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

[Felix Miata]

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/