TTY console doesn't with with MS VirtualPC

[valnar]

I haven't tried a real PC yet, but I installed Mint 2.1b with Microsoft VirtualPC and got it working - except I can't see any tty consoles. If I do Ctrl-Alt-F1 or F2, etc. I get a weird graphics compressed screen. It looks like the resolution is wrong, which is not the case since it's an emulated S3 card.

In order to get X working properly for the GUI, just like Ubuntu, I changed the default X bitrate depth from 24 to 16, but I had to load up a Linux bootable CD and mount the virtual drive to do so. I couldn't see what I was doing in Mint since no tty sessions worked.

So now I can see the X desktop just fine and login okay. But if I wanted to see the text mode tty sessions, I get a funky graphics output.

Any ideas?

Robert


PS. On another note, if you wanted to step up your compatibility to a level above Ubuntu, make the default depth 16 instead of 24. I know a lot of people test distros on VMWare or VirtualPC. Just a thought.

[clem]

Hi,

I think there's an issue with the Flash plugin in Barbara in 16bit color depth.. it crashes Firefox in certain cases.

Clem

[valnar]

What about the tty consoles? They don't work.

You can download VirtualPC for free to test.

[clem]

You can download VirtualPC for free to test.

is there a deb for it ?
Ah.. na .. I'm only kidding.

Seriously, tty consoles work perfectly on a real system. I am aware that some people use virtual computers to run Linux within their Windows environments but I can't seriously tackle the issues that those virtualization software have.. especially closed-source ones.

I use qemu and vmware now and then to be able to test ISOs without to burn a CD each time a beta comes out, but I wouldn't consider using them as real desktops.

Does anybody have a real S3 here ? If so, are the consoles an issue ?

Thanks,
Clem

[valnar]

FWIW, Mint is the only Linux distro out of 15 or so that I've tried that has this issue with VirtualPC. I haven't tried VMWare. It's noticeable on your BootCD without installing it. Ctrl-Alt-F1 or F2, etc, gives you garbage.

Robert

[valnar]

The latest beta that came out today still has the same issue. I haven't been able to test Mint because of it. Garbled video in VirtualPC.

FYI.

[scorp123]

FWIW, Mint is the only Linux distro out of 15 or so that I've tried that has this issue with VirtualPC. I haven't tried VMWare. It's noticeable on your BootCD without installing it. Ctrl-Alt-F1 or F2, etc, gives you garbage.

I don't have these issues with VirtualBox or VMware Workstation or VMware Server. I suggest you try Mint on a real machine or you try other virtualisation software

[valnar]

I don't have these issues with VirtualBox or VMware Workstation or VMware Server. I suggest you try Mint on a real machine or you try other virtualisation software

No. Since no other Linux distro has this problem, I'm still going to conclude Mint is broken somewhere.

Robert

[scorp123]

No. Since no other Linux distro has this problem, I'm still going to conclude Mint is broken somewhere.

If Mint were broken then I suppose I'd be having the same issues in VMware and VirtualBox? But since QEMU, VirtualBox, BOCHS, VMware Server and VMware Workstation don't have this problem I am going to conclude that Microsoft's software is broken somewhere somehow, as always --- big surprise

Why don't you just try Mint on a real machine? It's a Live CD, you know. You can try it without having to reformat your hard drives in any way.

And besides, if you just wanted to try out some shell commands, you could use the terminal program in the GUI, I fail to see the point about insisting on CTRL-ALT-F2 etc. when it is obvious that something within that broken Microsoft software of yours doesn't work correctly.

Whatever error you experience is not there when running on real hardware or in any other virtualisation software, as far as I know.

[carlos]

Try searching google. I ran into the same problem just complete the instruction on this website

http://weblogs.asp.net/pscott/archive/2005/10/13/427426.aspx

I run mint via virtual pc when I'm at work. Can't mess with my pc after all it belongs to the company. Anyway it is a bit slower, but it still lets you play around when you need to. BTW do yourself the favor and install from the iso, no need to burn a cd. Good luck!

[scorp123]

@clem and other VirtualBox users:

I forgot to mention this. The CTRL+ALT+Fn key combination doesn't work in the standard Qt GUI of VirtualBox. There is however a "reduced" GUI variant called VBoxSDL ... You can start your virtual machine like this from a command line:

Code: Select all

VBoxSDL -vm "LinuxMint"

The name of the VM is the one you defined in the standard VirtualBox GUI, here it's "LinuxMint" in my case.

This will fire up the VM in question. Once you're in the right Control key plus the Fn keys will work and allow you to switch consoles inside your VM. So instead of CTRL+ALT+F1 you'd press RightControl+F1, and so on. It works without trouble, but so far only in the reduced VBoxSDL GUI, not in the standard one. I had a chat with the devs in their IRC channel and they will fix this bug in the next release.

[marcus0263]

Bianca works great with VMWare



BTW -

The switching of the consoles is an issue with the virtual software.