[CDBUG-talk] Freebsd boots to weird (non-working) text console

[George Rosamond]

Steve Moon:
> I picked up an HP Elitebook 8570w, which is a monster of a laptop if you
> can get past the fact it's giant and weighs too much. It's got nvidia
> graphics, though I'm pretty sure its the kind that uses onboard intel
> graphics unless the driver fires up the nvidia chip. 8GB RAM, 500GB SSD.
> 17" screen "HD+" (1600x900)
> 
> While it ran windows and linux just fine, my point was to have a box to
> play with BSD on.
> 
> I downloaded the latest FreeBSD usb disk image and got it booted just fine.
> 
> FreeBSD happily installed. On reboot the console was in some strange
> graphical mode that took up the top left quarter of the screen. I hit enter
> to boot and the usual scrolling messages started, but in extremely slow
> motion. Then the screen went completely corrupt.
> 
> I was unable to even ssh into the box.
> 
> I've looked for solutions but am coming up empty. Googling is mostly giving
> issues around X11 or talking about mode commands that don't seem to work.
> 
> I tried putting kern.vty=vt in /boot/loader.conf. This results in a similar
> corrupted screen, but I was able to ssh into the box.
> 
> I'd like to just get the console looking like it does from the install
> media, but don't see how that is set up to work.
> 
> Anyone have any ideas?

Hey Steve.

By the "latest" FreeBSD, what version do you mean?

I don't have time to look far into this at the moment, but the obvious
starting point is the FreeBSD Handbook for video configuration, and
trying the VESA drivers.

The NYC*BUG dmesgd at http://dmesgd.nycbug.org/index.cgi?do=view&id=2454
has a NetBSD entry on the 8300, and it might be a useful place to
compare also.

HTH

g