the lilo vga variable

dp · 2003-08-09 18:54:03

one thing i wanted to know in detail ... and i think i'm not the only one who dont know the details about that (also when reading the howtos in other distros)
... it can be a chapter in the linux-howtos for newbies in archlinux ... for the collection Gyroplast started on his page (great job, great idea, Kompliment)

what i'm asking: for lilo (or grub): what video-modes exist? what i know from the /Documentation/fb/vesafb.txt

   | 640x480  800x600  1024x768 1280x1024
----+-------------------------------------
256 |  0x301    0x303    0x305    0x307
32k |  0x310    0x313    0x316    0x319
64k |  0x311    0x314    0x317    0x31A
16M |  0x312    0x315    0x318    0x31B

they are in hex, but of course you should say lilo the mode in a decimal number e.g. vga=798

that's what i know ... any additions?

-> is there a way to find out the modes a card (chipset) support?

jlvsimoes · 2003-08-10 02:19:48

cat /home/jlvsimoes/lilofb
Couleurs | 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024 1600x1200
---------+---------------------------------------------
256 | 769 771 773 775 796
32,768 | 784 787 790 793 797
65,536 | 785 788 791 794 798
16.8M | 786 789 792 795 799

Jagged · 2003-08-10 04:44:43

you could take this time to lean how to convert amongst binary, octal, hexadecimal, and base ten decmal:

BIN     OCT     HEX     B10     BIN     HEX     B10
0000    0       0       0       1000     8       8 
0001    1       1       1       1001     9       9 
0010    2       2       2       1010     A       10
0011    3       3       3       1011     B       11
0100    4       4       4       1100     C       12
0101    5       5       5       1101     D       13
0110    6       6       6       1110     E       14
0111    7       7       7       1111     F       15

Hex and binary work just like base 10 except with base 16 and base 2

i.e. for each digit to the left of the decimal, its that digit multiplied by the base raised to thepower of the distanc from the decimal

Take these numbers for example:

Base 10:
    5293 = 5 * 10^3 + 2 * 10^2 + 9 * 10^1 + 3 * 10^0 = 5293      ##remember, anything to the 0th powor is 1

Base 8 (octal):
    12255 = 1 * 8^4 + 2 * 8^3 + 2 * 8^2  + 5 * 8^1 + 5 * 8^0 = 5293

Base 16 (hexadecimal):
    14AD = 1 * 16^3 + 4 * 16^2 + 10 * 16^1 + 13 * 16 ^ 0 = 5293


Base 2 (binary):
    Now the neat thing about converting to binary is if you have something in octal or fex, just use your handy conversion table.  ::NOTE:: Octal digits only have 3 bits (drop the insignificant... i.e. leftmost bit off the chart above)

    5293 = 14AD = 12255 = 1010010101101

Also... note that the permissions of a file are displayed in one of two ways

1)
As a bitstring (like when you ls -l)
   rwxrwxrwx       rw-rw-r--
Or as octal... pair those permissions in groups of three and you have a 3 digit octal number
   777                  664

I hope i did not insult your intelligence by posting this, but i figured it wouldnt hurt either

::EDIT:: sorry i think i misunderstood your original post... please don't take offence to this ::/EDIT::

dp · 2003-08-10 16:37:25

Jagged, thanx for the "nice" explaination what binary, hex and decimal-systems are ... well that wasn't my question; but as we are here in the newbie corner, someone may be interested ...

sorry my english in my question ... sometimes i dont manage to explain something the right way (=that the english-speaking people understand what i mean) --- i primary speak Schwiitzertüütsch(swissgerman), then Deutsch (german), Français (french) and then english

-> i know from the docs the table i wrote in my first post ... but well: i have a 1600x1200x32-screen ... so i wanted to use the full resolution with lilo --- what i'm asking is: are there rules to figure out what modes to use with what resolution? e.g. how do "jlvsimoes" come to his nice table with the modes for UXGA-resolution? (i see that it is always "+1" from the SXGA modes, but if i e.g. want to have one for another resolution between 1280x1024 and 1600x1200 -- what modes should i use then?)

Jagged wrote:

I hope i did not insult your intelligence by posting this, but i figured it wouldnt hurt either

no it doesnt hurt :-) ... and we are here in the newbies corner ... and "insultig my intelligence" --- no that is the only thing i must do myself ... you can only insult the intelligence of yourself by trying to think you know everything of something without wanting to listen to others about that subject /* horrible english ... i hope you understand what i mean*/

--
The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes.
<Sir Winston Churchill>

Jagged · 2003-08-10 17:09:51

on a console with a resolution greater than 1280x1024... wouldnt the font be incredibly small?

dp · 2003-08-11 04:48:18

Jagged wrote:

on a console with a resolution greater than 1280x1024... wouldnt the font be incredibly small?

... well i set the vga=884 (what means UXGA, 1600x1200) on a 15" screen (LCD) ... but i have no problems with reading it :: the only problem ist that if you connect a beamer, you must go down with the resolution (no beamer supports UXGA)

PS
i'm 20 years old ... maybe in 40 - 50 years i want to change to SXGA :-)

dp · 2003-08-11 04:51:12

i measured the letters: height=3mm ... but i can see nicely the kernel-compiling-output (i mean the long lines, as the console is 200x74 letters)

Arch Linux

#1 2003-08-09 18:54:03

the lilo vga variable

#2 2003-08-10 02:19:48

Re: the lilo vga variable

#3 2003-08-10 04:44:43

Re: the lilo vga variable

#4 2003-08-10 16:37:25

Re: the lilo vga variable

#5 2003-08-10 17:09:51

Re: the lilo vga variable

#6 2003-08-11 04:48:18

Re: the lilo vga variable

#7 2003-08-11 04:51:12

Re: the lilo vga variable

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