[Solved] The framebuffer, Grub, and graphics card driver

Question

I'm running Arch on a 15.1" laptop, and the natural resolution for my LCD is 1366x768.
X has no problem of adjusting itself to the right resolution. The console can do this too, but only when I have the open-source graphics card driver (xf86-video-ati). If I try catalyst in the AUR, the console falls back to 800x600, characters being wide and blur. Grub seems to suffer from a similar problem. It always present me with a 800x600 menu, and the early userspace booting is in this resolution too.
I followed the instructions in https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Gr … resolution and the following is what I found out.
I couldn't find the package lrmi in the repo. (I doubt the wiki page is outdated.) I did find vbetool, but it doesn't provide vbetest. Taking the next approach, running sudo hwinfo --framebuffer gives:
02: None 00.0: 11001 VESA Framebuffer
[Created at bios.459]
Unique ID: rdCR.A3Y7SCr7Y49
Hardware Class: framebuffer
Model: "(C) 1988-2005, ATI M92"
Vendor: "(C) 1988-2005, ATI Technologies Inc."
Device: "M92"
SubVendor: "ATI ATOMBIOS"
SubDevice:
Revision: "01.00"
Memory Size: 16 MB
Memory Range: 0xd0000000-0xd0ffffff (rw)
Mode 0x0300: 640x400 (+640), 8 bits
Mode 0x0301: 640x480 (+640), 8 bits
Mode 0x0303: 800x600 (+832), 8 bits
Mode 0x0305: 1024x768 (+1024), 8 bits
Mode 0x0310: 640x480 (+1280), 15 bits
Mode 0x0311: 640x480 (+1280), 16 bits
Mode 0x0313: 800x600 (+1600), 15 bits
Mode 0x0314: 800x600 (+1600), 16 bits
Mode 0x0316: 1024x768 (+2048), 15 bits
Mode 0x0317: 1024x768 (+2048), 16 bits
Mode 0x030d: 320x200 (+640), 15 bits
Mode 0x030e: 320x200 (+640), 16 bits
Mode 0x0320: 320x200 (+1280), 24 bits
Mode 0x0393: 320x240 (+320), 8 bits
Mode 0x0395: 320x240 (+640), 16 bits
Mode 0x0396: 320x240 (+1280), 24 bits
Mode 0x03b3: 512x384 (+512), 8 bits
Mode 0x03b5: 512x384 (+1024), 16 bits
Mode 0x03b6: 512x384 (+2048), 24 bits
Mode 0x03c3: 640x350 (+640), 8 bits
Mode 0x03c5: 640x350 (+1280), 16 bits
Mode 0x03c6: 640x350 (+2560), 24 bits
Mode 0x0333: 720x400 (+768), 8 bits
Mode 0x0335: 720x400 (+1472), 16 bits
Mode 0x0336: 720x400 (+2944), 24 bits
Mode 0x0360: 848x480 (+896), 8 bits
Mode 0x0361: 848x480 (+1728), 16 bits
Mode 0x0362: 848x480 (+3456), 24 bits
Mode 0x0321: 640x480 (+2560), 24 bits
Mode 0x0322: 800x600 (+3200), 24 bits
Mode 0x0323: 1024x768 (+4096), 24 bits
Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
No 1366x768. Taking the last approach, I added "vga=ask" to the Grub entry. Again no 1366x768. How can I get the resolution set to 1366x768 during Grub and/or early userspace booting? Or is it simply impossible?
Last edited by xiaq (2011-03-07 09:23:10)

Answer 1

Mr.Elendig wrote:The only way to really do it is to use kms and the free driver for X.
So...  I should follow https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/AT … _KMS_start, since I have an ATI card and I've decided to stick with the free driver(at least for now).
Still one question: to use KMS early(this is what I want), I need to regenerate the initial image(mkinitcpio). What's the worst result if it fails? Will mkinitcpio make no complaints but give me an unusable image? I'm asking the questions both in general and in my specific case(trying to enable KMS during early start).