I've installed a new Debian box with kernel 2.4.
I would like to change the "text mode" video mode to a higher resolution and/or number of lines.

I installed the package fbset but when I run this program :
open /dev/fb0: No such device

I started looking on google, and they all were talking about LILO. But I have installed grub in stead of LILO...

Can anyone tell me how I change the video mode for the Linux console ?

Try adding the option vga=ask to your kernel line in grub menu.list file:
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.10 root=/dev/hda2 ro vga=ask

Next time you boot you will be given options on what resolution to use, enter it and see if you like it if not reboot and pick another. once you have one you like change vga=ask to vga=X where x is the number you enter when you got asked.

Also if your using the grub AutoMagic Kernel List ( That double quoted stuff in menu.list ) add vga=X to the kopt option this will then be set for any kernel you add.

WARNING: when you get asked if there are more than 9 options the 10th option will be "a" don't put that in, use vga=10, why the hex / dec thing I'm not sure but there you go.

Hi there

Thx, that helped me a lot further. Now I can choose the mode at reboot, but for some reason it changes back during the boot process at the line

"setting up general console font" => changes back to 80x25

Sorry to bother you again, but where can I change the console font at this level ?

Not sure if it's distro specific, but do you have:
fontconfig
As a command?

Cool

Well, I have the fontconfig package (GTK depends on it) but I do not have the fontconfig command.

What init scripts are running? maybe one of the is altering the res.