In article <sheldon.712259366@pv141b.vincent.iastate.edu>, sheldon@iastate.edu (Steve Sheldon) writes:
quoted text
>  1. Upon booting Linux it asks for SVGA modes.  I get 6 or 7 options.
> Well I can get the 80 column modes to work, but not the 132 column.
> When I select a 132 column mode, the screen stays the same (i.e. 80x25),
> but internally it things it's right.  So if I selected something like
> 132x50, it thinks there is 50 lines, but I only see the top 25.
> I'm using a Trident 8900 video card, with 256K of memory onboard, with
> an Everex monochrome VGA monitor.  I get 132 column modes just fine using
> DOS.  Has anyone else had this problem?

In order to answer this question, I need to know what version of LINUX you
are running?  When LINUX boots, do you see a line indicating VESA support
in your video card?  Followed by your video mode choices?  If so, then 
when you select a mode, LINUX make a VESA BIOS extension call to set your
video mode.  If it fails, then there is a problem with your video card.

My card gives me 4 choices.  The first two are hard coded (80x25, and 80x50)
and appear in EVERYONE's VESA list.  80x25 is the standard MODE-3, while
80x50 is the same mode with an 8x8 font loaded instead of the default 8x16
(or 8x14) font.  The rest of the modes in the list come from the VESA modes
list returned by the Get VESA information call.  On my card they are 132x25
and 132x43.  These modes both work for me.

IF you are running version 0.96c at patch level 1 or greater and 
IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A VESA BIOS, or
IF you are running any version before 0.96c-pl1, then you get a list of
"standard" modes put up specific to your video card,
which for a Trident card would be:  07, 50, 51, 52, 57, 58, 59, and 5A
which are 80x30, 80x43, 80x60, 132x25, 132x30, 132x43, and 132x60.  These
are stadard Trident Video modes, and are set by an INT 10 video bios call
to the Set Video Mode function using the mode number from the list.  

Unless I have screwed up the old functionality badly with the VESA support,
which you can check by building a LINUX kernel with an old boot/setup.S
file, then your mode set call is failing and you possibly have a faulty
video board.  I'll double check the compatibility code when I get home
tonight, but I would have thought that there would have been more complaints
by now if I broke the old stuff.

Please let me know if I can be of any more help.

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Kevin J. Cummings                       PrimeService
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