Bug 10033

Summary: VT terminals are garbled using ATI proprietary driver.
Product: Mageia Reporter: Morgan Leijström <fri>
Component: RPM PackagesAssignee: Mageia Bug Squad <bugsquad>
Status: RESOLVED FIXED QA Contact:
Severity: normal    
Priority: Normal CC: anssi.hannula, bittwister2, tmb
Version: Cauldron   
Target Milestone: ---   
Hardware: x86_64   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Source RPM: CVE:
Status comment:

Description Morgan Leijström 2013-05-09 10:34:07 CEST 
When switching to virtual text screen terminals (it that the correct term?) (Ctrl-Alt-F2 etc) i only see a mess of white dots and lines on black screen, and the cursor blinks four places.

Using up to date mga3 including todays update of fglrx.

Xorg ati driver works OK.

Propriatary driver was working OK on mga1 last week (mga2 never run on this machine)

The graphic card made by HIS, using HD6850
Screen resolution 2560x1600

From lspcidrake:
Card:ATI Radeon HD 6400 and later (radeon/fglrx): Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI|Barts PRO [Radeon HD 6850] [DISPLAY_VGA]


Another odd thing is that it use low resolution graphic mode early during boot when i enter encryption key for the system, while when using xorg ati driver the correct resolution is used, but that may be separate issue and of very low importance, i just note it.  And that aspect was the same on mga1)

Reproducible: 

Steps to Reproduce:
Comment 1 Bit Twister 2013-05-09 11:59:02 CEST 
(In reply to Morgan Leijström from comment #0)
> When switching to virtual text screen terminals (it that the correct term?)
> (Ctrl-Alt-F2 etc) i only see a mess of white dots and lines on black screen,
> and the cursor blinks four places.
> 
> Using up to date mga3 including todays update of fglrx.

Was not just today's update. See bug 9887.

CC: (none) => junk_no_spam

Comment 2 Morgan Leijström 2013-05-09 16:41:16 CEST 
Sorry i was unclear.  The problem have been right from the fresh install 5 may too.

While shutting down i had a second of blue screen with white garbage.

Side note: I now use xorg ati driver, but since i changed to that i have had Xorg once exit abruptly, did not happen using proprietary driver.  Could be other issues...
Manuel Hiebel 2013-05-11 22:59:57 CEST

CC: (none) => anssi.hannula, tmb

Comment 3 Morgan Leijström 2013-05-15 11:22:49 CEST 
Still valid with todays update, but when switching back to KDE system hangs, Bug 10104

Also tried driver
  ATI Radeon HD 5000 and later without free driver (vesa/fglrx)
Which work and do not hang, but same garbled virtual terminals.
Comment 4 Thomas Backlund 2013-05-15 21:53:12 CEST 
fixed with fglrx-12.104-2.mga3 and kmod-fglrx-12.104-7.mga3

Status: NEW => RESOLVED
Resolution: (none) => FIXED

Comment 5 Morgan Leijström 2013-05-16 13:55:40 CEST 
Great, now i can read terminals :)
But they are in low text resolution.
When using xorg ati i have more than doule as many lines and columns.
Can it be many lines when using fglrx too?
Comment 6 Bit Twister 2013-05-16 15:05:40 CEST 
(In reply to Morgan Leijström from comment #5)
> Great, now i can read terminals :)
> But they are in low text resolution.
> When using xorg ati i have more than doule as many lines and columns.
> Can it be many lines when using fglrx too?

Yes, two methods mcc->Boot->Set up display manager, Click Next, Click Modify, Click Advanced
Or add  vga=xxx   to end of kernel line in /boot/grub/menu.lst and check after next boot. Example /boot/grub/menu.lst snippet from my setup:

timeout 5
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
default 0

title mga3_64_rc
kernel (hd0,5)/boot/vmlinuz ........... nokmsboot vga=0x031a
root (hd0,5)
initrd /boot/initrd.img

If you have hwinfo installed, you can pick a mode value to fit your setup. As root
hwinfo --framebuffer
Comment 7 Morgan Leijström 2013-05-16 17:51:32 CEST 
Thank yuo for that tip, works for me :)

What i really meant was that it would be good if it use optimal resolution automatically, like when i use xorg ati driver.