Subject: Re: solution for garbage characters problem...
To: Markus Kurek <kurek@etecs5.uni-duisburg.de>
From: Matthias Drochner <drochner@zel459.zel.kfa-juelich.de>
List: port-i386
Date: 08/12/1999 19:59:21
kurek@etecs5.uni-duisburg.de said:
> I get garbage if I configure wscons to 80x50. If I switch back with
> ALT+F? to a screen configured to 80x50 all I can see are vertical
> lines all over the screen.
I can reproduce this. It seems that the X server doesn't restore
the font RAM to its old state when it gives up the screen. 80x50
screens depend on the downloaded 8x8 font, so they get what the
X server left there.
> A bug in wscons ?
wscons assumes that the X server leaves the graphics adapter
in the same state as it started with. This is reasonable because
the X server has more knowledge about the card's details, and
because the kernel resources needed to save state are more
expensive than userspace program space.
That was an optimistic assumption, obviously.
I'll check how this can be fixed easily in the X server.
As the wscons code works now, the VGA font data are not resident
in plain memory, so it would need a serious change to restore
it within the wscons driver after a screen switch.
best regards
Matthias