How do I increase console-mode resolution?

Question

When my computer goes to console mode (booting up, shutting down or Ctrl + Alt + F1)), the text is super big. I can't take a screenshot of it, but it looks like a 640 x 480 resolution. My monitor normally works at 1440 x 900.

I remember that the console text that appeared while installing from the CD was nice and small.

How can I make the console text look like it looked while booting from the CD?

score 40 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 15 '15 at 07:53

40

I've found a solution that works from this forum post

In short:

Open /etc/default/grub with your favorite editor as root.

Localize the line that says GRUB_GFXMODE= ... and change it to the resolution you want. Add another line for a new variable called GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD with the same resolution. It should look similar to this:

GRUB_GFXMODE=1440x900x32
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD=1440x900x32

Save and exit. Then edit as root /etc/grub.d/00_header

Localize the line that says if [ "x${GRUB_GFXMODE}" = "x" ] ; then GRUB_GFXMODE=... . As before, change the resolution there to the one you want and add another line for payload:

if [ "x${GRUB_GFXMODE}" = "x" ] ; then GRUB_GFXMODE=1440x900x32 ; fi
if [ "x${GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD}" = "x" ] ; then GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD=1440x900x32 ; fi

Finally, locate the line that says set gfxmode=${GRUB_GFXMODE} and add a line for payload below it. It should look like this:

set gfxmode=${GRUB_GFXMODE}
set gfxpayload=${GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD}

Save and exit.

Still as root, refresh grub with

update-grub2

Reboot, and both the grub menu and the console should have nicer resolutions.

Finished!

edited Apr 15 '15 at 07:53

A.B.

90,397

answered Dec 22 '10 at 04:54

egarcia

1,329

This did not seem to work for me. I was using the resolution of 1366x768x32. – kzh Jan 19 '11 at 03:36
1

My solution will only work for grub2, I think. Are you using grub 1, maybe? If yes, try with a lower resolution first - for example 1024x768x32. Regards! – egarcia Jan 19 '11 at 09:59
1

unfortunately didn't work for me, running 10.10 – segfault May 24 '11 at 22:12
1

my monitor's default resolution is 1680x1050 so I just replaced every 1440x900 with 1680x1050. No luck. – segfault May 24 '11 at 22:14
3

Looks like that at the moment grub2 doesn't use 'GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD' option, only 'GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX'. See the official documentation on grub2: http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html#gfxpayload – mbaitoff Sep 15 '11 at 09:16
2

It would be more interesting to see a response that is more generic, that will work with most resolutions. – sorin Nov 17 '12 at 16:07
Seriously, It works :) – thefourtheye Jul 01 '13 at 13:42
What's the difference between GRUB_GFXMODE and GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD? – szx Dec 08 '13 at 07:45
2

This answer is depreciated and did not work for me on Ubuntu Server 12.04 LTS. Furthermore, it involves editing a file named 00_header which really should not be edited. – Serge Stroobandt Jun 23 '14 at 12:34
1

This solution failed to me with 1440x900x32 but it did work for 1024x768x24. I am running Ubuntu Server 14.04 LTS in VirtualBox 4.3.26. Vranger's answer worked smoother. – Kyr Jul 10 '15 at 12:02
this solution does not work with UBUNTU GNOME 15.04 – Jiří Doubravský Aug 21 '15 at 21:56
1

This worked for me on Ubuntu 14.04, but I did not need to do the step of editing 00_header. Modifying /etc/default/grub and then running sudo update-grub and rebooting was all I needed. – David Baucum Aug 27 '15 at 16:29
There's no reason to edit /etc/grub.d/00_header. See the answer by A.B. – Honest Abe Feb 20 '18 at 05:26

score 23 · Answer 2 · edited Jul 19 '19 at 18:22

23

This helped me on Ubuntu 14.04 with ESXi 5.5 :

sudo vi /etc/default/grub

Change line to:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="splash vga=792"

