Help - I am running a new, clean install of slackware 13.1 with the 2.6.33-4-smp kernel on an i5-655k w/ 8 gigs of ram. Been out of linux for a while and i'm a little rusty. System keeps forcing me to use the 1920x1080 resolution reported by my monitor. I can't seem to set a lower default in X or add a custom resolution not found by ddc. xorg.conf file doesn't have any modelines. console is stuck at 1920x1080 as well, and it's very hard to read from the couch. i've changed lilo.conf a few times, trying vga=normal, vga=791, and trying to pass "nofb" to the kernel. boots up fine in either 80x25 or 1024x768, but as soon as the kernel finds the intel hd graphics it switches to the higher resolution. i can't find the config file to change/disable that behavior. nothing in /etc/rc.d or /etc/vga seems to help.

add or something similar to your lilo conf file

With KMS enabled you cannot do anything to change screen resolution. Like what you said above, as long as kernel loads intel graphics module, video resolution will change into the highest available one.

to find out your available resolution within X.

man xrandr to read more about how to change resolution as you need.

HTH