# Adjusting screen size



## balanga (Mar 24, 2018)

A few months ago I asked if there was any way to adjust virtual screen size if it was too big to fit on a monitor. I've looked for that post but can't find it now.... I seem to recall that someone said it may be possible to adjust virtual screen size by some settings in /boot/device.hints but no specifics were mentioned.

Anyone know what to look for?


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## Bobi B. (Mar 25, 2018)

See fonts selection in rc.conf(5). Maybe vidcontrol(1) and vidfont(1), as well? /etc/rc.d/syscons applies system console-related settings upon startup.


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## SirDice (Mar 26, 2018)

Bobi B. said:


> Maybe vidcontrol(1) and vidfont(1), as well? /etc/rc.d/syscons applies system console-related settings upon startup.


vidcontrol(1) is for sc(4), recent FreeBSD versions use vt(4) by default.


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## Bobi B. (Mar 26, 2018)

SirDice said:


> vidcontrol(1) is for sc(4), recent FreeBSD versions use vt(4) by default.


So that's why console screensaver stopped working since upgrading few machines to FreeBSD 11! Thank you!


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## balanga (Mar 28, 2018)

I believe the problem may be due to the wrong 'overscan settings'... Is this something I can adjust?


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## SirDice (Mar 28, 2018)

Overscan is typically an issue when you connect a computer to a TV instead of a monitor (strangely enough even on a modern flatscreen TV with HDMI or DVI). If you connect a monitor using DVI, HDMI or DP the scale is fixed and there is no overscan possible. If it's VGA you sometimes have to adjust the monitor to scale and move the picture so it fits nicely on screen (This due to VGA being an analog signal).


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## balanga (Mar 29, 2018)

Are you saying TV's and monitors use different technologies? I am, in fact, hooking up a PC to a TV monitor where  several characters are cut off the screen. Having said that, I did notice that when using Raspbian on a Raspberry Pi it did manage to centre the screen on the TV without any characters being cut off


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## SirDice (Mar 29, 2018)

balanga said:


> Are you saying TV's and monitors use different technologies?


No, they use the same technology, that's why it's weird that even on a modern TV you still run into that overscan issue. 


balanga said:


> I am, in fact, hooking up a PC to a TV monitor where several characters are cut off the screen.


I have to switch my TV to "Best fit" mode if I connect a computer. If I set it to "16:9" or "1:1" I get an oversized image. The PC is set to 1920x1080 and TV is 1920x1080. So you would expect this to match up 1 to 1 as it does on a monitor. But with TVs this doesn't seem to be the case and I never understood why. Overscan made sense with analog signals but it should not happen or be needed with digital signals.


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## Chris_H (Apr 2, 2018)

Bobi B. said:


> So that's why console screensaver stopped working since upgrading few machines to FreeBSD 11! Thank you!


I *can't* use vt(4) on _anything_ I own -- nVidia, or unsupported (too new ATI/AMD video chipsets/cards). As a result it's a painful process to manage any new (fresh) installs. So FWIW to others who may fall into this category.
1) add kern.vty=sc to your loader.conf(5) file.
and when (re)building your kernel
2) add

```
device        sc
options     SC_PIXEL_MODE        # add support for the raster text mode
```
to your KERNCONF (kernel config) file.

It's enough to add the kern.vty=sc to loader.conf(5) to change your console (requires reboot). This will
bring the output to within the range/resolution of your current resolution. IOW you'll be able to see everything on your screen again. 

HTH

--Chris


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