green and yallow screen

[dan0804smith]

i have finally got tiny core to work on my laptop (dell 300mhz 64mb ram 2mb video) via cd rom.  the problem is that when i get to the desktop everything is green and yellow.  its is almost as if it is 2bit graphics.  it is very difficult to make out any of the icons and it seems as and the text is also unreadable.  does anyone know whats going on here.  i have to type in tinycore ide-nodma=1.0 in order for it to boot.  i dont know if that makes any difference.

[gerald_clark]

Exit to a prompt ( via shutdown button or <CTL><Backspace> ) and run xsetup

[dan0804smith]

Exit to a prompt ( via shutdown button or <CTL><Backspace> ) and run xsetup

im sorry i am very new to linux, can you give me more specific directions?

[dan0804smith]

i got in to the terminal and selected a higher screen resolution.   nothign changed i think i need to change my color bitrate.

[Rich]

Hi dan0804smith
You don't mention what resolution or how many colors you are trying to run at. I don't believe you
have a bit rate problem. If you did, your display would be tearing or you would have multiple images.
Try adding the boot code   xvesa=800x600x16   just to see if you get a legible display.

[maro]

Just to be clear what 'xsetup' does: It queries the 'Xvesa' X server about which modes it supports (via Xvesa -listmodes) and lists (a subset) of those in a X-resolution, Y-resolution and color depth format. In my case it shows

Code: [Select]

Tiny Core Linux - Xvesa Resolution Setup

         1. 640x480x15
         2. 640x480x16
         3. 640x480x24
         4. 800x600x15
         5. 800x600x16
         6. 800x600x24
         7. 1024x768x15
         8. 1024x768x16
         9. 1024x768x24
        10. 1280x1024x15
        11. 1280x1024x16

Enter selection ( 1 - 11 ) or (q)uit:
So for example the choises 7 to 9 represent three different color depth settings for the same resolution. Taking your screen selection (and the subsequent choice of a mouse option) into account it then changes the parameters for the X server in '~/.xsession'.

You can check out your current settings with: grep Xvesa ~/.xsession

[sparkyhall]

I have an old IBM Thinkpad 600 which exhibits a green and yellow screen. The way I solved this was to use frame buffer mode as described in the FAQ:-

How to use framebuffer X server?
In order to use framebuffer (Xfbdev) you will need to have a persistent store, e.g., a PPR.
Boot Tiny Core as follows, using an appropriate vga code from the f2 boot help screen and an appropriate disk partition.

boot: tinycore tce=hda1 text vga=788

At the system prompt:

$ tce-load Xfbdev.tce wget install # This is for TC 2.2 and below
$ tce-load -w -i Xfbdev.tcz # This is for TC 2.3 and above

$ xsetup.sh
$ startx

From the X desktop, shutdown with backup. Your Xfbdev X settings will be saved and used on the next boot.
Do not use the text boot code and your framebuffer X server should start successfully.

[ElZabeca]

Hi, I´m new to this forum.

I have an old Presario 1080 laptop where I want to install TCL to; the thing is that I´m having a similar problem to the one posted on this thread since al colors seem to be greenish.

I know installing framebuffer support will fix it, but my question is: why isn't this option included on the bootup process like in other distros? (like say, DSL). I mean, when you have to choose the display settings you can specify framebuffer.

It would help a lot for limited hardware like the P1080.

Thanks for reading.

[gricks]

I have also an old IBM Thinkpad 600 type 2645510 and from http:// distro.ibiblio.org/tinycorelinux/downloads.html made for it a TinyCore 12 MB version 3.4.5 ISO on CD. On start up one sees without the numbering...
1 Boot TinyCore
2 Boot TinyCore (on slow devices, waitusb=5)
3 Boot Core (command line only)
4 Boot Core (command line only on slow devices, waitusb=5)
Selecting menu item 2 exhibits the famous 2 bit green/yellow or green/yallow screen as the original post in this thread by dan0804smith. Characters are visible but not legible.

The way I solved this was to use frame buffer mode as described in the original FAQ http:// distro.ibiblio.org/tinycorelinux/faq.html#framebuffer but modified as we had at this stage no internet connection and tce-load -w assumes a connection (Note 2).

The FAQ says in order to use framebuffer (Xfbdev) you will need to have a persistent store, e.g. on hard disk or USB memstick.

Use another PC (PC2) with a working proper skyblue coloured tiny core with persistance and internet to obtain a copy of 2 files Xfbdev.tcz and Xfbdev.tcz.md5.txt using the Apps facility. Select Download Only (bottom left choice). Mount the memstick and copy from PC2 (e.g. using Fluff or command line) onto the memstick the whole /tce directory. To be safe on the memstick copy the two files into /tce and /tce/ondemand and /tce/optional
Whilst the memstick is still in PC2 edit onboot.lst so it has one line... Xfbdev.tcz

Once more start the Thinkpad with ISO CD and the memstick containing /tce inserted to get menu items 1 to 4 as above.

Follow the original FAQ to get an appropriate vga code from the F2 boot help screen. For our Thinkpad with 1024x768 pixels and 16 bits vga=791 worked so hereafter we'll use this.

Select menu item 2 and press Tab and you should see...
> /boot/vmlinuz initrd=/boot/core.gz quiet cde waitusb=5
Add on end after a space... text vga=791 tce=sda1
and press Enter and wait to see a prompt...
tc@box:~$
Type at prompt... ls -al /mnt/sda1/tce/X*.tcz and expect something like...
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 380928 date /mnt/sda1/tce/Xfbdev.tcz
If not see Note 1
Type at prompt (Note 2)... tce-load -i /mnt/sda1/tce/Xfbdev.tcz
Expect... /mnt/sda1/tce/Xfbdev is already installed!
All is well.

Now following the FAQ...
Type xsetup.sh and choose mouse type eg 5 enter and prompt returns.
Type startx and wait for the fetching skyblue display (darkest at the top) with a clear core black logo in the centre and legible characters.

SHUTDOWN AND RESTART
Before the next startup press bottom exit blob leave Shutdown, Backup and sda1/tce selected.
NB The sda1/tce is expected to point to the hard disk if not modify this so it does.
Press OK.
Remove memstick but keep CD inserted then restart the Thinkpad

Select menu item 1 and press Tab and you should see...
> /boot/vmlinuz initrd=/boot/core.gz quiet cde
Add on end after a space... vga=791
press Enter and after a few seconds get the good clear skyblue display once more.

Hopefully someone will update the FAQ and maybe show a shorter easier method.

Note 1. /mnt/sda1 was expected to be the memstick but there was no sign of Xfbdev.tcz instead we found /mnt/sda1 was pointing to the Thinkpad's hardisk. Fortunately the Thinkpad ran Windows XP so we could use it to copy memstick /tce to hard disk c:/tce on the Thinkpad.

Note 2. For tce-load see http:// wiki.tinycorelinux.net/wiki:tce-load
-w means use internet that we haven't yet set up.
-i Install extension. Add to OnBoot list if used with -w. Will fail if not already downloaded.*
-l Suppresses adding to OnBoot list.*
*NB Both i and l look the same on this website :-?

[curaga]

The FAQ procedure is pretty simple, your issues were from not having a net connection on the target.