2560x1080 screen, how to tell cli about it?

[Bubulcus Industrius]

Hi,

I've installed an extra wide screen, 2560x1080 pixel.
After the boot, the cli uses only a central portion of the screen, probably 1920
pixel. Where do I tell the system about the new screen dimensions? I'm not
talking about X.org or KDE, I'm not using them, just the cli.

Thanks!

[Eef Hartman]

I'm not talking about X.org or KDE, I'm not using them, just the cli.

As far as I know the framebuffer (which is used for higher resolution
TEXT modes) doesn't support that resolution, so only if you're using a
proprietary video kernel module (like nVidia, AMD) the adaptor _may_
support it.
Use the "vga-ask" parameter to the kernel at boot-up to see which
resolutions _are_ supported.
BTW: it is the graphics adaptor that has to support it, it should ask
the monitor what resolutions it can support and then tries the nearest
equivalent.
For instance, on my nVidia Quadro FX, I'm using the full resolution
(of 1920x1200) in X, but can use only 1600x1200 in text mode.
The X resolution is done through the binary NVidia kernel (nvidia.ko)
and nvidiadrv.so X modules.

[John Forkosh]

Hi, I've installed an extra wide screen, 2560x1080 pixel.
After the boot, the cli uses only a central portion of
the screen, probably 1920 pixel. Where do I tell the system
about the new screen dimensions? I'm not talking about
X.org or KDE, I'm not using them, just the cli. Thanks!

You might try
append=" video=2560x1080 vt.default_utf8=0"
vga = normal
in your lilo.conf header, and then rerun lilo.
But I've never had cli problems, just X-related problems.
So I couldn't really say whether or not that might help.

[David Chmelik]

[...] I've installed an extra wide screen, 2560x1080 pixel.
After the boot, the cli uses only a central portion of the screen,
probably 1920 pixel. Where do I tell the system about the new screen
dimensions? I'm not talking about X.org or KDE, I'm not using them, just
the cli. [...]

Had same problem; thought it was from using three monitors and system
uses their geometric intersection. Sad to hear it's just drivers that
are 10 or 15+ years out-of-date.

Since AMD is now open hardware--at least in the sense of their drivers--I
use that... so even if people use that (one replier uses Nvidia, closed
hardware) they may still have this problem. Display/video/graphics cards
can do so many modes now, apparently it's hard for the driver programmers
to keep up.

I can't even have a graphical/image LILO boot anymore because my AMD
Radeon RX Vega Linux drivers don't support any usable number of colours
for that in 4K or whatever else LILO might even temporarily use until the
kernel is booting. Display/video/graphics has been in a sad state ever
since the introduction of widescreen.

Sure, I got used to 4K and 'snapping' a program into one side of the
screen in X/KDE, and another program on the other side, but I still
really would prefer the fullscreen (4:3) space I consider cut off the top
(so monitor makers can call a smaller size the same size (diagonally) and
make more money and not sell what some people still want, such as some
graphic artists/programmers.)

I do like the longer space for command-line... but I'd just as soon
rather have a lot of space at the top also!

Either way, whether one prefers original fullscreen or contemporary
widescreen, they need to get those display/video/graphic drivers in order
to support these barely-newer resolutions.