Gentoo Archives: gentoo-user

From: Walter Dnes <waltdnes@××××××××.org>
To: gentoo-user@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] lcd console fonts
Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 22:00:33
Message-Id: 20060530215015.GB12087@waltdnes.org
In Reply to: [gentoo-user] lcd console fonts by maxim wexler
1 On Tue, May 30, 2006 at 11:55:16AM -0700, maxim wexler wrote
2 > Hi group,
3 >
4 > The console fonts in my new LCD monitor are H-U-G-E.
5 > Attempts to shrink them by adding vga=xxx at the grub
6 > prompt after the kernel line has no effect.
7
8 In order to be able to do that, you have to enable it in the kernel.
9 In "make menuconfig" follow...
10
11 Device Drivers --->
12 Graphics support --->
13 Console display driver support --->
14 [*] Video mode selection support
15
16 Compiling the kernel that way, and booting from the new kernel,
17 enables you to select VGA modes... and you don't have to muck around
18 with framebuffer at all.
19
20 In addition to selecting VGA modes, you can also influence your
21 display by selecting different sized fonts. VGA defaults to 8x16 fonts,
22 which are huge. "vga=6" selects 8x8 CGA font on a 640x480 text console,
23 which gives 80 columns x 60 rows... but is rather hard to read.
24
25 I set "vga = 6". In /etc/conf.d/consolefont I have...
26 CONSOLEFONT="lat1-10"
27 640 x 480
28 The 8x10 pixel font gives --------- = 80 columns x 48 rows.
29 8 x 10
30
31 It is *MUCH* easier on the eyes than "vga = 1", which combines 8x8 CGA
32 font (bleagh) on a 640x400 pixel text console to give 80x50 text mode.
33
34 You can look in /usr/share/consolefonts to see what's available. You
35 can test various fonts by running setfont ("man setfont" for details).
36 Check http://www.waltdnes.org/tips_and_tricks/textmodes.html for more
37 details on how and why console fonts work the way they do on x86 systems.
38
39 --
40 Walter Dnes <waltdnes@××××××××.org> In linux /sbin/init is Job #1
41 My musings on technology and security at http://tech_sec.blog.ca
42 --
43 gentoo-user@g.o mailing list