# Setting a working console resolution on an IBM 8518



## Ozric (May 8, 2019)

I have an IBM 8518 connected to a Raspberry Pi 2 running FreeBSD 12.0, and I am trying to figure out how to set a console resolution. The default setting is not compatible with the monitor, and gives med a tripled display:






If I do a 
	
	



```
vidcontrol -i mode
```
 the list is empty. I have tried changing the term type between sc and vt in /boot/loader.conf but that makes no difference.


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## SirDice (May 8, 2019)

Ozric said:


> I have an IBM 8518 connected to a Raspberry Pi 2 running FreeBSD 12.0


How? The IBM has a VGA input and the Pi has HDMI. VGA is analog, HDMI is digital. Did you use some HDMI to VGA converter? The resolution of the monitor is 640x480 while the Pi outputs 1920x1080. 



			8518 Color Monitor - Technical Specifications


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## Ozric (May 8, 2019)

SirDice said:


> How? The IBM has a VGA input and the Pi has HDMI. VGA is analog, HDMI is digital. Did you use some HDMI to VGA converter? The resolution of the monitor is 640x480 while the Pi outputs 1920x1080.
> 
> 
> 
> 8518 Color Monitor - Technical Specifications



Yes I used a converter:





I have been able to get 640x480 to work in X, that's not an issue really (dosbox here running under X):




But in the console I do not know what to set to make it display properly.


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## SirDice (May 8, 2019)

Have a look here: https://wiki.freebsd.org/FreeBSD/arm/Raspberry Pi#External_Displays

Fiddling with the `hdmi_mode` and/or `hdmi_cvt` might provide a better resolution for the monitor. I have no idea what to put in there though, so you're probably going to need to do some experimenting.


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## Ozric (May 10, 2019)

Thanks for the link, I found a solution.
In /boot/msdos/config.txt I set:

```
hdmi_group=1
hdmi_mode=1
```

I now get 640x480 in the console.


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