# video geometry while installing



## uii (Oct 1, 2018)

Hello Community,

I'm new to FreeBSD and installed it a couple of days ago.
I was wondering if my hardware (Lenovo ThinkCentre M58p) is too old or too exotic when I saw that the video was disturbed while installing. The Monitor is also flickering.
Please see the photos.
The first menu appears OK, but after loading the kernel, I think I get the wrong text geometry on my console.
Now I know, that I can add ' hw.vga.textmode=1 ' to /boot/loader.conf which solves this issue.
But then I can't switch (CTRL + ALT + F1...) between X and the consoles anymore. The box hangs after switching from X to a console.

Adding  ' i915kms_load="YES" ' to /boot/loader.conf works, but it takes a while before the console enters the new video mode. With this setting the flickering time is shorter, but everything else works fine.

Do I have to compile a custom kernel to solve this issue?
I would like to enable a splash image while booting, that doesn't flicker.

Thanks for reading and any advice.


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## k.jacker (Oct 1, 2018)

No need to compile a kernel.
Try your monitors function to center/calibrate the picture as it looks a bit of centre. See how that turns out.
(at least a bit older lcd monitors don't do that automatically)


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## VladiBG (Oct 1, 2018)

before the boot use option
3. Escape to loading prompt

Then select different resulution using

gop list
gop set #
boot

To make this mode setting permanent save it to /boot/loader.rc.local with one line "mode <number>"


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## uii (Oct 2, 2018)

Thanks for your help.


k.jacker said:


> Try your monitors function to center/calibrate the picture as it looks a bit of centre. See how that turns out.
> (at least a bit older lcd monitors don't do that automatically)


I think the settings are fine, never had any problems.



VladiBG said:


> gop list
> gop set #
> boot


I don't have this command availible.

Let's assume I know nothing about FreeBSD (not that hard), my monitor settings are fine and want to install FreeBSD.
I downloaded the https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/re.../11.2/FreeBSD-11.2-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img image.
copied it to my my usb stick with:
`dd if=FreeBSD-11.2-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img of=/dev/da0 bs=1M conv=sync`

Then I boot the box... see what I get.

I know how to fix this after installation. But I think there is a basic problem with the console settings after booting the installer.


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## VladiBG (Oct 2, 2018)

Are you using UEFI mode or Legacy BIOS mode?


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## uii (Oct 3, 2018)

My box (Lenovo ThinkCentre M58p) hasn't UEFI support.
I attach the dmidecode output.


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## VladiBG (Oct 3, 2018)

you can try to set your virtual console back to sc (4)using:
`set kern.vty="sc"`
`boot`

or load the video driver for example
kldload i915kms

if your motherboard doesn't support UEFI vt (4)can't recognize the proper video resolution until the video driver is loaded, that's why your screen is mess up.

i had similar problem on an old HP Laptop
https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/black-screen-after-boot-on-hp-2510p.65660/


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## SirDice (Oct 3, 2018)

uii said:


> I would like to enable a splash image while booting, that doesn't flicker.


Splash screens don't work with the current vt(4) console. It only works for sc(4), which isn't KMS aware and will cause problems switching between X and console with KMS based video drivers (like Intel and AMD).

https://wiki.freebsd.org/Newcons


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## uii (Oct 3, 2018)

Thanks for clearing it out.

I did  set ' boot_mute="YES" ' in loader.conf and I get this very nice white logo.
But until the i915kms modul is not loaded i have a flickering monitor output.
So there is no way to config the fb console to avoid this flickering?

And wouldn't it be better then, if the installer run in ' hw.vga.textmode=1' to avoid this console issue while installing FreeBSD?
Or is this a problem for UEFI supported boards?


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## SirDice (Oct 3, 2018)

uii said:


> Wouldn't it be better if the installer run in ' hw.vga.textmode=1' to avoid this console issue while installing FreeBSD?


I'm unsure how often this actually happens. Setting this by default may actually cause more problems with other types of machines. So it's a bit of a balancing act and they typically try to use settings that work for most people.


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