# Trouble with the console (noob question?)



## pixelatedvolume (Jan 6, 2019)

Hello friends,

Yesterday I got FreeBSD installed on a new computer.  I was content with the huge, square console that doesn't fit my screen right for a few hours but it's beginning to bug me and I don't like the font.

I've read through the various manpages (vt(), vidcontrol(), etc, and I thought I had a idea of how to improve my console.  Installing and using the AMD graphics driver made the text fit my screen, but it's now too small.

I've found vidcontrol seems unable to change anything about my display.  `vidcontrol -i mode` shows a totally empty table regardless of drivers or hw.vga.textmode status.  Commands as basic as `vidcontrol -c blink` tell me "Inappropriate ioctl for device".  Chances are I'm just missing a straightforward option somewhere, but it's driving me nuts.

I'm using the integrated Radeon R7 graphics on an AMD A8-9600, connected to an Acer P191W @ 1440 x 900 over DVI.  

Any help is appreciated!

(Incidentally, if you know how to get BSD to talk to Win10's inbuilt SSH client that would be helpful too `:)`)


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## SirDice (Jan 7, 2019)

> DESCRIPTION
> The vidcontrol utility is used to set various options for the syscons(4)
> or vt(4) console driver, such as video mode, colors, cursor shape, screen
> output map, font and screen saver timeout.  *Only a small subset of
> ...


From vidcontrol(1).

https://wiki.freebsd.org/Newcons


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## pixelatedvolume (Jan 7, 2019)

Ah, I knew I missed something dumb.  Thanks!  
I'll have a look at using sc for the time being, I guess.


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## VladiBG (Jan 8, 2019)

vt(4)
_kern.vt.fb.default_mode="<X>x<Y>"_


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## a6h (Jan 13, 2019)

syscons(4) solution. Old school, but It should do the job.

Edit /boot/loader.conf

```
kern.vty=sc
```
Edit /etc/rc.conf

```
allscreens_flags="MODE_365"
```


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