Re: Mostly successful with Backstreet Ruby but lost VT1

[<Aiv...@un...>]

>I just spent the whole day getting Backstreet Ruby working on my system,
>mostly successfully.  I'll report my experience then ask for help
>regaining my virtual terminal #1 (or virtual console; I'm not clear on
>the terminology.  I mean the thing I used to get when I pressed
>Ctrl-Alt-F1).

Unfortunately text mode console never works corectly after start
of 2 or more xf86. Current this is true for all.

>I'm running Debian Woody and my project is a digital picture frame
>(read: "unwanted flat panel display gotten for cheap") near my
>computer.  The display is now in a nice wooden frame, hanging on the
>wall, so it doesn't look like a computer screen, and it's attached to my
>PC by a 15' VGA cable to a cheap PCI GeForce2.  When I boot my computer
>the picture frame display comes up with its own X server then one of my
>digital photographs is chosen at random and displayed.  It's totally
>independent of gdm and whether I'm logged in or not (thank you,
>Backstreet Ruby).
>
>I followed the directions in the XFree Local Multi-User HOWTO, which was
>very helpful.  Thank you, Svetoslav Slavtchev.
>
>I first tried using Andreas Schuldei's binary kernel package
>(kernel-image-2.4.20-backstreet-ruby-p4_10.00.Custom_i386.deb) but when
>I booted up my PS/2 keyboard didn't work.  I then tried to patch a
>Debian 2.4.21 kernel but the patch failed, so I downloaded a vanilla
>2.4.21 kernel which patched successfully.  When configuring the kernel I
>tried to set "Input Devices/Keyboards/AT keyboard support" to Y so I
>wouldn't have to deal with loading the module (as recommended by the
>instructions).  The kernel configurator wouldn't let me; it insisted on
>it being set to 'M'.  I tried booting this kernel and it failed in the
>same way (no keyboard).  I then reconfigured the kernel and turned on
>"Prompt for development and/or incomplete code/drivers".  Once that was
>on I was allowed to set "AT keyboard support" to 'Y' instead of 'M'.

You can load module during init "modprobe atkbd".

>Booting the patched kernel now works with my keyboard.  I have to add
>"dumbcon=1" to my kernel command line (maybe because I've got only one
>keyboard plugged in).
>
>I've got an AGP GeForce3 and a PCI GeForce2 in my system and I'm using
>nVidia's binary drivers.  I first tried the kernel-only solution but my
>system crashed with bizarre patterns on my screens.  Fine, so I switched
>to Andreas Schuldei's binaries for the patched XFree86 3.0 and these
>worked, but only if I probe my GeForce2 first, i.e.:
>
>        /usr/X11R6/bin/X -probeonly -layout Small
>        /usr/X11R6/bin/X :1 -layout Small -prefbusid 2:7:0 vt8 &
>
>after which I load gdm, which starts the other X server on the AGP
>card.  It seems odd that I have to probe the PCI card right before
>starting the PCI card (this isn't about which card comes first), but
>that's what worked.

Seems nvidia closed source kernel module must be loaded with all
video cards in use. "X -probeonly" uses all video cards on system, but
"X -prefbusid" hide unnecessary cards and xf86 known about one actual
card. After "X -probeonly" kernel module "nvidia" stay active in the
kernel user can start properly initialized Nvidia cards in any order.
After module "nvidia" removing X must be probed again.

>I made some small changes to a program called "qiv" to behave itself
>better when it displays the photograph (such as hiding the mouse
>pointer).  Yay, open source!
>
>Here's the part where I need help.  Now when I press Ctrl-Alt-F1, the
>main display switches back to the text-only console BUT it's "greyed
>out"!  Both the foreground text and background look grey--the text is
>darker than it should be and the background is lighter.  I can read text
>on it but I cannot type anything to it.  This alarms me because I like
>dropping out of X once and a while and getting a command line.  Any
>ideas?

??? 1st must be started xf86 on VGA, then 2nd. This will not work
alltime. 2nd server clean up VGA fonts :(

>During my experimenting I did try having gdm launch both X servers as
>explained in the HOWTO.  When I did this, instead of launching one
>myself, I was able to use VT1 but suffered the garbage font problem.
>Typing "consolechars -d" fixed it immediately.  I don't care about this,
>because I don't want gdm to launch both servers,

any shell script can start number of xf86 servers.

>but I'm noting it
>because I didn't have the "greyed-out" VT1 problem in that setup.

Rather some from xf86 folk should take a look. Pressing Ctrl-Alt-F1,
Ctrl-F7, Ctrl-Alt-F1 sometimes helps. Ctrl-F1, Ctrl-F2, Ctrl-F1
sometimes helps.

Aivils Stoss
enthuziast of computer programming