how to make console text smaller

[rusma]

Hi! How do I get smaller (or preferably native resolution, since it has sharper edges) native text/fonts in console. On my archlinux box this happens when Kernel Mode Settings starts (for native), or in grub by specifying VGA in the `kernel´ line.

How do I do this in freebsd?

 

[fronclynne]

vidcontrol(1) on i386, perhaps using this on amd64.

Unless you're talking about a serial console, in which case, I don't know at all.

 

[crsd]

FOS - fonts over serial? :e

 

[graudeejs]

I should warn you that increasing "console resolution" will decrease it's speed. If it's not server I suggest using X

 

[volatilevoid]

If you really want VESA on the console then you'll have to recompile your kernel. Your kernel config then needs to contain

options VESA
options SC_PIXEL_MODE

If you haven't compiled a kernel by yourself yet, I recommend reading the great handbook, especially chapter 8.5.

Thomas

 

[graudeejs]

you can simply # kldload vesa
or to make this permanent add

vesa_load="YES"

to /boot/loader.conf

 

[volatilevoid]

you can simply # kldload vesa
or to make this permanent add

vesa_load="YES"

to /boot/loader.conf

That works without recompiling the kernel? I tried that several times but vidcontrol always told me

Inappropriate ioctl for device

without having SC_PIXEL_MODE set. So maybe it works out of the box, maybe not.

 

[graudeejs]

perhaps you just tried to set unsupported mode
also maybe oyu need to # kldload vga

 

[volatilevoid]

perhaps you just tried to set unsupported mode
also maybe oyu need to # kldload vga

Hm, I always tried the modes listed by # vidcontrol -i mode. vidcontrol(1) says

If you want to use any of the raster text modes you need to recompile your kernel with the SC_PIXEL_MODE option. See syscons(4) for more details on this kernel option.

And that matches my personal experience with VESA consoles.

 

[rusma]

I forgot to say: my video card is a Nvidia Geforce (7200, something I think) Turbocache 128MB.

 

[fonz]

And that matches my personal experience with VESA consoles.

Same here.

One can of course always try to improve console resolution, but your mileage may vary. For example, on my current laptop I can increase the number of rows, so instead of 80x25 I can get 80x43 or 80x50. But I can't for the life of me get the number of columns increased, even with vga and vesa and the SC_PIXEL_MODE and everything.

Alphons

 

[volatilevoid]

Well, it depends if you're on i386 or amd64. amd64 needs this patch to run VESA on the consoles. i386 should work more or less out of the box (with a recompiled kernel with SC_PIXEL_MODE option).