I'm looking to change the resolution or font size in the console (init lvl 3). The text based cmd mode not x. My resolution is running fine in the xwindows at 1400x1050, but when I switch out, the resolution seems to be running at 1024x768. How can I get it to run at 1450x1050 so I can fit more type on the screen?

RH 7.3
Grub boot loader

You will need to use framebuffer, just add an option vga=<resolution> in your boot line. The resolution is given in hex code from that table:

| 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024
-----+-------------------------------------
256 | 0x301 0x303 0x305 0x307
32k | 0x310 0x313 0x316 0x319
64k | 0x311 0x314 0x317 0x31A
16M | 0x312 0x315 0x318 0x31B

Hope that helps ....

Forgot to say about the font ...
To change your font style, edit /etc/sysconfig/i18n and change the var SYSFONT.
To see your options check at /usr/lib/kbd/consolefonts ...

Tried this in grub.conf

#boot=/dev/hda1
default=0
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
vga=0x31B

No diff in console.

I believe I have framebuffer support compiled into the kernel.

You need to put in your boot line, like:

kernel = (hdX,X)/boot/vmlinuz-<version> root=/dev/hdX 3 vga=0x31B hda=autotune

My /etc/sysconfig/i18n is:

LANG="en_US"
SUPPORTED="en_US:en"
SYSFONT="lat0-sun16"
SYSFONTACM="iso01"

Only problem is I do not have

/usr/lib/kbd/consolefonts

/usr/lib/
kbackgammon.la
kbackgammon.so
kbuildsycoca.la
kbuildsycoca.so

Am I missing some packages?

Probably its in another place, what's your distro?

Should've given that info.

RH7.2

Try to look in /lib/kbd/consolefonts/

Where can I find this "boot line" to append to?

Edit /boot/grub/menu.lst, and look for a title that you usually boot from, then the next line will be something like the one I posted here earlier ...

I checked out menu.lst and the table you listed above. Should I just add the line

vga=<resolution>

at the end of the red hat linux section? The only problem is I dont know what 1400x1050 is in hex using 24bit color.


edit: I found this through google

"So what is the video mode number for 1400x1050? Various values were found on the web. Trying some, and with a little experimentation of my own, I discovered that 1400x1050x16 is 0x142 (as the poster said) and 1400x1050x24 is 0x143. (That's vga=0x343; remember to add 0x200.)"

My question is what does it mean "to add 0x200"? Where should I add this...? Do I even need to?

Well........ I added the

vga=0x343

to the bottom of red hat section in the menu.lst and rebooted but nothing happened. Any suggestions?

edit: I added

vga=0x200

at the bottom of vga=343 and rebooted but nothing happened...

The meaning of add 0x200 to that numbar is because there are two tables alike, vgacon and vgafb. The video mode number of the Linux kernel is the VESA mode number plus 0x200. You should try a number from the above table, just to see how it works.

Linux_kernel_mode_number = VESA_mode_number + 0x200

Here are those VESA mode numbers:

| 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024
----+-------------------------------------
256 | 0x101 0x103 0x105 0x107
32k | 0x110 0x113 0x116 0x119
64k | 0x111 0x114 0x117 0x11A
16M | 0x112 0x115 0x118 0x11B

You can find more in /usr/src/linux-X.X.X/Documentation/fb/

Well I've done everything possible. I get an error when I boot up and I can manually select the font...

"You passed an undifined mode number.
Press return to see video modes avilable."

How would I check to see if I have framebuffer support compiled in the kernel? Could this be my problem?

Here the line in menu.lst

kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.18.-17.7.x ro root=/dev/hda5 hdc=ide-scsi vga=0x343