[syslinux] not sure how to get rid of white screen during boot

[Douglas McClendon]

(time delay to list, forgot to reply-all/list.  Also folding in the 
quick followup clarification, same deal)

To clarify the below, with vga=0x318, I see syslinux screen disappear 
nearly instantaneously after I hit enter on editing the cmdline.  Not 
really the same as plymouth (in graphics mode was/is implied) starting, 
as it is second(s) after blackness that I see the first plymouth output. 
  But the pause of <5s of blackness between syslinux and plymouth output 
doesn't bother me (unlike a white flash or other color transition would).



On 02/20/2011 05:06 PM, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> On 02/20/2011 03:01 PM, Douglas McClendon wrote:
>>
>> I'm not sure what you mean, as at this point a combination of Lua
>> script, vga=0x317 for qemu, vga=current for all else, gets me past my
>> white screen problem.  Regardless of whether or not there is any
>> substance to my hypothesis about console text mode changeable by
>> syslinux possibly effecting the white-screen issue.
>>
>> The desire for a fadein/fadeout options in syslinux is fairly orthogonal
>> to the workaroundable whitescreen issue.
>>
>
> I'm confused why you need to specify mode 0x317 for Qemu.  Syslinux
> would normally pick the mode that the kernel calls 0x318

Apparently not in my case, as I can also use 318 for my purposes, 
yielding the same results.  I.e. qemu booting the 
syslinux-4.02-installed disk, with no vga append yields the *el6 
distro's plymouth to activate in text mode.  Using vga=0x317(or318) 
yields plymouth activating very quickly, even under qemu effectively 
instantaneously after hitting enter on the modified boot cmdline (as 
opposed to with vga=current on my netbook, where I see the syslinux menu 
text linger for 4 seconds.

Thus, it seems my ideal config is the aforementioned but as yet 
unwritten Lua APPEND scriptage.


, and
> vga=current *should* work.  That is unless you're using an older
> Syslinux from Red Hat.

vga=current under this qemu-0.11.1 run of a syslinux-4.02 created boot 
image, yields looking at the syslinux screen the entire time plymouth 
should be visible, and then seeing GDM take over.

-dmc