ffcc0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
        Capabilities: [58] AGP version 2.0
                Status: RQ=48 Iso- ArqSz=0 Cal=0 SBA+ ITACoh- GART64- HTrans- 64bit- FW+ AGP3- Rate=x1,x2,x4
                Command: RQ=32 ArqSz=0 Cal=0 SBA+ AGP+ GART64- 64bit- FW- Rate=x4
        Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
                Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot-,D3cold-)
                Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-
        Kernel driver in use: radeon

Actual results:

Garbled VESA console

Expected results:

Plymouth runs at system boot, get to watch some pretty solar flares, until the system is ready.

Additional info:

F10 used to boot this laptop with the "vga=791" kernel boot parameter (VESA 1024x768x16). Under F11, this results in a broken VESA framebuffer.

Also tried "vga=792" (VESA 1024x768x24) and "vga=788" (VESA 800x600x16) with similar results, differing only in the visual attributes of the garbage (slightly bigger or smaller, different color).

I then tried "vga=3847 (VGA 80x60, according to "vga=ask") and the kernel booted with a working console, and working plymouth visual effects. So I have an apparent workaround, however it's not 100%. When I initiate shutdown from Gnome, x.org quits and I'm returned to the last plymouth frame, I do not see the expected initscripts messages when the system is shutting down.

Note -- the above vga modes are decimal (vga=ask lists them in hex).