Then run:

sudo update-grub
sudo reboot -r now

Use 795 or 799 for higher resolution (More details here).

edited Jul 19 '19 at 18:22

Kulfy

17,696

answered May 22 '14 at 21:24

vranger

339

1

This solutions worked for me. The splash option froze the login screen and it is unnecessary in my opinion. Btw I really don't like the cryptic options like 792! – Kyr Jul 10 '15 at 11:52
1

its deprecated in 15.04 – Jiří Doubravský Aug 21 '15 at 21:57
works on fedora 21 too – Alex Jones Aug 31 '15 at 12:09
@JiříDoubravský then what to do? other answers dont work – Alex Jones Aug 31 '15 at 12:09
1

reboot command doesn't like the -r option, anyway. – Jin Kwon Dec 31 '16 at 16:01
@JiříDoubravský Seems you're wrong: this just worked on my just installed Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS! – 1111161171159459134 May 24 '17 at 16:26
If after-init software startup changes the resolution, just add nomodeset to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT. – 1111161171159459134 May 24 '17 at 17:36

score 20 · Answer 3 · edited Dec 29 '17 at 13:59

20

Start in the GRUB menu
Press C to go to the GRUB command line
Run vbeinfo and make a decision (e.g. 1920x1200x32).
Start your system again
sudo nano /etc/default/grub
Change GRUB_GFXMODE= (e.g. GRUB_GFXMODE=1920x1200x32)
Set GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX to GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=keep
sudo update-grub
reboot your system

edited Dec 29 '17 at 13:59

Foad

873

answered Apr 15 '15 at 09:33

A.B.

90,397

among all the answers on this question, this is the one that worked for me with Ubuntu 16.04 server (and it's the simplest one) – Seb - SonarSource Team Aug 09 '16 at 07:57
Wrt step 2 above: I find one should press 'c' for a command-line (not 'E') – kaiwan Oct 12 '16 at 07:57
Doesn't work on VMware Workstation Player with Ubuntu 16.10 – Sebi2020 Nov 02 '16 at 23:33
@Sebi2020 Now which one? VMware Player or VMware Workstation? Works for me on VMware Workstation 14.0 with Ubuntu 16.04. – 0xC0000022L Dec 05 '17 at 14:31
1

@0xC0000022L VMWare Workstation 10 – Sebi2020 Dec 08 '17 at 11:22
2

For Ubuntu 18.04 and later, use videoinfo instead of vbeinfo. – robocat Dec 06 '18 at 04:00
Running Ubuntu 18.04 LTS in Virtualbox, I also needed to apply the solution in this question prior to the update-grub step. – tonysdg Dec 14 '18 at 19:23
It's pointless if you have proprietary nvidia drivers (at least in my case) - because some segments of text will be blurry. – daGo Apr 14 '20 at 18:19
I am on Dell XPS 13 with Ubuntu 20.04.3 installed. This method works for me – panc Sep 02 '21 at 21:59

score 15 · Answer 4 · edited Jun 12 '20 at 14:37

15

Set the graphics mode with `GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX`

First, install xrandr and run it:

$ sudo apt-get install xrandr
$ xrandr

The available screen modes are listed.

Now, edit /etc/default/grub:

$ sudo nano /etc/default/grub

Assuming a previously unedited file, make the following changes:

The variable GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT should contain at least nomodeset, perhaps in addition to quiet and splash on desktop systems.

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="nomodeset"

On server systems, uncomment GRUB_TERMINAL=console to see more messages passing during boot before entering in the graphics console.

Leave this line as a comment:

#GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480

At the end of the file, add a line:

GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=1280x1024x16

or replace the value by any other (comma separated) mode(s) that is(are) supported by your hardware. The values text, keep, auto, vga and ask should also work.

