Debian 9.3 weird video problem on bootup with ASUS 900A Eee PC

I decided to try my USB hard drive install of debian 9.3 32 bit on my Asus Eee PC 900A (which is an Intel Atom N270 @ 1.6ghz).

But weird things happen.


I have a 1920x1080 monitor hooked to the VGA and it has its own 1280x800 LCD.

If I don't specify a video resolution on the grub command list, it comes up as a black screen with just a mouse pointer.

The mouse pointer does weird things, being enclosed in a tiny rectangle on the upper left of the VGA monitor and when you move it it will go so far then magically pop up in the center of the rectangle.

But if I specify a video parameter e.g.

video=1920x1080@60

all is well. I get full HD on the VGA monitor. I think the LCD will go grey.

I tried

video=800x600@60

and

video=1366x768@60

and that works too. Or whatever your monitor supports.


So my grub command line (hit e when you see the grub boot screen, then F10 when you're done editing and ready to go)

looks like:

linux /vmlinuz-4.9.0-4-686 root=/dev/sdb2 ro quiet video=1920x1080@60


I also had to change the root parameter to /dev/sdb2 (it was /dev/sda2 but the usb drive comes up as /dev/sdb).

Oddly enough, on first cold boot it comes up as /dev/sdc. Each subsequent warm boot it comes up as /dev/sdb so go figure. Crazy bioses.