savetextmode1vga

Usage

Overview

These are simple scripts to save the SVGA register state when in textmode to the files /tmp/fontdata and /tmp/textregs or to restore it from these files.

The actual utilities used are restorefont(1), restoretextmode(1), and restorepalette(1).

The purpose of these scripts program is usually to recover from a crashed console due to an svgalib, Xfree or other program bug.

You do this by being a smart guy and running savetextmode right after booting of your machine, prior to any problems. Then, in case the SVGA state is hosed and you sit in front of a blank or useless console, change VC (maybe login) to get to a shell. Or exist the currently running program with <Ctrl>-C, <Ctrl>-<Alt>-<Backspace>, or whatever applies. Once you got a shell, run textmode and it will hopefully render your console useable again.

To make it clear: You do all this while not seeing anything on your console screen, you enter this information blindly or after logging in from a network. Also, if the keyboard is left in raw mode, nothing can really help you as you cannot enter anything which a shell will understand.

Files

/tmp/fontdata
/tmp/textregs