> I've got an old ET-3000 based VGA card (256k, I believe) that exhibits
> strange behavior under 2.1.115. I boot into the default text mode, and it
> appears that any time the screen scrolls quickly the video memory gets
> some corruption (weird characters appear, ddoouubbllee characters, and
> attribute changes (flashing, solid background, etc)).
>
> This is the first recent 2.1.x kernel I've tried with this card, so I
> don't know if this is new to 2.1.115, or just another item that needs
> cleaning up with the new console code.
For what it's worth, I've had this type of screen corruption with
every version of Linux from 1.2.13 through 2.0.0 - 2.0.35, and
2.1.115 as well. This has happened on every computer I've used
Linux on, with any video card, so it is definitely not a hardware
problem.
It is very easy to replicate, so I'm shocked that it's never been
fixed.
To replicate it, just do the following
alias d='ls -alF'
Then press "d" <ENTER>, "d" <ENTER>, "d" <ENTER>....
Keep pressing d and enter very fast, and what will happen is
you'll keep getting directory listings, but before too long the
screen will screw up. Instead of scrolling, it will wrap around
from the bottom of the screen to the top of the screen.
I just tried it again a minute ago on 2.0.35, and it screws up,
very easily. It doesn't cause any problems AFAIK, other than
just making the display look shitty.
If you have trouble replicating this, keep trying, if necessary,
run some filefind's and other stuff in the background as it seems
that the busier the machine is, the easier it is to mess up the
console...
-- Mike A. Harris - Computer Consultant - Linux advocateEscape from the confines of Microsoft's operating systems and push your PC to it's limits with LINUX - a real OS. http://www.redhat.com
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