Font Size Or Resolution

[jlowell]

I note with interest that, with the livecd, if I select, say, knoppix as a kernel option at boot the fonts are quite small, almost unreadable, but if I select failsafe, the font size is larger and acceptable. While on the surface this difference appears to be a font problem, I suspect it has something more to do with resolution. I've tried to enlarge the font size when I boot with option knoppix by adding in screen=800x600, my preferred screen resolution, but to no effect. The only thing that seems to work better is vga=normal, but why this additional parameter improves things is unknown to me. I'm trying to get the option knoppix to boot with the same appearance as the resolution, 800x600, I select once at the desktop. Your thoughts?

jlowell

[Markus]

You need VESA framebuffering for the console resolution, this is usually appended in /etc/lilo.conf at vga=???
For 800x600 you can use:
vga=788 (for 800x600x64k)
vga=787 (for 800x600x32k)
vga=771 (for 800x600x256)

If you're booting from the cd use both the screen and vga cheatcodes.
PS: Don't forget to run lilo after changing lilo.conf.

[jlowell]

Hello Markus,

Well, your very helpful post plus a little independent research on my part brings an answer to a couple of things I wasn't understanding about the boot and loading processes with linux. And I certainly hope that anyone else finding themselves at sea on these things will benefit from my experience.

What was missing here was understanding that the alternatives available with respect to the character of the initial display begin with choosing between a text approach and the framebuffer approach. Text requires the cheat code vga=normal or vga=ext and framebuffer requires - as you've indicated above - a choice of screen resolution, 600x400, 800x600, etc., plus vga=xxx. I've compared knoppix screen=800x600 vga=normal nodhcp with knoppix screen=800x600 vga=771 nodhcp, for example, and, frankly, prefer the appearance of the text display. The text appears larger, suitably filling the screen, where the framebuffer text, while a good bit larger than it was earlier, is still too small for my tastes. It's my guess that lowering the size of the screen resolution together with a lower vga= would be the only way to increase the size of the text a bit more. Might you know the framebuffer vga= settings for a resolution of 600x400? I can try those.

In any event many thanks for your reply and your help.

jlowell

[Markus]

Let's see how a pasted table looks:

Color depth | 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024
-----------------+-------------------------------------
256 (8bit)|--------769------771------773------775
32000 (15bit)|----784------787------790------793
65000 (16bit)|----785------788------791------794
16.7 Mill.(24bit)|-786------789------792------795

[jlowell]

Hi Markus,

Looks just fine. Again, thanks.

jlowell