The code for setting standard VGA modes probes for the current mode,
and skips the mode setting if the mode is 3 (color text 80x25) or 7
(mono text 80x25). Unfortunately, there are BIOSes, including the
VMware BIOS, which report the previous mode if function 0F is queried
while the screen is in a VESA mode, and of course, nothing can help a
mode poked directly into the hardware.
As such, the safe option is to set the mode anyway, and only query to
see if we should be using mode 7 rather than mode 3. People who don't
want any mode setting at all should probably use vga=0x0f04
(VIDEO_CURRENT_MODE). It's possible that should be the kernel
default.
Reported-by Rene Arends <R.R.Arends@hro.nl>
Signed-off-by: H. Peter Anvin <hpa@zytor.com>
LKML-Reference: <tip-*@git.kernel.org>
8e92dc767a