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Tsaukpaetra · (This post was last modified: 2014-02-13 04:42 by Tsaukpaetra.)

I'm having issues getting the console command to work consistently actually, and I thought this may be the most relevant topic to post on.

At present, I can use the console command just fine in a virtualbox VM, however none of my actual PCs seem to be able to do it.
For example, using the command: console -x 1024 -y 768
Results in a "No such file or directory" error 0x2d8c203b

Merely using the command alone does reset the screen, but attempting to use any parameters at all results in the "No such file or directory" error.
I've tried using the DEBUG=console:3 in the build parameters, but I'm not getting any more output than normal from it :/
Any ideas?

My build command is: make clean bin/ipxe.lkrn EMBED=script.ipxe
Are there any hints even how to enable debugging of this command (so it prints stuff out etc.)

***robinsmidsrod*** · 2014-02-14, 10:09

I've updated the error page at http://ipxe.org/err/2d8c20 with information on how to get the VESA BIOS mode list debug information included when running the console command. Most likely you're trying to load a mode which your physical machine has no valid VESA mode for. As mentioned on the error page the debug parameter you're after is DEBUG=vesafb. The parameter in DEBUG= is the filename of the source code you want to debug, but without the .c extension.

Tsaukpaetra · 2014-02-15, 04:09

(2014-02-14 10:09)robinsmidsrod Wrote: I've updated the error page at http://ipxe.org/err/2d8c20 with information on how to get the VESA BIOS mode list debug information included when running the console command.

Thank you.
Now, running the command leaves a bunch of Could not get mode ## information, IO error.
I'm assuming this means that... the... graphics card interface is not connected? Weird?

By carefully adjusting the VBE_MODE_END value, I got the output text to be something less than screen-filling, and I can get the debug text:

Code:

Vesafb saved vga mode 0x03

vesafb found vbe version 2.0 with mode list at c000:6d0d

If I limit the apparent list to almost nothing (I set the end value to 0x4110), I get the error: could not configure console: Not enough space
Seeing as that error is different, it brings me to the conclusion that a known suitable list of modes is being generated at least.

Unfortunately, due to this IO error, I can't even really tell what those modes are supposed to be in the first place. They don't seem to be VESA mode numbers in any case.

On another machine, strangely, enabling debug=vesafb actually allows the console command to work! Whereas not including the debug=vesafb makes it not work. I'm not sure what else besides the debugging messages are being enabled with this setting, but whatever it is is actually allowing the console command to actually work!
Too bad though, I don't have a good enough camera to see the debug messages flash by, I'd like to see what else may be going on.

In any case, I just commented out the DBGC statements so nothing gets printed, and it's like debugging isn't on at all!

***robinsmidsrod*** · (This post was last modified: 2014-02-20 09:34 by robinsmidsrod.)

You might've hit a bug with the vesa console code. I'd suggest you send over a bug report to the mailing-list. You might have a troublesome VESA BIOS that need to be worked around. If you have time I'd suggest you also try to idle on IRC and see if someone can help you out figuring out what the problem actually is.