selecting videocard for the console

[Kevin J. Cummings]

Keith Hunt wrote:
> Thanks.  I am not at the moment concerned with running a dual-headed
> display.  I only have one monitor right now.  Someday I hope to have
> two, so I didn't want to take the second videocard out.  The "problem"
> is that the card that is not connected to the monitor is being
> selected as the primary and all the conole messages are sent there, so
> I don't see the boot messages or the login prompt without switching
> the monitor cable.  Once I login I can get X started on the card I
> want.  It's just an annoyance.
> 
> Both cards are PCI.  Perhaps the location is the determining factor. 
> That is what I have suspected but I would like to know for sure, as
> well as being curious about whether the selection is "tweakable"
> somewhere.

If it is tweakable, it would be in your motherboard's CMOS Setup.  You 
will need to look there.  Otherwise, it's almost certainly PCI slot 
specific (specific to the order in which your motherboard's BIOS 
searches for videocards in the PCI slots).  The simple thing to do would 
be to switch the locations of the video cards....

I have seen CMOS Setup selections for choosing AGP before PCI and vice 
versa, but I don't remember seeing a selection for which PCI slot in any 
of my motherboards.  [That doesn't mean there weren't any, just that I 
don't remember seeing them!]

Question, does the monitor show you the BIOS messages during bootup?
This would be a simple test to know if its the video card that the BIOS 
sees first....  If so, then something in the Linux video initialization 
must be different.  *That* I don't know how to fix.

-- 
Kevin J. Cummings
kjchome at rcn.com
cummings at kjchome.homeip.net
cummings at kjc386.framingham.ma.us