Yellowdog 3.0.1 PPC - no visible cursor

[Brian McKee]

This thread has gone a couple of directions -
Consider this a summary with new additional comments
Sorry if my snipping offends anybody..

> Hi,
> I just have installed Yellow Dog Linux 3.0.1 on my Powerbook G3 
> Lombard. I do not like working under X11 so I am normally using 
> virtual consoles.
> The problem is, that the cursor is not visible! It is an underline 
> cursor, blinking black on a black background :-(
> $TERM is set to linux.
> How can I change the style/color of my cursor?
> Regards
> Juergen

> Hi Juergen
>    As a temporary fix, reboot a couple of times, maybe using OSX if 
> it's still there.
> That 'might' bring it back.   I have exactly the same problem, on the 
> same hardware.
> It's in the archives for this list too.   I haven't found a permanent 
> solution anywhere.
> Can somebody shed some light on this?
> Brian

> From: Daniel Gimpelevich <daniel@gimpelevich.san-francisco.ca.us>
> This problem appears from time to time on OldWorld machines, and 
> previous
> posts to this list have said that it is caused by the screen depth 
> setting
> being incorrect. Since you have a Lombard, you probably already have 
> in the
> kernel arguments box of BootX an entry along the lines of
> video=atyfb:vmode:14,cmode:32 so just change the 32 to 8 or if it's 
> already
> 8, try 32 or 24. HTH
>

Well - The Lombard is NewWorld, so I'm not using BootX and my 
yaboot.conf as
setup by the installer didn't pass any arguments along.  Where are they?
That being said -
I setup and tried an entry with video="atyfb:vmode:14,cmode:24"
and my 'red at that paticular time' cursor disappeared on reboot.
Co-incidence likely since trying cmode:32 didn't change it.  Neither
did rebooting again using my original  (no video arguments) entry or 
cmode:8,
or vmode 17 and cmode 24 :-(

FWIW, the cursor is always visable during the bootloader part of boot 
up,
and booting OSX in verbose mode (Apple-V on boot) shows a nice white 
block
cursor.

> From: Rick Thomas <rbthomas55@pobox.com>
> Hmmm...
> Sounds like a flaky-PRAM problem to me.  Have you tried zapping the 
> PRAM? -- if that's an option in this case (It may not be if you are 
> using the quik bootloader... zapping the PRAM in that case may render 
> your machine unbootable.)
> Try replacing the PRAM battery.  If it's weak but not quite dead, you 
> could get those symptoms..
> Enjoy!
> Rick

I did try zapping the PRAM, thanks for that suggestion - no change.  
The machine shows no other symptoms of a weak PRAM battery, and I think 
it's pretty pricey for a Lombard so I'm hestiant to buy one to try it.

Brian McKee wrote:
>
> Guys,
> I really don't think this is a configuration issue (at least not at the
> shell level)
> I think it's an issue with the framebuffer driver (if I have my
> terminology remotely right)
> The cursor will be white for a couple of days, then black the next time
> you boot up with no other changes made.
> I had a red one for a day or two too.  No pattern I can detect.
> Brian

> I'm confused about your problem.  If the cursor blinks from white to
> black instead of from black to white it seems that it would still be
> visible (just the other half of the time), so I assume that you mean
> that it "blinks" from black to black.  But then how do you know that
> it is blinking (or even there at all)?
> Ray
> P.S. Have you tried tset/reset?

Yes, I have, no dice :-(

The way I knew for sure was setting the background to a different
colour than black, and there it was.  It's also obvious in programs
like vi when you highlight things, or when it's over a letter that
drops 'below the line' so to speak.

> It's blinking black because he has seen other colors before, like red. 
> When
> it's blinking black, it obviously doesn't blink. It's erratic 
> behaviour of
> the screen.
>
> I'd just put something like this in my .profile:
>
> PS1='[\w]\n\[\033[01;32m\]\h\[\033[01;37m\]\$\[\033[00m\] '
>
> since that *is* my PS1....
>

That will only work in bash - I use the console in things like vi,
telnet sessions using ANSI colors etc. where I either need the stock
settings or don't control them at all.

Brian