[SOLVED] TTY console columns & lines

ceauke · 2019-01-24 08:29:54

Hi guys

I need some pointers/vocabulary to understand how to adjust the amount of lines/columns (resolution) of the consoly/tty.

I'm using a very simple arch installation (inside a windows 10 VM on modern laptop). My arch has no GUI, no X. Just 'standard' console.

I managed to get grub2 to change resolution and I can see the effect if I change the grub config file to different resolutions.
But as soon as systemd starts loading the kernel, the screen flashes and I'm back to the noral 80x30 resolution.

1. I'm not even sure if lines & columns are dependent on resolution or whether the two things are totally separate
2. Is at all possible to increase lines & columns in normal console (I'm not talking about terminal on GUI)
3. I read in the wiki about framebuffer, but I'm not sure if that's where I should continue searching or not.
4. I dont know which command to run to confirm my current resolution and columns vs lines.

Thanks for some pointers.

Last edited by ceauke (2019-01-25 21:41:48)

seth · 2019-01-24 10:06:50

This vastly depends on the virtual machine, for virtualbox see https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Vi … resolution

ceauke · 2019-01-24 13:01:00

Thanks. I'm using VMWare14.
I didnt think i'd install the vmware tools since I'm not using GUI. So I'm not expecting to get any benefit from installing the tools if I just use console. Am I wrong?

Grub2 seems to work in the 1027x768 resolution. And the hwinfo --framebuffer command suggested 1024x768, albeit 8-bit should be possible.

Lone_Wolf · 2019-01-24 13:26:00

The archlinux guest should use the vmwgfx kernel module and as that is KMS-aware it shouldn't fallback to console text modes.

post lspci -k

What virtual graphics hardware did you select on the host for this VM ?

ceauke · 2019-01-24 19:11:31

Ok, my vmware player 14 is set up with specific resolution 1024x768 (hardware acceleration for 3d not ticked)

lspci -k shows the following for vmwgfx:

00:0f.0 VGA compatible controller: VMware SVGA II Adapter
Subsystem: VMware SVGA II Adapter
Kernel driver in use: vmwgfx
Kernel modules: vmw_vmci

seth · 2019-01-24 20:42:23

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/VM … solution_3
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GR … resolution
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ke … cing_modes

ceauke · 2019-01-25 19:32:41

Thanks, I now maximised the VM resolution 1920x1080.
Then in vbeinfo in the grub console I can see it supports up to 1152x864x32.
I set my grub file to that and make the grub config and then I max out my console rows and columns without that screenflash when systemd kicks in.

Looks like the colums/rows are about 144/54 with this resolution. (I confirmed this info with hwinfo | fgrep "Console")

I reckon the answer to myself is that columns/rows in console is directly dependent on the resolution setting. The higher the resolution the more rows/columns you get.
(I still dont know if there's a command that will tell me how many rows/columns I currently have)

seth · 2019-01-25 20:50:16

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Li … sole#Fonts
http://alexandre.deverteuil.net/pages/consolefonts/
"man stty" ("stty -a" will get you the dimensions and a lot of other stuff)

ceauke · 2019-01-25 21:41:09

Awesome! Thanks Seth!

Arch Linux

#1 2019-01-24 08:29:54

[SOLVED] TTY console columns & lines

#2 2019-01-24 10:06:50

Re: [SOLVED] TTY console columns & lines

#3 2019-01-24 13:01:00

Re: [SOLVED] TTY console columns & lines

#4 2019-01-24 13:26:00

Re: [SOLVED] TTY console columns & lines

#5 2019-01-24 19:11:31

Re: [SOLVED] TTY console columns & lines

#6 2019-01-24 20:42:23

Re: [SOLVED] TTY console columns & lines

#7 2019-01-25 19:32:41

Re: [SOLVED] TTY console columns & lines

#8 2019-01-25 20:50:16

Re: [SOLVED] TTY console columns & lines

#9 2019-01-25 21:41:09

Re: [SOLVED] TTY console columns & lines

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