Dec 292012
 

With Debian 7.0/wheezy getting closer to release time, it was time to try it out. It felt like a good idea to rather install Debian 7.0/wheezy on a new server than to stick to the current stable release, as it would save me upgrade time later. As with Debian 6.0/squeeze, it seems real hardware text modes are not really favoured in Debian 7.0/wheezy either. To use hardware text mode in Debian 7.0/wheezy, add “16” to the linux and initrd lines in /etc/grub.d/10_linux:

linux16 ${rel_dirname}/${basename} root=${linux_root_device_thisversion} ro ${args}
initrd16 ${rel_dirname}/${initrd}

circa lines 115 and 121. Also make sure you have the following in /etc/default/grub:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="vga=0xF07"
GRUB_TERMINAL=console

I opted for 80×60, ie. 0xF07. Other text modes as per svga.txt:

80x25 - 0xF00 (3840)
80x50 - 0xF01 (3841)
80x43 - 0xF02 (3842)
80x28 - 0xF03 (3843)
80x30 - 0xF05 (3845)
80x34 - 0xF06 (3846)
80x60 - 0xF07 (3847)

This time I also had to tweak the module configuration by creating /etc/modprobe.d/textmode.conf:

blacklist drm
blacklist i915
blacklist radeon
blacklist ttm

Lastly, make sure grub is updated:

# update-grub

And reboot. Viola, text mode goodness again.

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