I had SuSE 9.0 laptop and boot screen resolution was fine. I could select Linux/Windows/Safe mode etc. SuSE 9.2 shows black screen with some flares. How Can I change screen resolution for this boot screen or even switch it to text mode ?

For text mode bootup, you need to change the default run-level in your /etc/inittab, right now it's no doubt 5, you need to change it to 3. You'll probably have to boot from cd and mount the hd, then edit the file and reboot sans cd. The line in question will look similar to this before:

id:5:initdefault:

and after like this:

id:3:initdefault:

the operative character there being the 3, this is assuming that 9.2 still does things similarly to 9.1 (and the rest of the linux world)

No the problem is not my current run level. It is not a big problem to change it. The problem is the boot screen itself. The screen that must show menu Linux/Windows/Safe mode, this screen is not rendered well. (black screen with some flares). If I press Enter then it starts loading the system and KDE starts very well. I belive that Linux has default screen resolution for each mode (run level 3,5). I think in Windows it is very simple that you just use either memory of videoadapter if you work in text mode or use Win32 API that in turns use graphic driver. But I have an assumptiion that there are several different ways to displays something on the screen in Linux. Each of this ways uses some library and this library has specific configuration. And what is worth there are no drivers for this libraries. For exmple I have Intel 852GM video card. It was detected as Intel 855GM. So probably this card works somehow different in cerain graphic modes. This is so petty. New version of SuSE is mo buggy then prior one. My hardware is brand new IBM laptop. So could only imaging how SuSE works on other less know laptops.

Ah, then perhaps what you need to change would be something in your /etc/lilo.conf (assuming you're using lilo as your boot mgr, I don't know about grub), and in the section for your desired/default kernel you may need to add/change the line: vga=normal. And of course you would need to run lilo after editing the file, I have had similar sorts of issues after compiling new kernels (but I was leaving important things out like fb support and yet having lilo set to some vesa resolution)

Also, does the fn+f8 key change anything?

Actually I don't use Lilo. I use GRAB. So it probably will take a time. It is possible to select screen resolution pressing F2 but it affects only next step of system boot up. The first screen is not affected by F2 command. Probably it makes sense to return back to SuSE 9.0 or switch to another distributive that can recognise my hardware. Changing from GRAB to LiLO is to big compromise that I could not bear :-)

Before you scratch your install, it *is* a configuration option. There's a flag you can set in the GRUB loader cfg file (just as with lilo, it was a simple 'vga=xxx' option).

I'm researching this myself right now (i've got the same issue).. i'll post more details here when I find the answer.

Please don't forget to do it. It will be GREAT.