Josip Deanovic wrote on 2005-03-01 07:44 UTC:
> - Frame buffer must not be compiled into the kernel.
> - Color of kernel output should be some of the bright colors, bright
> red for example (0x0c).
> - Some of the bigger Unicode fonts like LatArCyrHeb-16 should be
> used.
>
> Result:
> Any output from kernel which should be interpreted in bright color
> results with bunch of garbage.
The VGA hardware can either handle 512-char fonts with 8 colours or
256-char fonts with 16 colours (RGBCMYKW x {dark, bright}). You probably
try to use a 512-char font with 16 colours, which is not supported by
the VGA text-mode hardware.
Perhaps the situation could be handled more gracefully, namely by
chosing the wrong (i.e., darker) colour instead of the wrong glyph.
(Who coded this?)
Actual solution: use the framebuffer graphics mode instead of the
ancient (> 20 years old!!!) VGA hardware text mode with all its amusing
restrictions.
Perhaps it is time to remove VGA text-mode support entirely from the
Linux kernel (and future BIOSes)? Looks like utterly obsolete baggage to
me. Even the tinyest embedded system is better served today by a
pixel-based graphics mode.
Markus
--
Markus Kuhn, Computer Lab, Univ of Cambridge, GB
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/ | __oo_O..O_oo__
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