invisible cursor when switching to vga output on Intel with xrandr

[Jelle de Jong]

Hi Gordon,

Jin, Gordon wrote:
> 2.6.31.1 with KMS enabled works for me. And with KMS disabled I see the problem you meet.
> 
> As UMS has been removed after 2.9.0, I'd suggest you to use KMS.

Thank you for sharing this information. I figured out KMS stands for
kernel mode switching and UMS for user mode switching. I also read some 
background information on what it does and why.

$ modinfo i915
filename:
/lib/modules/2.6.30-2-686/kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915.ko
license:        GPL and additional rights
description:    Intel Graphics
author:         Tungsten Graphics, Inc.
license:        GPL and additional rights
depends:        drm,i2c-core,video,i2c-algo-bit
vermagic:       2.6.30-2-686 SMP mod_unload modversions 686
parm:           modeset:int
parm:           fbpercrtc:int

echo "options i915 modeset=1" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/i915-kms.conf

Rebooted my system. While the screen output behaves differently xrandr 
is unable to switch to my VGA monitor. When I change the modeset back to 
zero I am able to switch to the VGA monitor.

When the modeset=1 the most significant change I can see the higher 
resolution for the tty's, but without xrandr functionality I can't do 
much with it.

So I am back to modeset=1 and still having the issue that my cursor 
becomes invisible when switched to VGA only with xrandr.

Any help is appreciated, have been working on a 10" netbook screen for 
days now and I don't think this is good for my eye :)

Thanks in advance,

Best regards,

Jelle