80x25 vtty video corruption

[Felix Miata]

[plymouth either not installed (Fedora, openSUSE), or disabled via cmdline
option (Mageia)]

Adam Jackson wrote on 2014-09-24 12:28 (UCT-0400):

> On Tue, 2014-09-23 at 21:35 -0400, Felix Miata wrote:

>> with neither VGA= nor video= on cmdline, ttys are in a legacy 80x25
>> video mode that is broken. Trailing spaces are written to screen as high
>> ASCII characters both in bash and parts of mc. Some program output that
>> should be in text is also these junk characters.

> That's probably a bug.  It might be in your kernel, it might be in your
> firmware.  As a text mode issue it is sort of by definition not a
> graphics bug, so if anyone else feels like investigating it be my guest.

Reproduces using (non-KMS) gfxchips g400 (Dell BIOS) and Z7/Z9 (XG20
core)(sis in Xorg)(Phoenix CSS cME BIOS) in Rawhide (3.17rcx) & F21 (3.16.1-300).

Does not occur using (KMS) gfxchips from Intel (945G), ATI (rv200) or Nvidia
(nv11), nor with g400 or Z7/Z9 on Factory (3.16.2), nor with Z7/Z9 on
Cauldron (3.17rc5).

As there are no X drivers for the non-KMS gfxchips in the repos, would a bug
filed on this just go in the wontfix bin anyway? If not, what component
should it most likely go into? IOW, where's the bug?

Clue?:
On fresh boot, initial login on tty did thus:

	# ll /
...

Output seemed OK until about the middle screen row, after reaching a
directory with a timestamp Dec 23 2008. Subsequent lines all ended with the
gibberish characters. On further study, I noticed that most lines output no
filename or dirname. The few shown did output correctly the filename characters.

	# clear

just fills the screen past the bash prompt with "Ĝ" characters. Editing
cmdline, BS key also draws Ĝ. font= or not on cmdline makes no difference.
-- 
"The wise are known for their understanding, and pleasant
words are persuasive." Proverbs 16:21 (New Living Translation)

 Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks!

Felix Miata  ***  http://fm.no-ip.com/