# Widescreen console?



## Miklos (Aug 20, 2010)

I'm truely enjoing FreeBSD 8.1 as my laptop (MSI GX623) is finally fully supported hardward wise.

There is just one last thing I'd like to fix, it's not really broken but as I enjoy working in the console this would make my setup perfect. I can't get the vidcontrol to accept a 1680x1050 resolution (or any other 16:10 for that matter) thus im stuck with smudged text 

If anyone knows how to get the console to run in 1680x1050 I would really appreciate you sharing how to 

I've attached my dmesg and vidcontrol output and my kernel config in case it is needed


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## adamk (Aug 20, 2010)

vidcontrol and the vesa framebuffer driver are limited to the modes the video manufacturer programs into the cards BIOS.  If it's not there, it's not there


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## Miklos (Aug 21, 2010)

Oh, I didn't know that.

So if the mode is added to the VGA BIOS it automatically will work in FreeBSD?

Thanks for your reply


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## SirDice (Aug 21, 2010)

Miklos said:
			
		

> So if the mode is added to the VGA BIOS it automatically will work in FreeBSD?


Don't hold your breath in the mean time.

All VESA modes are 4:3 and they're probably never going to change.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VESA_BIOS_Extensions


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## aragon (Aug 21, 2010)

Your best bet is probably to get X going with a light weight window manager.  Full screen xterm.


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## Pjoter (Aug 21, 2010)

jfbterm perhaps? It works like framebuffer a bit (AFAIK)


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## Gemini (Jan 22, 2011)

You'll need to add VESA framebuffer support to your kernel.  This will allow you to set your console to a higher resolution.  First, add these lines to your kernel conf file:


```
options VESA
options SC_PIXEL_MODE
```

Rebuild your kernel and then reboot.  Next, you'll want to see what screen modes your video card's BIOS reports.  To do that, run the vidcontrol command:


```
vidcontrol -i mode
```

For 1680x1050, I tend to go with mode 334.  It may be a different mode # on your system, so always check with the command above.  If the VESA BIOS in your card isn't broken, you should have a widescreen once you type it in:


```
vidcontrol MODE_334
```

If you want all of your consoles to use this mode upon reboot, add this to your /etc/rc.conf file:


```
allscreens_mode="MODE_334"
```

Another option is to use the *jfbterm* port located over in the sysutil directory.  It allows for Unicode wide characters, better color support, and access to X fonts.  You need the same kernel options as vidcontrol.  Note that on my 8.2 and 8.3RC2 systems, I cannot use resolutions in jfbterm higher than 1280x1024 without getting a weird "cannot convert UTF8 to UCS-BE2" error.  Your mileage may vary.

The VESA module has been around for the i386 platform for a while, and has just recently been added to the amd64 platform in 8.x.  So if your laptop is x86 or x86-64, you shouldn't have any issues if you're running 8.2-RELEASE.


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