How do I change terminal to 80x24

[JRV]

When I press <CTRL>-<ALT>-<F1> to go to a full screen terminal the text is very small and hard to read.
How do I change it to 80x24 with large type?

[sudodus]

When I press <CTRL>-<ALT>-<F1> to go to a full screen terminal the text is very small and hard to read.
How do I change it to 80x24 with large type?

One way is explained in this link

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2/Displays#Setting_Menu_Font_Colors (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2/Displays#Setting_Menu_Font_Colors)


Changing Menu Resolutions

If the user wishes to change the resolution of the GRUB 2 screen for image enhancement or general font size changes:


Set the desired resolution in /etc/default/grub

Change the value of GRUB_GFXMODE= (Example: GRUB_GFXMODE=800x600)
If unsure of what resolutions are available to GRUB 2 they can be displayed by typing vbeinfo in the GRUB 2 command line. The command line is accessed by typing "c" when the main GRUB 2 menu screen is displayed.


Select an image of the same proportions.

GRUB 1.99 - Place the image in the grub folder or add a GRUB_BACKGROUND entry in /etc/default/grub
GRUB 1.98 - Change the value of WALLPAPER in /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme
GRUB 1.99 - Place the image in the grub folder or add a GRUB_BACKGROUND= entry in /etc/default/grub



If an image of the correct size is not used, the menu will not be positioned correctly.
Use the image editor of your choice to create/resize an image to the correct size.
The user may be able to view the image size via Properties in a file browser (check the Properties Image tab in Nautilus).


Run update-grub to update GRUB 2


Creating User Splash Images

GRUB 2's splash image management makes it easy to use a wide variety of splash images.

Resolution Settings

The images in the grub2-splashimages package are primarily 640x480 images.
GRUB 2 looks for a resolution setting in /etc/default/grub. If uncommented, the resolution is determined by this line:





GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480




To make the change in /etc/default/grub work, you need to finish with the command

sudo update-grub and it will work after the next reboot.

[JRV]

Grub is set the way I want it.
I want to change the full screen terminal I get when I press <CTRL>-<ALT>-<F1>.

[steeldriver]

Grub is set the way I want it.
I want to change the full screen terminal I get when I press <CTRL>-<ALT>-<F1>.

The virtual terminals get their mode from grub though - e.g. to get the desired (high) resolution VTs for my laptop (which is a 16:10 display) I have



GRUB_GFXMODE=1680x1050
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD=keep


For low res you would probably want something like 800x600 - but technically you should drop to the grub prompt at boot time and run 'vbeinfo' to see the supported modes, especially if you have a nonstandard aspect ratio like mine

[sudodus]

The virtual terminals get their mode from grub though - e.g. to get the desired (high) resolution VTs for my laptop (which is a 16:10 display) I have



GRUB_GFXMODE=1680x1050
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD=keep


For low res you would probably want something like 800x600 - but technically you should drop to the grub prompt at boot time and run 'vbeinfo' to see the supported modes, especially if you have a nonstandard aspect ratio like mine
+1
Try it, and you will see that it works :-)

The text screen mode uses the graphics mode set by grub. There might be advanced methods to add other fonts and font sizes keeping the grub graphics mode, that I don't know, but other people might show for us.

I have used
GRUB_GFXMODE=800x600x32
and now I'm using
GRUB_GFXMODE=1024x768x16
in a computer connected to a 1920x1080 screen,
and this lets me see more and longer lines, when running in text mode compared to the default 80x25 lines that you get with
GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480

[sudodus]

There might be advanced methods to add other fonts and font sizes keeping the grub graphics mode, that I don't know, but other people might show for us.

I found setfont at http://askubuntu.com/questions/29328/how-do-i-increase-the-text-size-of-the-text-on-a-console (http://askubuntu.com/questions/29328/how-do-i-increase-the-text-size-of-the-text-on-a-console)

and suggest that you change font size according to these examples, which gives you a certain flexibility within the grub graphics mode between 13 (smallest) and 18 (largest) font size.

examples:

setfont Uni2-Terminus16
setfont Uni2-Fixed18
setfont Uni2-Fixed13

ls -l /usr/share/consolefonts|grep Uni|grep Fixed
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4515 apr 19 2012 Uni1-Fixed15.psf.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4364 apr 19 2012 Uni1-Fixed16.psf.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3985 apr 19 2012 Uni2-Fixed13.psf.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4216 apr 19 2012 Uni2-Fixed14.psf.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4168 apr 19 2012 Uni2-Fixed15.psf.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4112 apr 19 2012 Uni2-Fixed16.psf.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4198 apr 19 2012 Uni2-Fixed18.psf.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3982 apr 19 2012 Uni3-Fixed13.psf.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4224 apr 19 2012 Uni3-Fixed14.psf.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4146 apr 19 2012 Uni3-Fixed15.psf.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4076 apr 19 2012 Uni3-Fixed16.psf.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4204 apr 19 2012 Uni3-Fixed18.psf.gz

[schragge]

If you don't need the full character repertoire of Fixed fonts, try Terminus. It's a very good legible console font and is available in sizes up to 32x16. It contains glyphs for most Latin scripts, as well as Greek and Cyrillic. See comments in /etc/default/console-setup

[JRV]

Thank you, but that didn't do it.
Ubuntu 12.10 64 bit 1280x1024 monitor.
Here is my /etc/default/grub file:


# If you change this file, run 'update-grub' afterwards to update
# /boot/grub/grub.cfg.
# For full documentation of the options in this file, see:
# info -f grub -n 'Simple configuration'

GRUB_DEFAULT="0"
#GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT="0"
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET="true"
GRUB_TIMEOUT="10"
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR="`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

