How to change console resolution?
 

I'm running a pretty stripped down version of RedHat 9.0 and would like to change the resolution so that the whole LCD display is used (that is no black border).

There is no X or anything else running, straight console.

I have looked around the web, and found a few obscure solutions, with "framebuffer" being the most common. Wasn't able to find a good write-up anywhere about how to install it.

Any recommendations how to go about this?

framebuffer is a kernel thingie...so, if your kernel doesn't have it compiled in, you'll need to recompile your kernel. you still might have it (I don't know about stock kernels, I've used a custom one for a long time now), and if you do, you need to give some options in your bootloader to use it...in grub, at least, you just append the option vga=xxx to your kernel line, where xxx is a certain number that describes the resolution and colors. these numbers (and help for lilo users) can easily be found from google, just search for framebuffer vga options or grub/lilo vga options or something..

if you put the option in your bootloader but nothing happens, then you almost surely don't have framebuffer support in your kernel...

The framebuffer is a "program" which is compiled INTO the kernel to allow direct access to video card memory. Is that correct? Based on the info I collected from all the sources.

And my next step would be to find the program and learn how to recompile kernel ;) Right?

those are settings that are changed on the monitor itself. so i guess your monitor doesn't have those controls? weird.
anyway, svgatextmode is a program you can play with. it's not standard. you'll have to find it on the web.

Yes, it's an LCD, so it's fixed resolution. I was looking to increase the "desk space" so to speak.

Is there a way to check what is currently compiled into the kernel?

Use kernel framebuffer and pass the vga=xxx option to lilo or grub, just as b0uncer suggested.

Here are the vga options: http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Framebuffer-HOWTO-5.html under section 5.3

ie, if you want to run 800x600 at 24bit, just append vga=0x315 in lilo or grub, BUT make sure you have the framebuffer enabled, or your screen will go blank. AFAIK, RH9 out-of-the-box kernel has fb enabled by default.

Hope it helps

Actually it doesn't, I tried installing RedHat with X, then framebuffer works, but if it's a bare install without X, it throws an error when specifying higher resolution. That's why I was curious how to see what is inside the kernel at any given time.