You are not logged in.

#1 2021-02-20 17:05:49

workingwitharch
Member
Registered: 2021-02-15
Posts: 18

[SOLVED] TTY works full screen on one machine , not the other

Greetings, I have been configuring arch and am having a visual problem , which has some mentions online, but those do not help me . BTW, this is posted under kernel and hardware because AFAIK , what I see on my tty and it's resolution , without X and/or a GUI WM , is entirely  a kernel-hw interface ...
Also , by tty I mean real tty not a terminal emulator wink

On my Macbook Air 2017 13" , display resolution 1440x900 , the tty (which I live in) fills the whole screen and it's brilliant.
On my ex-windows laptop , with a 1680x1050 resolution display, the tty fils about 1/3 of the display , like so :

------------------------------------
|     usable            |              |
|      space            |              |
|______________|             |
|                                          |
|      blank                           |
-----------------------------------
Both being Intel HD Graphics, of course.

Answers here (https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=197937) and here (https://superuser.com/questions/526757/ … arch-linux) were fixed by manually assigning a resolution to the kernel at bootup. This wont't work for me, because my install is by nature portable and I intend to switch across many machines  now and then, so can't hard-code a resolution.

Is there some command I could execute in the shell / some script I could run to manually assign a resolution after logging in ? Alternatively , is there  some config I could edit or some package i could install which could run automatically/manually to reload the terminal at the full resolution , either by auto-detecting or by being told specifically ?

Thanks a lot in advance , and if there's any details I need to provide to help answer , let me kow and I'll add them ASAP if I'm online !

Last edited by workingwitharch (2021-02-21 05:03:29)

Offline

#2 2021-02-20 21:35:31

seth
Member
Registered: 2012-09-03
Posts: 49,986

Re: [SOLVED] TTY works full screen on one machine , not the other

See "fbset", but ~1/3 of 1680x1050 sounds a lot like you're running a VGA console and the panel doesn't center or stretch 640x480 - how many lines do you have on the macbook?
(If it is, configure the system to use a framebuffer console, resolution should be picked up)

his wont't work for me, because my install is by nature portable and I intend to switch across many machines  now and then, so can't hard-code a resolution.

Mind to elaborate? How does the installation on the macbook relate to the on on the "ex-windows laptop™"? Do you boot from a usb key or the LAN?
You don't need to "hardcode" stuff (depending on what you imagine that means) but can use a kernel parameter, https://raw.githubusercontent.com/torva … modedb.rst

Online

#3 2021-02-21 01:35:36

workingwitharch
Member
Registered: 2021-02-15
Posts: 18

Re: [SOLVED] TTY works full screen on one machine , not the other

Oh okay seth , i'll clarify my setup .

Macbook : Runs on it's in-built display
Ex-windows laptop : Runs on an external VGA monitor with no in built monitor (It has been physically removed when it broke a while back).

My install is on one fast usb fash drive , which I swap around my systems as and when I have to. It's the exact same installation , just different hw.

By hardcode I meant passing a parameter or a configuration of a fixed resolution during boot, because wouldn't that same resolution not work well on another machine with a different display ?

Also , you said :
' See "fbset" ' ... ' how many lines do you have on the macbook' ... 'configure the system to use a framebuffer console' "
Unfortunately I didn't understand what any of that meant sad What's fbset , what are lines and how do I configure it to use framebuffer console and will that work across other resultions too ?

Offline

#4 2021-02-21 05:13:59

workingwitharch
Member
Registered: 2021-02-15
Posts: 18

Re: [SOLVED] TTY works full screen on one machine , not the other

FIXED !

I did a bunch of googling on fbset , used pacman to get it, and it works like a charm .

The below python wrapper I wrote around fbset allows me to manually specify a resolution or automatically use one :

#! /usr/bin/env python

import os
import sys

DEFAULT_X = 1680
DEFAULT_Y = 1050
# can use multiple default resolution profiles, but I need only one here 

if len(sys.argv) >= 3:
    os.system("fbset -xres " + sys.argv[1] + " -yres " + sys.argv[2])
else:
    os.system("fbset -xres " + DEFAULT_X + " -yres " + DEFAULT_Y)

I call it res , so :

./res 

sets buffer to default x & y values , here 1680x1050 for me.

./res 680 480

or similar will set the resolution to 680x480.

The script is nothing magical , I just have a hard time remembering command name or the resolution number wink

Thanks to seth for suggesting fbset !

BTW, by default it was at 1366 x 768

Last edited by workingwitharch (2021-02-21 05:16:34)

Offline

Board footer

Powered by FluxBB