Bug 239244

Summary:	Installer: Do not switch the console to graphics mode
Product:	Base System	Reporter:	Bertrand Petit <bsdpr>
Component:	bin	Assignee:	freebsd-sysinstall (Nobody) <sysinstall>
Status:	New ---
Severity:	Affects Only Me	CC:	bsdpr, emaste, msl0000023508, nwhitehorn
Priority:	---	Keywords:	loader
Version:	11.3-STABLE
Hardware:	Any
OS:	Any

Description Bertrand Petit 2019-07-16 10:02:23 UTC

Please, do not switch the installer console to graphics mode as this prevents the use of some host's remote console (namely an iLO4 textcons). Because of that I had to be present on site to attend that machine. An option presented in loader's menu whose effect would be to keep the current video mode or use syscons instead of vt would be welcome if we can't or don't want to prevent graphics mode switching for the common uses.

Comment 1 Nathan Whitehorn freebsd_committer

2019-07-16 21:10:48 UTC

Isn't this more a loader issue than an installer one? The installer per se hasn't even started yet when this happens.

Comment 2 Bertrand Petit 2019-08-07 09:33:52 UTC

(In reply to Nathan Whitehorn from comment #1)
You are right, the proposed option would benefit not only to the installer but also to any running system. Could anyone change the assignee?

Comment 3 WHR 2019-08-09 03:11:10 UTC

I think this could be done by 'Escape to loader prompt', type 'set hw.vga.textmode=1', then 'boot'.
The current menu leaks a menu entry that set this tunable, so you have to set it manually.

Comment 4 Bertrand Petit 2019-08-19 13:22:40 UTC

(In reply to WHR from comment #3)
Thank you, this is a valuable comment. I will try, as soon as I can after upgrading to 12.1, to provide a patch implementing such an option through the lua loader.