Plop Forum

General Category => Plop Linux => Topic started by: The_Raven on October 16, 2020, 15:17:10 PM

Title: New Plop 20.1 scroll not work
Post by: The_Raven on October 16, 2020, 15:17:10 PM
Hello

I have installed the new plop 20.1. So far so good, only one little problem:
Scrolling up and down with "shift pageUP/pageDOWN" is not working.

Any idea how to enable scroll?  :D
Title: Re: New Plop 20.1 scroll not work
Post by: Elmar on October 17, 2020, 16:20:44 PM
Hello,

here it works, in the console and terminal.

Where exactly doesn't it work?
Title: Re: New Plop 20.1 scroll not work
Post by: The_Raven on October 17, 2020, 16:58:58 PM
Hi Elmar,
thank you for answering. :)
I think i need to be more precise:
I use the live system small edition. This is console only. When it has bootet, and i type "dmesg" for example, then i can't scroll up.
The same for other commands like smartctl for example.
Is this working in your setup?
Title: Re: New Plop 20.1 scroll not work
Post by: Elmar on October 17, 2020, 18:56:14 PM
I see. Scrolling doesn't work in the framebuffer mode. It has to do with the kernel.

I update the kernel and check the framebuffer configuration settings.

Title: Re: New Plop 20.1 scroll not work
Post by: The_Raven on October 17, 2020, 19:24:40 PM
Cool, you have circled the problem  8)
Title: Re: New Plop 20.1 scroll not work
Post by: Elmar on October 19, 2020, 12:52:00 PM
I have bad news. The support for scrolling in the framebuffer mode has been removed. That hurts.

https://souclou.com/in-the-linux-kernel-support-for-scrolling-text-was-removed-from-the-text-console/

Maybe it comes back in the future.
Title: Re: New Plop 20.1 scroll not work
Post by: The_Raven on October 19, 2020, 12:58:06 PM
Noooooo!  :o
Ok, very bad news. Console without scrolling is useless.
Hm, any idea to work around this? Maybe switching to non framebuffer console or something like this?
Title: Re: New Plop 20.1 scroll not work
Post by: Elmar on October 19, 2020, 13:12:14 PM
Quote from: The_Raven on October 19, 2020, 12:58:06 PM
Noooooo!  :o

I feel the same. Its such a useful feature. It seems the decision came quickly, because it was still implemented in the kernel 5.8.5. but removed in 5.8.11.

Quote from: The_Raven on October 19, 2020, 12:58:06 PM
Hm, any idea to work around this? Maybe switching to non framebuffer console or something like this?

Either using commands with "less".  Ex. "dmesg | less". With this you have also more options like searching and so on.

Or using the classic text mode 80x25 or 80x50. Its the second option of the Live CD Boot Menu. The classic text mode has the advantage that it is faster than framebuffer, but has less chars. I always choose that mode when I expect a lot of screen output like file copy with "mc" or "cp -avr".


But I think, the feature comes back.
Title: Re: New Plop 20.1 scroll not work
Post by: The_Raven on October 20, 2020, 10:27:02 AM
This feature MUST came back!
But don't let us waste too much time with talking about that and let's focus on how to work around this.

For legacy i found a "Work a round":
Booting with kernel parameters "vga=1 nomodeset" and changing the font to "lat4-10" is acceptable.

For UEFI:
I can't get ride of the FB device. Tried with "nomodeset", "i915.modeset=0", "vga=1", "set gfxpayload=text" and blacklisting (!) the "fb" modul.
Nothing worked so far, FB is always active  :o
Any other ideas are welcome! ;)
Title: Re: New Plop 20.1 scroll not work
Post by: Elmar on October 20, 2020, 10:45:16 AM
Quote from: The_Raven on October 20, 2020, 10:27:02 AM
For legacy i found a "Work a round":
Booting with kernel parameters "vga=1 nomodeset"

Yes, these are the options for the second boot menu entry of the Live Version "Plop Linux text mode" and the first entry of the Desktop Version when you use LILO.


Quote from: The_Raven on October 20, 2020, 10:27:02 AM
For UEFI:
I can't get ride of the FB device. Tried with "nomodeset", "i915.modeset=0", "vga=1", "set gfxpayload=text" and blacklisting (!) the "fb" modul.
Nothing worked so far, FB is always active  :o
Any other ideas are welcome! ;)

Legacy text mode is not available for UEFI. Framebuffer is the lowlevel text mode.

Title: Re: New Plop 20.1 scroll not work
Post by: The_Raven on October 20, 2020, 16:21:05 PM
So this means that there is no chance to scroll when booting UEFI?
I have reverted to plop 19.4, too many "stress" ATM  ;)
Linus should first fix the scroll function.  ;D

There are so many raspberrys and other devices out there which run only on console and they remove this wonderful feature. ::)
They should better fix the framebuffer in general, i had a lot of problems with devices freezing in framebuffer mode.
Title: Re: New Plop 20.1 scroll not work
Post by: Elmar on October 22, 2020, 08:22:34 AM
Some Kernel developers think that nobody is using consoles anymore.
https://lkml.org/lkml/2020/9/15/641

However, this patch brings it back.
https://gitlab.manjaro.org/manjaro-arm/packages/core/linux/-/blob/4e603f4e710b1820e506e54a95c2e0a68b4765c3/0020-revert-fbcon-remove-soft-scrollback-code.patch