(Okay, can't back out *all* of the first patch, just the assignment to mode->stride.) Anyway, here you go: grub: gfxpayload=keep [ 0.003333] Console: colour dummy device 128x48 [ 0.003333] printk: console [tty0] enabled [ 0.419983] fbcon: Taking over console [ 0.516198] pci 0000:01:05.0: vgaarb: setting as boot VGA device [ 0.516229] pci 0000:01:05.0: vgaarb: bridge control possible [ 0.516253] pci 0000:01:05.0: vgaarb: VGA device added: decodes=io+mem,owns=io+mem,locks=none [ 0.516288] vgaarb: loaded [ 3.343649] simple-framebuffer simple-framebuffer.0: framebuffer at 0xd8000000, 0x300000 bytes [ 3.343687] simple-framebuffer simple-framebuffer.0: format=r8g8b8, mode=1024x768x24, linelength=4096 [ 3.344199] Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 128x48 [ 3.681177] simple-framebuffer simple-framebuffer.0: fb0: simplefb registered! [ 3.343345] sysfb: si->lfb_depth 32 si->lfb_width 1024 [ 3.343372] sysfb: si->red_size 8 si->red_pos 16 [ 3.343392] sysfb: si->green_size 8 si->green_pos 8 [ 3.343413] sysfb: si->blue_size 8 si->blue_pos 0 [ 3.343433] sysfb: si->rsvd_size 0 si->rsvd_pos 0 [ 3.343453] sysfb: bits_per_pixel 24 si->lfb_linelength 4096 [ 3.343476] sysfb: stride 3072 [ 3.343493] sysfb: format r8g8b8 So it's the rsvd_size and rsvd_pos that are bogus. The fix would be to: 1) believe si->lfb_depth 2) fill with ones a bitmask of size si->lfb_depth 3) clear chunks of bits based on si->{red,green,blue,rsvd}_{size,pos} 4) printk if the bitmask is not all zeros 5) override rsvd_{size,pos} based on the bitmask That way you know where the 'x' goes in xrgb. Hm. Could that fix my two boxes but cause a regression for someone else ? What if _depth is low but the rsvd_ are right ? Then _width and _linelength would be inconsistent with _depth but consistent with the recomputed bits_per_pixel ? How many ways can the firmware lie ? We need more testers, don't we ?