[syslinux] Problem: vga TEXT mode has only 8 colors when booting with syslinux

Francis Moreau
2014-07-07T18:26:07Z

On 07/07/2014 08:15 PM, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> On 07/01/2014 10:16 AM, Francis Moreau wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> First of all, I'm really not an expert so please correct me if
I'm
>> saying anything wrong.
>>
>> I noticed a difference when using grub2 or syslinux in my linux virtual
>> console (tty[1-5]) which uses VGA text mode (no graphical mode). To be
>> sure that I'm using this mode, I did:
>>
>>     $ dmesg | grep -i vga
>>     Console: colour VGA+ 80x25
>>
>> In my understanding when using the VGA text mode, 16 colours are
available.
>>
>> However, if I try to display those 16 colours after syslinux booting my
>> system, I can see only 8 different colours. Here's my syslinux.cfg:
>>
>>     DEFAULT linux
>>     PROMPT 0
>>     UI menu.c32
>>     MENU TITLE Linux
>>
>>     LABEL linux
>>         MENU LABEL  linux
>>         LINUX       ../vmlinuz
>>         INITRD      ../initrd.img
>>         APPEND      root=PARTUUID=c3b28cc5-93d5-4cdc-b86e-857231520205
>> rw quiet
>>
>> The same application running on the same system displays 16 colours if
>> booted with grub2 (but still using VGA text mode). FWIW, grub2's
config
>> is using:
>>
>> GRUB_TERMINAL=console
>> GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=keep
>>
>> Could anybody explain me why there's such difference and why
syslinux
>> leaves the VGA text mode with only 8 colours where there should be 16 ?
>>
>
> What system font are you using?

Hm, I guess that the default one but how can I figure this out ?

Thanks.