# How Do I Fix The Skewed Text On Bootup In FreeBSD?



## RedPhoenix (Jul 6, 2019)

So let me preface this by saying that it's almost my birthday!  Yay!  So anyway, Mom is getting me a 2TB Hard Drive for my HP EliteBook 8470p, and I was wondering how to fix the skewed text during Boot in FreeBSD.  I did some reading, and found out it's a problem with certain HP models, and read that it has something to do with the Screen resolution of the Bootloader.  But the question is, how I I change the resolution at the Boot Prompt?  I'm a little confused as to how to do that, and until I can, there's no way I can install FreeBSD on my 2TB Hard Drive alongside Windows 10 and openSUSE.  For context, this also happens with Kali Linux, and, presumably, Debian, which Kali is based on. So it definitely seems to be an issue with certain Operating Systems, not just FreeBSD.  It also happens in OpenBSD too.  Well, thanks for any suggestions guys.  I'll get a USB ready for the inevitable experiment, while I wait for any ideas. Also, for those who live in America, how was your 4th of July?


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## Phishfry (Jul 7, 2019)

RedPhoenix said:


> EliteBook 8470p, and I was wondering how to fix the skewed text during Boot in FreeBSDd embedded,


I just bought a used one of these for the firewire connection.
Still don't have Xorg running right. There are two models of these laptops.
One with only CPU graphics and one with a Radeon video card.
Do you know which one you have?

What I had to do was mess with `set gop` at the loader prompt.
But then I messed with the BIOS and no longer need to set gop.
So make sure the BIOS is set for UEFI.

To mess with loader press #3 at the beastie menu.
Then type `gop list`
Whatever comes up here is what you need to `set gop` with.

I could not get the radeon kernel modesetting driver working right either.
I REALLY wish I had bought the 8570p. It offers a serial port and most are Intel CPU graphics only.
Hybrid video is not a pleasant experience.


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## RedPhoenix (Jul 7, 2019)

Phishfry said:


> I just bought a used one of these for the firewire connection.
> Still don't have Xorg running right. There are two models of these laptops.
> One with only CPU graphics and one with a Radeon video card.
> Do you know which one you have?
> ...


Yeah, HPs make for great Laptops and Servers (I have FreeBSD installed on one my Linux-loving friend gave me [I love Linux, but I love FreeBSD also]). Well, it seems to have Intel HD Graphics installed on this 8470p (I especially know so because trying to run Shaders in Minecraft on a lightweight OS like Lubuntu doesn't work very well, unless you go for specially-build Shaders for Integrated Graphics ). I'll set GOP (reminds me of politics XD) and let you know how everything works.  I won't bother installing FreeBSD yet, as I'm getting the new Hard Drive soon.  Yay!  But WHEN I do, you can bet I'll give FreeBSD a healthy Partition (or Slice in it's case).  I'm going to try something suicidal and grab the Chromium source, compile it with Widevine support, and get Netflix working on FreeBSD (this is a rather funny situation, since Netflix uses FreeBSD for it's media platform).  Well, I'll BRB, and report back on the results!  Thank you phishfry!


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## Phishfry (Jul 7, 2019)

Well glad to hear you have Intel CPU graphics.
What you need for that is a setting in /etc/rc.conf:

```
kld_list=i915kms
```

For Xorg, the intel driver package X11-drivers/xf86-video-intel

First you will need to fix your video problem. It could be gop as well. Check gop list and gop set.
Once you find a setting that works then you add that setting to /boot/loader.conf to make it stick.
Like this:
/boot/loader.conf

```
exec="gop set 0"
```


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## RedPhoenix (Jul 8, 2019)

Phishfry said:


> Well glad to hear you have Intel CPU graphics.
> What you need for that is a setting in /etc/rc.conf:
> 
> ```
> ...


Well, when I tried to type "quit" after setting the resolution, it panicked...  There just has to be a way to get this to work.


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## Phishfry (Jul 8, 2019)

Using quit from the loader prompt will do just that.
To continue the boot sequence from the loader prompt type- *boot*
`gop list`   <<< This will show a list of available modes pick one closest to your max screen resolution
`gop set 2`   <<< Mode 2 is just an example here. Use what looks closest to your laptop screen. You can choose a lower rez.
`boot`


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## RedPhoenix (Jul 8, 2019)

Phishfry said:


> Using quit from the loader prompt will do just that.
> To continue the boot sequence from the loader prompt type- *boot*
> `gop list`   <<< This will show a list of available modes pick one closest to your max screen resolution
> `gop set 2`   <<< Mode 2 is just an example here. Use what looks closest to your laptop screen. You can choose a lower rez.
> `boot`


Yeah, I'm currently wiping my Hard Drive and re-partitioning everything (we don't have enough money for a 1TB Hard Drive, and my business is going pretty much /dev/null), so I'm moving from openSUSE to FreeBSD (putting my BASH where my mouth is), and just using Windows and WSL so Mom can use Chrome for PicMonkey and Facebook games, and so I can play SimCity (why, oh why don't they realize that Chrome isn't the only Browser out there?).  I'm currently using GParted to re-partition my Drive, and then I'll flash FreeBSD's .img File to the USB I'm flashing Ubuntu to (I need more USBs XD). I'll report back!


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