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By rickh at 2006-10-03 09:55
Seems that nowadays most distros use a splash screen to cover up all the system messages that scroll across the screen during boot-up. You usually get an option to see the detail by hitting some key or other. I'm an old man, and get some kind of comfort from watching those lines fly by, and sometimes it's very helpful.

The problem is that the default screen density at that point is something like 640x480. The lines wrap, and you can only see about 20 at a time even when they're not wrapping. It's very difficult to see a line that you're particularly watching for. You can change that screen density by modifying the framebuffer resolution, but if you try googling for information about how to do that, you will quickly be discouraged unless you're the type of person who builds his own kernels, enjoys hexadecimal numbers, and is generally smarter than me.

Fortunately, there is an easy way to do it if only you could find it. You've come to the right place.

You need to edit your "menu.lst" file. Some hand-holding distros don't think you'll be able to remember that name, so they have set you up a link named "grub.conf." Whichever you use, you need to add a kernel option.

If your menu.lst file has a line that starts out:
Code:
kopt=
that's the one you want. Otherwise look for a line something like:
Code:
kernel          /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.17-2-k7 root=/dev/hda1 ro
To set the screen resolution to 1024x768, insert into the appropriate line: "vga=791"

Some common frambuffer resolutions are:
640x480 - 785
800x600 - 788
1024x768 - 791
1152x864 - 355
1280x1024 - 794
1600x1200 - 798

Isn't that nice?

by Caeda on Tue, 2006-10-03 18:48
???

/me pulls up google, types in, "Framebuffer resolution codes," hits "I'm feeling lucky," and is immediately dropped onto a page with a chart of resolutions and color depths with all the codes listed...

Who exactly has a problem finding and configuring this?!?!?! It's not rocket science to find the codes!

by rickh on Tue, 2006-10-03 19:04
I'll be darned. Didn't see that page. It's not that clearly defind hardly anywhere else. I had a heckuva time finding it this morning. Just as well to have a good guide on LQ, too.

by Azizcoos on Sat, 2007-03-24 19:26
Quote:
Who exactly has a problem finding and configuring this?
Anyone who doesn't know what a framebuffer resolution code is, or why they should care.

by Azizcoos on Sun, 2007-03-25 06:45
With a sample size of one, I found that 1600x1200 - 798 was not recognized, but 1024x768 - 791 worked. I did not try the two intermediate resolutions listed. Also, the existence of this thread has knocked the listing page mentioned above out of first place on Google.

by tkmsr on Tue, 2009-11-10 04:04
Quote:
Originally Posted by Caeda View Post
???

/me pulls up google, types in, "Framebuffer resolution codes," hits "I'm feeling lucky," and is immediately dropped onto a page with a chart of resolutions and color depths with all the codes listed...

Who exactly has a problem finding and configuring this?!?!?! It's not rocket science to find the codes!
It might not be a rocket science for you but then for many a newbies it helps us to understand a lot of things so it is totally relevant
How have you contributed to add knowledge of many of the readers who might have come across this post.

by Caeda on Thu, 2009-11-12 03:11
"contributed to add knowledge"

About as much as digging up 3 year old posts contributes.... whoooooo


  



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