Finally, after saving the edited /etc/default/grub with Ctrl+O and exiting it with Ctrl+X, issue the following commands:

$ sudo update-grub
$ sudo reboot

This answer will also work to decrease the resolution and/or refresh rate or frame buffer frequency on down-clocked systems. CRT monitors typically show flickering stripes when the refresh frequency is too high.

edited Jun 12 '20 at 14:37

Community

1

answered Jun 23 '14 at 12:31

Serge Stroobandt

5,268
1
48
59

2

there is no hwinfo anymore – obayhan Feb 12 '16 at 10:05
1

@obayhan Well noted! You may use xrandr instead. – Serge Stroobandt Feb 13 '16 at 15:26
1

Works with 16.04. – Jin Kwon Dec 31 '16 at 16:22
1

THIS. This is the only thing that worked for me on 16.10. – Siguza Mar 07 '17 at 23:58
blurred text :-( – daGo Apr 14 '20 at 18:44
@daGo Choose a resolution and colour depth that is supported by both your monitor and graphics chip! – Serge Stroobandt Apr 14 '20 at 20:40
It doesn't matter on any depth – daGo Apr 16 '20 at 08:17

score 5 · Answer 5 · edited Sep 06 '15 at 14:17

Why i answer this threat even if it's very old? The answer is pretty easy, because so many other threat refer to it.

If vbeinfo or hwinfo --framebuffer doesn't show the native resolution of your display, then disable vesa, to do so remove vga= options in:

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

Search for GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT= and remove vga= if you find it.

If you have remove the option don't forget to generate a new grub.cfg:

sudo update-grub

If you don't know you did it well, then just reboot and open a terminal:

grep vga /proc/cmdline
grep -ir vga /etc/modprobe.d/

If grep doesn't show anything, then you removed the vga= option.

Now install uvesafb:

sudo apt-get install v86d

Make sure the uvesafb module is included into your initrd. Add it to the end of /etc/initramfs-tools/modules:

sudo sh -c "echo uvesafb >> /etc/initramfs-tools/modules"

To see what modes are available:

sudo modprobe uvesafb
cat /sys/bus/platform/drivers/uvesafb/uvesafb.0/vbe_modes

Now configure uvesafb mode_option=YOURxResoultion-BitColorMode e.g. 1280x1024-32:

sudo sh -c "echo options uvesafb mode_option=1280x1024-32 scroll=ywrap > /etc/modprobe.d/uvesafb.conf"

Don't forget to rebuild your initrd:

sudo update-initramfs -k all -u

Now you can reboot!

See this for more details. It is for debian, but it also works for ubuntu. I hope it helped you and it should be more generic than using grub2.

+1 no need to change the grub config and uvesafb works for me on Ubuntu 16.04 with a proprietary nvidia driver (recommended in other places KMS is unsupported in this case) — jfs, Sep 14 '16 at 13:31

score 4 · Answer 6 · answered Dec 22 '10 at 04:11

Just some personal background: in my other computer I have no problem with that fancy mode (it's 160 cols x 60 rows, but it has a 4:3 CRT monitor). It's equipped with a TNT2 (yes, I swear), and that mode was promptly displayed on first boot. Problem is, it does this by loading the nouveau driver, and this guy is still a bit faulty (in my case, it hangs the whole system when trying to move windows). So, to have an usable system, I had to downgrade to the old and stable nv driver, and also disabling mode-setting ('cause the kernel would always load nouveau when enabled). Note that I'm not using nVidia proprietary drivers, but like you, I was switched back to 80x25 in console mode.

This is because the nv driver doesn't use kernel mode-setting. Now, I don't know about the proprietary drivers, but I'm guessing they might have changed your configuration in order to be usable, and possibly that's why you're seeing that "big" mode. Possibly they disabled mode-setting when installed. That's why you see the "small" text mode when booting from the Live CD.

You could try booting up with a different VESA mode, but that depends a lot on your hardware. For that, please check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VESA_BIOS_Extensions#Linux_video_mode_numbers. For example, if you'd like to try booting your text mode on 1024x640, you'll find that the mode ID is 877.

