The Geode doesn't really have a text mode, VGA is simulated in SMI
mode by the "VSA BIOS", which is more or less buggy depending on what
exact BIOS revision you are using. In text mode, each byte written to
the screen will result in a SMI interrupt that then draws into the
real hardware frame buffer.
My suggestion is to never ever use the text mode on a Geode platform
and instead use the VESA framebuffer to seleect a framebuffer mode
that is directly supported by the hardware. That way mode, only
modifications of the resolution or the palette will result in SMI
interrupts and that code does not seem to be as buggy as the text mode
emulation.
/Christer
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