Laptops :: DSL 4.1 frugal install problems on Libretto 100

I installed DSL 4.1 frugal on my hd by putting the drive in another system, doing the option 4 install from liveCD, included a format of hda1, then moved the hd to my Libretto.

WIth DSL 3.4, I used vga=808; this worked just right.

So in the Frugal install, I supplied that option and everything seemed to work ok for the install. But I have some major problems with the system....

in the /cdrom/boot/grub/menu.lst file the parameter is vga=normal not vga=808!

The screen comes up a weird green and unreadable. I cannot find how to get a terminal session going so I can sudu -s and run vi to edit the grub menu.lst file (as I did with DSL 3.4). I was hoping that at least a terminal window would be readable. I cannot find a nice icon for terminal as we had in 3.4, nor can I find it in the mouse right-click pull down menu (but then again, I can hardly read it!).

I tried booting from floppy as dsl 2; but I did not have write permissions to the menu.lst file, even though I was root? Looks like everything is loaded as a read-only system?

Try Ctrl+Alt+Backspace when you're running in the desktop. When I do this with a traditional HD install 4.1 and the Fluxbox desktop, it shuts down X and takes me to console. I'm new at this so there may be variations based on install and window manager.

Quote (john.martzouco @ Dec. 19 2007,15:05)

Oh, you should see the disaster of screen after that <cntl-alt-bksp>!!!

It is flashing dark blue then light blue. WIth a some unreadable characters on most lines.

I can tell I am in a text mode. I can see changes when I type:

cd /cdrom
cd boot
cd grub

but vi menu <tab> <return> does not result in a readable screen.

I need a different solution.....

One of my laptops needs to start up in frame-buffer mode. Otherwise the screen gets bleached white... hyper-saturated.

There is a bootup option dsl xsetup This worked for me and it only offered the choice between xvesa and xfbdev on that machine. Choose xfbdev for frame-buffering.

no dsl xsetup option that I saw....

But I forgot that with grub you can edit the boot line. Which I tried, but it did not seem to really allow me to edit it.

I tried to change vga=normal to vga=808

When I <esc>, it showed still vga=normal

When I b (booted), there were both options. with vga=808 last.

So the screen came up this useless green. I did figure out how to get terminal running, and get into vi, but I could not read the text to know what I was editing!

I assume there is some commands here....

Oh, and with DSL 3.4, I don't believe I used the frame-buffer mode, but what do I remember? Poor notes.

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