From: You Can 

Responding to Tony Williams...
>
> If you're running X 4.1 you can put :
>
>   Option "Display" "BIOS"
>
> in your config to get around the need to use alt-F8.
>
> Don't know about text mode at startup, but you can look at the boot
> messages using "dmesg" in an xterm.
>
>
>
Thank you Tony!
--
l'bodacious - Nothing is perfect between conception and death.

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