# Console resolution in FreeBSD 12



## a+bi (Aug 27, 2019)

I've a Lenovo Thinkpad Carbon X1 (6th) with HiDPI screen. The console font is almost unreadably small. I tried to use these commands:









						Chapter 3. FreeBSD Basics
					

Basic commands and functionality of the FreeBSD operating system




					www.freebsd.org
				




# *kldload vesa*

and

*# vidcontrol -i mode*

But I'm unable to load VESA and vidcontrol -i mode reveals no available modes to select.

In OpenBSD the console is absolutely perfect out of the box. I do most of my work in the console and would like to replicate this appearance on FreeBSD. Whatever font and video mode they are using? Does anyone know?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!


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## SirDice (Aug 27, 2019)

Those instructions are old and are for the sc(4) console. All recent FreeBSD versions use vt(4) instead.



			Newcons - FreeBSD Wiki


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## T-Daemon (Aug 27, 2019)

Try in /boot/loader.conf

```
kern.vt.fb.default_mode="WidthxHeight"
```
 from vt(4), or

```
efi_max_resolution="WidthxHeight"
```
from loader.conf(5).


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## olli@ (Aug 27, 2019)

You might also want to set a larger font. FreeBSD comes with a 16×32 pixels font called “terminus”; you can try it with this command while being logged into a virtual terminal:

```
vidcontrol -f terminus-b32
```
To turn it on permanently for all virtual terminals, configure it in rc.conf(5). If you don't like that particular font, there's a tool vtfontcvt(8) that can be used to convert fonts in BDF format (used by X) to FreeBSD's FNT format. If you have an X11 font in a format other than BDF, you can use fstobdf(1) and xfs(1) to retrieve arbitrary X11 fonts in BDF format.


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## Geezer (Aug 27, 2019)

Presumably you are doing a Uefi boot. I have got a Lenovo too, and booting from Eufi, goes straight into HD 1920x1080.

You can definitely make it smaller with efi_max_resolution, but then if you run Xorg with the scfb driver you will get the smaller resolution.

If I just want a text console, I do start X, but a minimal X with a single full screen xterm with the text size and background set to my liking.


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## `Orum (Aug 27, 2019)

SirDice said:


> Those instructions are old and are for the sc(4) console. All recent FreeBSD versions use vt(4) instead.


Sorry to get a bit off topic, but is there a reason why the handbook hasn't been updated to document vt instead of sc?


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## SirDice (Aug 27, 2019)

Probably the main reason is that the vt(4) driver is still a work in progress. Its implementation got fast-tracked because a bunch of Xorg videocard drivers depend on KMS, the old sc(4) console didn't support that (and it was difficult to add as I understood it).

Also keep in mind that the handbook is also very community driven, somebody needs to put in the time and effort to write or update it.








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Everything you need to know in order to start contributing to the FreeBSD Documentation Project




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## a+bi (Aug 29, 2019)

olli@ said:


> You might also want to set a larger font. FreeBSD comes with a 16×32 pixels font called “terminus”; you can try it with this command while being logged into a virtual terminal:
> 
> ```
> vidcontrol -f terminus-b32
> ...



Ah, yes, I ended up switching to the terminus font looks much better. Definitely legible.

Only thing the font is still pretty small from boot beginning with inputing the GELI passphrase up until it loads the video driver later on. It's a minor annoyance, but I wish there was a way to make that font bigger too right from the get go. I should be grateful if anyone has an idea how to fix that too?


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## olli@ (Aug 29, 2019)

a+bi said:


> Ah, yes, I ended up switching to the terminus font looks much better. Definitely legible.
> 
> Only thing the font is still pretty small from boot beginning with inputing the GELI passphrase up until it loads the video driver later on. It's a minor annoyance, but I wish there was a way to make that font bigger too right from the get go. I should be grateful if anyone has an idea how to fix that too?


Well, the old syscons driver sc(4) had an option to compile a font into the kernel (`SC_DFLT_FONT`) so it could be used right from the start. Unfortunately, the new virtual terminal driver vt(4) does not provide such an option, as far as I know.


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## rusk (Nov 19, 2019)

SirDice said:


> Probably the main reason is that the vt(4) driver is still a work in progress. "



that's not a very good reason. since the manual is for users -- not developers-- and most of all new users, it should guide users with the system they get when they download the software. if it's incomplete then the manual should at least mention that it's incomplete and offer a workaround. it would take about as much effort as responding to a new forum post every 6 months, and new users can save 2-3 hours headache of trawling multiple incomplete answers in a cookied, forced-clearnet, forum.




SirDice said:


> Also keep in mind that the handbook is also very community driven, somebody needs to put in the time and effort to write or update it.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


see above. adding a caveat of it's incompleteness: 2 sentences. adding a possible workaround and it's drawbacks: 1-2 sentences. this has been an issue for at least 4 years, so the manual has been in this out of date state for that long. i'm a new user and this is the first thing i encounter. makes me wonder about the rest of the manual, and if it's standard fare to trawl forum posts and email lists from years ago, essentially recreating timelines on obscure development details, before i can even begin operating the system. if so that's fine. i'll keep trying.


edit: removed some off-topic stuff


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