So, when booting, hold the SHIFT key (in case you don't have a GRUB timeout) to bring up GRUB's menu. Select the mode which you wish to boot and press 'e' (to edit the commands). At the end of the "kernel" command, add vga=877. The number is the mode ID, if you want to try other modes, replace it with the desired number.

Also, at that same Wikipedia page, you could also try the helpful "Universal format" right below the modes table. That hwinfo command is quite useful.

I use grub2, not grub. I didn't know that grub was responsible for the console, so I didn't mention that in my question. Sorry. I've found a solution with grub2. Regards! — egarcia, Dec 22 '10 at 04:55
To be true, the solution you found also seem simpler. Glad you sorted it out, and thanks for sharing! — Charles Roberto Canato, Dec 22 '10 at 07:03

score 3 · Answer 7 · answered Mar 24 '19 at 10:39

3

Ubuntu 18 console mode:

Edit

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="splash quite"

in

/etc/default/grub

so new line looks like:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="splash quiet vga=XXX nomodeset"

where XXX comes from

https://www.pendrivelinux.com/vga-boot-modes-to-set-screen-resolution/

then reload grub config and reboot

update-grub2
reboot

answered Mar 24 '19 at 10:39

Paul Paku

131
1

It seems like this question has already a many similar answers. Perhaps you could clarify what motivated you to add your answer (i.e. what information was missing from previously posted answers). – cauon Mar 24 '19 at 11:34
1

It's just simple. And suitable for newest Ubuntu 18 – Paul Paku Mar 24 '19 at 14:21
1

"splash quite" is a typo for "splash quiet" - this worthless editor won't let me change just that without making unnecessary changes elsewhere, so maybe you need to add your reasoning in the main body of the answer. – Rich Dec 17 '19 at 19:09

user2279952 · Answer 8 · 2021-05-09T18:27:12.990

1

I was able to increase the console resolution on an Ubuntu server 20.04.2 VM by editing /etc/default/grub and setting GRUB_GFXMODE to the desired resolution (in my case, setting GRUB_GFXMODE=1152x864), and then by running sudo update-grub2. I was able to find the available resolution modes by running sudo hwinfo --framebuffer. I'm using grub 2.04.

edited May 09 '21 at 18:27

answered May 09 '21 at 17:40

user2279952

111

score 1 · Answer 9 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:24

This will not change the font on boot, but for the console on Ctrl+Alt+F[1-6]

Install the custom Ubuntu fonts for your console:

sudo apt-get install fonts-ubuntu-font-family-console

And create a script /usr/local/bin/fontset with this command:

#!/bin/sh
setfont /usr/share/consolefonts/Uni3-TerminusBold32x16.psf.gz

(choose the desired fon out of the folder /usr/share/consolefonts/)

You can either call fontset each time on your console after using Ctrl+Alt+F1

or add this line to your /root/.profile

[ ! -t 0 ] && sleep 1 & /usr/local/bin/fontset

(don't add this to your users .profile or you get an error on a graphical boot)

source: Resize font on boot message screen and console

Otti · Answer 10 · 2017-10-27T19:23:04.233

0

The following worked for me on Debian Stretch 4.9.51-1.
No GUI, only console mode:

Edit /etc/default/grub and add the following line

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="splash vga=795 nomodeset"

For a list of vga= codes see http://pierre.baudu.in/other/grub.vga.modes.html

The nomodeset prevents the resolution from changing again after grub initializes [thanks How do I increase console-mode resolution? ]

EDIT: As mentioned by @Videonauth : Afterwards do: sudo update-grub

edited Oct 27 '17 at 19:23

answered Oct 26 '17 at 15:11

Otti

1

To make changes in /etc/default/grub is not enough, you as well need to run afterwards sudo update-grub to make it happen – Videonauth Oct 26 '17 at 15:51

How do I increase console-mode resolution?

10 Answers10

Set the graphics mode with `GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX`

Linked

Related

How do I increase console-mode resolution?

10 Answers10

Set the graphics mode with GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX

Linked

Related

Set the graphics mode with `GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX`