Comment # 9 on bug 112192 from Elmar Stellnberger

  Ahh, I should have known. That is a detriment with the Debian live dvd.
Basically I could install the firmware with hindsight and then restart the
X-server. 
  There is another bug with the VESA driver which has gone unreported yet. If
the DPMS standbys the screen then the color palette is wrong on resume (no
s2ram, only a display standby). I wonder if anyone cares to still support the
VESA driver.