[Mageia-dev] Grub2 vs. Grub Legacy in M3

Mon Feb 4 23:16:01 CET 2013

On 2013-02-04 12:23 (GMT) Barry Jackson composed:
+
+> Felix Miata wrote:
+
+>> On 2013-02-02 10:08 (GMT) Barry Jackson composed:
+
+>>> Felix Miata wrote:
+
+>>>> 3-Grub2 menu uses same awful spindly-looking font responsible in large
+>>>> part for my distaste for *buntu
+
+>>> Yes could be a lot better, but it's mainly a choice based on licensing,
+>>> probably will be improved in the future.
+
+>> What's wrong with nice legible BIOS native fonts?
+
+> Try commenting out the line in /etc/defaults/grub
+
+> #GRUB_THEME=...
+
+Done on my first edit to the file.
+
+> and also temporarily rename /boot/grub2/fonts
+
+Will try to remember if again presented with graphics mode fonts, which I'm 
+not currently getting due to either GRUB_GFXPOAYLOAD_text and/or 
+GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT=console and/or grub2-menulst2cfg.
+
+> Run "grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg"
+> after changing anything in /etc/deafult/grub before rebooting.
+
+> Is that better for you?
+
+Will have to reserve that for after figuring out how to get stanzas sorted 
+acceptably. For now grub2-menulst2cfg as corrected is working better. Even 
+better is using the master bootloader to load kernel and initrd directly, but 
+here I'm trying out Grub2 now that it has advanced to v1.0 status.
+
+>>>> 6-post ESC, startup messages are inappropriately tiny
+
+>>> Sounds like the same issue I used to have when I was using nvidia
+>>> graphics with nouveau.
+>>> Using intel I don't see this.
+
+>> # lspci | grep VGA
+>> 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82865G Integrated
+>> Graphics Controller (rev 02)
+
+> Hmm - dunno then - I do see a drop in size which appears to happen after
+> grub2 has handed over to the kernel.
+
+I know what's happening, figured out within several months of the kernel devs 
+unleashing KMS into the wild. KMS responds to video= for selecting mode to 
+use for tty framebuffers. But before KMS initializes, the kernel responds to 
+vga= if present as it has for over a decade, replacing the default 80x25 mode 
+with whatever mode the vga= parameter corresponds to.
+
+Absent cmdline parameter for graphics mode init theme, quiet, or other means 
+to hide init messages, ttys are set to any supplied vga= framebuffer mode. 
+Shortly after the vga= response, KMS kicks in and switches to the video= mode 
+if present. If no valid video= mode is present, KMS initializes with the 
+EDID-provided PreferredMode, which here would be specified as 1600x1200, 
+corresponding to vga=0x31e (16 bit) or 0x31f (24 bit) if the gfxchip was 
+unsupported by KMS.
+
+Initial Grub2 installation isn't preconfigured with with any video=, so 
+without being kicked into a graphics init mode by Plymouth or otherwise, 
+first tty drawing is in 80x25 mode, shortly followed by KMS initializing EDID 
+PreferredMode 1600x1200, which is what results in the tiny text, 75 rows in a 
+12" vertical space, or about .16"/4.064mm per row, a bit over 11pt, which for 
+me is about 72% of optimal height produced by 1152x864. I use a "bigger" 
+display (21" nominal CRT) to make stuff bigger, not fit more stuff.
+
+>>>> 7-tty text is too tiny to use (same as startup messages; screen's
+>>>> preferred mode 1600x1200 used instead of legible mode 1152x864)
+
+>>> Probably configurable in /etc/defaults/grub but off hand I don't know
+>>> the variable name - should be in the maunual somewhere.
+
+> I'm suspecting this is not a grub2 issue but I may be wrong.
+
+It's not directly. KMS is using whatever nominal size font is preconfigured 
+for the framebuffers. Whatever physical size font results depends for its 
+context on the EDID-provided video mode and the display's physical size. 
+Framebuffer fonts, except on *buntu, have been preconfigured the same across 
+all other distros I've used AFAICR since before I first began using Linux 
+last century. Grub2's part is that there isn't an installation option here 
+(that I remember) for the user to specify Grub2 pass a video= cmdline option 
+if he doesn't want the EDID PreferredMode used on the ttys. KMS has been 
+around so long I've already forgotten how Mandriva's installer was dealing 
+with the vga= option that was the usual pre-KMS method of sizing framebuffer 
+text. Pre-widescreen displays, vga=791 was pretty typical.
+-- 
+"The wise are known for their understanding, and pleasant
+words are persuasive." Proverbs 16:21 (New Living Translation)
+
+   Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks!
+
+Felix Miata  ***  http://fm.no-ip.com/
+