[wplug] cli resolution

Vanco, Don don.vanco at agilysys.com
Thu Dec 4 15:27:15 EST 2003


Teodorski, Chris wrote:
> I have a Dell laptop, when I am at the command line; it uses only the
> middle 2/3 of the screen, leaving a big border of unused space around
> the screen.   
	This is due to switching between internal and external monitors and
some ambiguous BIOS setting that I cannot recall off the top of my head.  My
old IBM StinkPad used to do the same thing....  Look at your BIOS for video
options (I think the IBM verbiage was "expand by default" or something like
that). I may also have solved it by setting the BIOS to always use the
internal display (as opposed to probe for what's active).

> I can inflate that by using the fn+F7 (font) to enlarge
> what I am seeing on the screen, but it doesn't really increase the
> resolution, it just magnifies things   Is there a way to manipulate
> the resolution for the command line?     
	You can increase the resolution by compiling in console framebuffer
support in your kernel.  I've never gotten it to work for me under Red Hat
(even though Gentoo on the exact same laptop gave me no troubles) but then I
am not exactly known for my debugging tenacity when it comes to things I
consider trivial to my needs, and this was decidedly in that category.
Perhaps someone else here can detail common pitfalls for compiling in
console framebuffer stuff, maybe there's bits on one of the laptop sites.  I
always knew exactly what chipset I was supporting yet I still had issues...
I do have to admit that having a laptop console running 1280x1024 I pretty
awesome.

Don



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