# High resolution console

## Lightspeed

First I would like to say that I have searched for info about this, and the issue is not that I can't find any, but more that there seem to be so many different approaches that I'm overwhelmed and don't know where to start, which is why I'm posting...

Personally I am quite satisfied with the standard low resolution display output you get on the text-mode VTYs by default, and so have never put any effort into enabling some form of framebuffer console. However, I just got myself a nice new monitor. In particular an HP ZR30w. This is a 30 inch LCD with a native resolution of 2560x1600. The problem is that the screen does not have a built-in scaler, so it cannot display at non-native resolutions (well, actually, it can also display at exactly half the native resolution, ie 1280x800). This is not an issue while X is running, as the proprietary nvidia driver enables clever things such as GPU-based resolution scaling, which means that in X I can actually run whatever resolution I please (primarily useful for games).

But, this does not work outside of X. I can only presume that the driver is not active for the standard VTYs, and so the GPU scaling is unavailable. What actually results is no display output at all for the VTYs. I believe the only way I can get anything to display is by setting the resolution to either 1280x800 or 2560x1600. Is this easily achievable? And if so, can someone with the same setup as me, who has this working give me some pointers to the best/correct/simplest way to do it? I would be most grateful  :Smile: 

Just to make it clear - I don't care about how pretty the result is etc. All I want is to re-instate some form of usable VTY output on this new monitor if at all possible.

My setup consists of:

- nvidia 8800 GTX graphics card

- kernel is the current stable 2.6.34-gentoo-r1

- amd64 arch

- display driver for X is x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers-195.36.24

It is not clear to me whether any/all of the options for high-res consoles interfere with or affect the choice of display driver used with X. But I do want to continue to use the proprietary nvidia driver in X (indeed if it's one or the other, well I'll have to live without VTY output).

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## audiodef

Why do you need a high-resolution VT? 

You can enable the nvidia framebuffer in the kernel options and reboot to see if that gives you what you're looking for, but it may conflict with your nvidia xorg driver. Then again, it may not. Give it a try.

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## Lightspeed

I need a high-resolution VT because my monitor is unable to display low resolutions  :Smile: 

It can only do 1280x800 or 2560x1600.

Anyway perhaps I will just go ahead and try, as you suggest...

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## jathlon

Before you start compiling kernels all over the place, maybe just try adding vga=ask to your grub.conf (if you're using grub)

```
kernel /boot/kernel-genkernel-x86_64-2.6.35-gentoo-r1 root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc real_root=/dev/sda1 ro vga=ask
```

If you're using the stock Gentoo kernel config you may already have vesafb available.  Once you've picked a mode that you like change the ask to the # you've picked with an 0x in front of it.  (Thats a zero x)

Mine is 

```
0x366
```

If you don't get a fairly large selection of resolutions to choose from you don't have a fb available.  Which means now you can start compiling kernels.  If your using the proprietary nvidia drivers, the vesafb is one of the ones that are recommended.  uvesafb is also safe to use but is a little harder to set up.

hth

joe

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## Lightspeed

OK this is embarrassing. Seems it just needed a reboot! It's displaying low resolutions just fine now. I was under the impression that without a hardware scaler it might not work. And when, after connecting the new display I got no output upon switching to the console, I assumed that was confirmation that it was true. But I hadn't actually tried rebooting yet. And now that I have done, it's working!

However thanks for your advice jathlon! I will still try that anyway because now that I do at least have some output again I have realised the text is somewhat obscenely large on this display, so perhaps it would still be preferable to get a more appropriate resolution going!

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## Lightspeed

Just to close this off: you were completely right, adding vga=ask to the kernel line in grub was all that was needed to supply a list of supported resolutions. They seem to work fine, and don't interfere with X as far as I can tell. Unfortunately my card's BIOS appears to support virtually no widescreen resolutions (the highest is 640x400! all the higher ones are 4:3 only), so I just need to decide if I'm happy with the wrong aspect-ratio stretched on the console or not. It is a good thing that I was wrong about the resolution restrictions on this screen because neither of the resolutions I was originally after are supported.

But anyway, thanks again for your help. That was quick and easy!

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## jathlon

 *Lightspeed wrote:*   

>  Unfortunately my card's BIOS appears to support virtually no widescreen resolutions (the highest is 640x400! all the higher ones are 4:3 only), so I just need to decide if I'm happy with the wrong aspect-ratio stretched on the console or not.

 

I hear you.  I'm running a 4:3 resolution on a 16:10 monitor.  Looks ok.  Really the only thing I look at on the fb is text so it isn't a big deal.  It may be more of a limitation of the frame buffer system then the bios on your card.

Glad to help.

joe

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## paulusbrand

You can switch to the nouveau driver instead of the nvidia prop. driver. Then you can use KMS and let the kernel determine the right resolution for you. I'm running my vt's at 1680X1050.

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