[wellylug] Framebuffer troubles

[jumbophut]

Hi all

I have a Debian install which boots using an initrd.  The initrd
attempts to load the vesafb framebuffer module (the stock Debian
2.8.6-1 kernel has it compiled as a module, not built in), but it
fails.

I was under the impression that vesafb uses the BIOS to set the video
mode and only works in real mode, so that loading the module in a bash
script (which is what the initrd does) after boot is not going to
work.

Anyone got any bright ideas, or know whether I am mistaken about the
real mode thing?  I want to use the stock kernel if possible, rather
than recompiling with vesafb 'y' instead of 'm'.

(With a degree of trouble, I think I could get vga16fb to be tried in
it's place, at the expense of crap max resolution.  Just using X is
not an option -- not enough disk space.)

-- 
Tony (echo 'spend!,pocket awide' | sed 'y/acdeikospntw!, /l at omcgtjuba.phi/')