I have an old but reliable Toshiba Dynabook DB65P/4RC (seems to be known as Satellite 2801 65P/4RC outside of Japan) with Pentium III and S3 Savage IX graphics card, with Windows 2000 Professional, and Debian installed for dual-boot, which I have upgraded from Lenny through to Buster.
- Specs:
https://www.inversenet.co.jp/pclist/pro ... 5P4RC.html - Lineup with specs:
http://dynabook.com/pc/catalog/dynabook ... lineup.htm - Detailed specs comparison:
http://dynabook.com/pc/catalog/dynabook ... b_spec.htm - Marketing page:
http://dynabook.com/pc/catalog/dynabook ... b_hard.htm - lspci information for the card:
S3 Graphics Ltd. 86C270-294 [Savage IX-MV] (rev 11)
Subsystem: Toshiba America Info System 86C584 SuperSavage/IXC toshiba
By default, I am not sure what module is being used to provide the framebuffer, as lsmod lists no modules mentioning the strings vga, video, vesa, or savage.
Testing the savagefb module
hwinfo --framebuffer outputs a long list of possible modes[4], but I did not discover any documentation for the details of the output beyond resolution and bits per pixel. My maximum seems to be 16-bpp at 1024x768, although there are several listed modes that offer this, so I am not sure how to select a particular mode.
From the command line, I found I could load the savagefb module with a resolution; but specifying the bpp, e.g., 1024x768-16, in addition did not seem to have any effect, even if it was unsupported, e.g., 1024x768-24.
Code: Select all
modprobe savagefb video=1024x768
Setting resolution in GRUB2 configuration
From searching the web I found (on this site to boot)[4] that I could get 1024x768 resolution by editing /etc/default/grub and adding the actual resolutions I wanted:
Code: Select all
GFX_PAYLOAD_LINUX=1024x768
While the above GRUB configuration works to provide the framebuffer size I want, it does not use the savagefb module (same lsmod results as before). So I am wondering how to get the module to be used---and if that is even a good idea given the things written about the module (e.g., that it interferes with ACPI sleep). On the other hand, not even vesafb is loaded, so I do not know what would be best.
I read that one can add modules to be loaded to /etc/initramfs-tools/modules, and then run update-initramfs -u. Not sure if that is what is required to switch from whatever module is being used not to supply the framebuffer, to the savagefb (or any other, for that matter) module.
Any advice sincerely appreciated.
References
- savagefb kernel module for the S3 Savage IX card.
https://cateee.net/lkddb/web-lkddb/FB_SAVAGE.html - Use of savagefb in IBM Thinkpads
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/S3_Savage_IX8 - Use of savagefb with vga kernel parameter
https://www.linuxquestions.org/question ... er-431632/ - Example of setting framebuffer resolution
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php? ... 6&p=659598