How to change console resolution?

[IsaacKuo]

I'm using an HDTV which can only handle certain particular resolutions. I have figured out how to edit /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 to ensure that the GUI is in a good resolution (1280x960 interlaced, with custom timings).

However, if I use Ctrl-Alt-F1...F6, then it uses some other resolution--I think maybe 1024x768. This is NOT a resolution which my HDTV can accept. I'd like to modify it so that the text consoles use 640x480 resolution, with my own custom timings.

Any ideas what to change to make the consoles use the resolution I want? Maybe I should modify XF86Config? The text console is my failsafe in case I mess up things, so I'm wary of experimenting with it without a clue whether I'm even modifying the correct file.

Thanks!

[mzilikazi]

You need to pass that parameter on boot so just add "vga=XXXxXXX" to your boot loader. If you use ntldr then I have no idea. If you use lilo or grub then just add one of the following to your boot line:

640x480 vga=769
800x600 vga=771
1024x768 vga=773
1280x1024 vga=775
1600x1200 vga=796

For example:

kernel (hd0,10)/boot/vmlinuz rw root=/dev/hda11 hdb=scsi apm=power-off nomce vga=791 lang=us

[IsaacKuo]

Thanks! Your advice along with some others who replied to my question on JustLinux has given me the solution.

What I did was to first edit /etc/lilo.conf. The very first line of this file was "vga=791"--even above the comment block explaining what this file was. I didn't even notice the line there for the longest time, since the location was so unconventional. In any case, I changed it to "vga=769" for 640x480.

Then, I ran "lilo" to make those changes to lilo.conf effective.

Then I rebooted the system...yippee!

Thanks again!