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Topic: passed an undefined mode number

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brianw

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Posts: 245
Joined: Sep. 2005

Posted: Sep. 03 2006,22:03

For the aterminal right click on desktop to get the menu then choose one of the Xshell options.

As for the icons I have found if you are trying to run at a resolution/colour depth setting that your system can't handle then you won't get icons. I just purchased a dell gx100 pIII 700 and with the grapjics card that is in it I can't run in 1024x768x24. If I choose 800x600x24 the icons show up. Run xsetup until you get the right combo that works.

As for the undefined mode number it seems to make no difference after you get the system up and running (just slows down the boot process, when I run the scan it can't seem to find a definate mode number anyway so maybe that is the problem with mine). I also find that this happens if you use vga=7?? instead of vga=normal when booting. Unfortunately if you don't use vga=7?? you can't use Xfbdev. If you are using only Xvesa then you can use vga=normal without a problem but if you try to switch to the Fb device then you will get an X error when you run startx because it can't find a /dev/fb? device. When you boot from livecd it automatically has a vga=7?? so I get that whenever I run from livecd. Not sure if vga=normal will over ride this on livecd or frugal. It does on a regular HD install but then the boot string is customized. Should work with frugal grub/lilo install where the boot line contains vga=normal but I don't use frugal so I can't be sure.

Juanito

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Posts: 1601
Joined: Sep. 2005

Posted: Sep. 04 2006,06:53

I had this problem when I first started using DSL.

In the end I had to use XFree86 to get around it - I still get the "you passed an undefined mode number" error message but once the boot process has finished at least I get the icons and resolutions/colour depths other than VGA.

Maybe the problem is graphics chip/card related - I have a Intel 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Chip

odradek

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Posts: 10
Joined: Aug. 2006

Posted: Sep. 04 2006,14:31

Try using bootcode vga=771 or vga=773 instead of vga=normal. My laptop (dell inspiron w/ intel 82830 chipset) doesn't like vga=normal, but accepts either of the two settings above. when you use xfree86, the vga=xxx setting only affects the appearance of the text that scrolls by during boot, it has no effect once x starts (but I don't know if that applies to the other x servers)

qrtback10

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Posts: 16
Joined: Aug. 2006

Posted: Sep. 05 2006,02:35

thank you all I will try all of these and let you know how it goes. I appreciate the help!

qrtback10

Group: Members
Posts: 16
Joined: Aug. 2006

Posted: Sep. 05 2006,23:33

Ok, here's what I ended up doing to get around it. It's pretty simple. I booted like normal went past all of the 'undefined mode number' to get to the desktop with no icons. Then I selected Xvesa from the menu, and clicked 800x600x16 (all three worked actually but this one I chose because it looked the best). And then installed to hard drive and it installed in that resolution that I set. Thanks again everyone! Hope this helps some people.

11 replies since Sep. 01 2006,07:44

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