# Uncomment to enable BadRAM filtering, modify to suit your needs
# This works with Linux (no patch required) and with any kernel that obtains
# the memory map information from GRUB (GNU Mach, kernel of FreeBSD ...)
#GRUB_BADRAM="0x01234567,0xfefefefe,0x89abcdef,0xefefefef"

# Uncomment to disable graphical terminal (grub-pc only)
#GRUB_TERMINAL="console"

# The resolution used on graphical terminal
# note that you can use only modes which your graphic card supports via VBE
# you can see them in real GRUB with the command `vbeinfo'
GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD=keep

# Uncomment if you don't want GRUB to pass "root=UUID=xxx" parameter to Linux
#GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID="true"

# Uncomment to disable generation of recovery mode menu entries
#GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY="true"

# Uncomment to get a beep at grub start
#GRUB_INIT_TUNE="480 440 1"

export GRUB_COLOR_NORMAL="yellow/black"
export GRUB_COLOR_HIGHLIGHT="light-cyan/black"
export GRUB_MENU_PICTURE="/home/jack/Pictures/Wallpaper/Fire.jpg"

[sudodus]

Did you remember to run
sudo update-grub and
sudo reboot

[JRV]

Did you remember to run
sudo update-grub and
sudo reboot

Yes

[sudodus]

This does not work like on my computers. What resolution do you get (at the grub menu) and at the text screen (pixelwise and textwise)?

[sudodus]

Have you got a multi-boot environment, so that the changes in this system's /etc/default/grub is not effective, and you need to reboot into another of the installed linux versions to really affect grub?

[JRV]

1 - When I play the robots game in the bsdgames package it fills the upper left 1/4 of the screen.

2 - It is a single boot system.

[sudodus]

So you still have the high resolution, probably the 1280x1024 resolution of your monitor.

Try at the grub menu to click the c key to get the command line prompt
grub> _

Then enter the command
vbeinfo

Maybe you need to specify exactly the whole name of one of the displayed modes. I get several 640x480 modes

640x480x8
640x480x15
640x480x16
640x480x24
640x480x32
Select one of those that are displayed in your computer (for example 640x480x24)
and use that in /etc/default/grub

[schragge]

I guess

sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-setup and selecting a larger console font size from there (IIRC, it's the 4rd question) would be an easier option for the OP.

[sudodus]

By the way, could it be that the picture

export GRUB_MENU_PICTURE="/home/jack/Pictures/Wallpaper/Fire.jpg"

has higher resolution, and forces its resolution to grub? What if you try to reduce its resolution and try again?

[sudodus]

I guess

sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-setup and selecting a larger console font size from there (IIRC, it's the 3rd question) would be an easier option for the OP.
+1
This method is definitely worth trying :-)

or maybe also the method with setfont from an earlier post.

[JRV]

I ran vbeinfo, selected 640x480x16, put it in my /etc/default/grub file.
Then I ran update-grub, rebooted, ran vbeinfo again, now there is an astrisk beside 640x480x16.

I ran sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-setup and changed the font size from 16 to 18, and rebooted.

I changed the Grub menu picture to 640x480, ran update-grub, and rebooted.

Still no luck.

[sudodus]

Maybe some link along the line (graphics chip or monitor) can't run with the resolution 640x480

1. Check with vbeinfo again and try with one of the available modes of size 800x600, for example

GRUB_GFXMODE=800x600x32
And change the corresponding background picture size to 800x600.

2. Will you see any difference, when logged in to a graphics screen you run each of these commands

setfont Uni2-Fixed18
setfont Uni2-Fixed13

[schragge]

Wait, there's an error in your /etc/default/grub. This
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD=keep should be
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=keep You also can set it independent of Grub menu screen resolution:


GRUB_GFXMODE=1024x768x16
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=640x480x16

[JRV]

Wait, there's an error in your /etc/default/grub. This
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD=keep should be
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=keep You also can set it independent of Grub menu screen resolution:


GRUB_GFXMODE=1024x768x16
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=640x480x16


Now the text is still real small and it says:

* starting [ OK ]
mountall: Disconnected from Plymouth
mount: unknown file system type 'smbfs'
mountall: mount /mnt/mp3 [1317] terminated with status 32
mount: unknown file system type 'smbfs'
mountall: mount /mnt/mp3 [1611] terminated with status 32
mount: unknown file system type 'smbfs'
mountall: mount /mnt/mp3 [1804] terminated with status 32
mount: unknown file system type 'smbfs'

I commented out the line GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=640x480x16 and no longer get the error messages.

[sudodus]

Are you running a desktop or server version of Ubuntu? If desktop, since this text screen mode is so stubborn, would it be an alternative to run a terminal window with coarse font, for example


xterm -fa default -fs 20

or something similar (but via the settings menu) in your standard terminal window?

[JRV]

Thats a big improvment, thank you.

I'm leaving the thread open for a few days to see if somone knows how to do it.

[sudodus]

And if you specify your computer and monitor, it will make it easier for new people to help. Because the things we suggest (at least what I suggest) work at our computers. Someone may recognize your hardware and know how to manage it.

- computer brand and model
- motherboard
- cpu
- ram
- graphics card or chip
- monitor brand and model
- version of Ubuntu (12.04 LTS, 12.10, ...)
- flavour of Ubuntu (standard 'vanilla' Ubuntu, Lubuntu, Xubuntu, Kubuntu, ...)

If you don't know or remember, use lshw and hardinfo

sudo lshw>lshw.txt and attach the file lshw.txt to a reply
and

hardinfo (you may need to install it)

sudo apt-get install hardinfo