vga=799 is a deprecated boot option

[Tomi Hukkalainen]

Reporting as per the request to mention all visible messages before xsplash...

Right after grub there's a message complaining that vga=799 is a deprecated option (which is added to every kernel automatically).

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

it shouldn't add that option at all AIUI

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

grub-installer doesn't add it automatically. The user must have this configured from GRUB Legacy days, or otherwise manually in /etc/default/grub.

Maybe we should filter this out, or automatically convert it to gfxpayload; it's not high-priority for now though because the kernel can't quite deal with this now that grub2 uses the 32-bit boot protocol. I'm going to try to get this fixed for Lucid.

[Tomi Hukkalainen (tpievila)]

Fresh Karmic server install on Saturday evening, no legacy except for home. Also no modifying any grub settings, I'm afraid.

The installer CD put the -server kernel in (I happened to have the server CD on my desk), after the install I changed into ubuntu-desktop and generic kernel. That and a my own custom kernel both got the vga option added without any manual intervention.

[Colin Watson (cjwatson)]

Huh, that's odd. Could you attach /var/log/installer/syslog,
/etc/default/grub, and /boot/grub/grub.cfg, please?

[dino99 (9d9)]

hi Colin,

have a look there:

http://harrison3001.blogspot.com/2009/09/grub-2-graphical-boot-tips-to-set.html

[dino99 (9d9)]

Some new comments:

The kernel team have uploaded 28.16 security bugfix for jaunty. Now the "vga=xxx is deprecated" present on my jaunty64 28.15 kernel has been removed with this last 28.16 kernel.
None of my others systems ( jaunty32, karmic32) never had this problem.

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

dino99: this bug is not about that option being deprecated, but the fact that it's used at all on a fresh install.

[dino99 (9d9)]

that weird thing is back on Lucid,

need to customize grub.conf by removing vga=xxx

[dino99 (9d9)]

Today i've spent a lot of time to work around this:

first of all, i have Jaunty64 with 1.96 (no newer version available) and Karmic & Lucid with 1.98.
The problem is due to Jaunty config:

- at first, this distro was using grub-legacy, then grub2. Problem is that os-prober continue to find menu.list of grub1 (clearly a bug) and dont go ahead when running grub-mkconfig.
- so, as i don't want to go back with grub1, i've removed/purged grub* then reinstalled grub2 to be sure there is no more conflicts with grub-legacy. This have been done with Jaunty and Karmic, as they have had grub-legacy on first installation, Lucid is a clean install with grub2 only.
- vga=xxx removed from /etc/default /grub (jaunty)
- then grub-mkconfig and update-grub

And again, this deprecated vga=xxx, is back due to grub 1.96

Only one thing: please bring grub2 updates to Jaunty.

[dino99 (9d9)]

since #9 i've removed 1.96 and only use 1.98 (lucid package) and now boot menu is clean.

[dino99 (9d9)]

this bug can be closed since last Lucid's grub-common & grub-pc updates.

[dino99 (9d9)]

few days ago, a new grub-pc/grub-common (1.98-1ubuntu1) bring back this deprecated vga=xxx with "GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="vga=799" into /etc/default/grub file.

So change again to: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="" and update grub.

System boot with vga=xxx but xserver print lot of dots lines on screen

[dino99 (9d9)]

back again with latest grub updates (1.98-1ubuntu5), grub-mkconfig generate this problem.

[dino99 (9d9)]

latest bad news:

was having a fine tuned /etc/default/grub file setting on the final Lucid release, its ok.

but running startup-manager and choosing a higher resolution than the default one, reintroduced that weird "vga=794"

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=" vga=794"

[dino99 (9d9)]

this is no more a problem now, so this report can be closed now.