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I installed FreeBSD 11.2 on my DELL Latitude E7470 with UEFI (might be important). By default it does not install a GUI and that is fine by me (for now). Using the <Alt>+<Fn> keys I can switch between different virtual terminals.

I'm stuck with a 1920x1080 screen resolution

This results in way too small characters for me to read comfortably.

  • I tried enterind mode 0 in /boot/loader.conf to switch to 800x600 mode but that does not work. It does work however when I press the <Esc> key during boot and enter it at the boot prompt.
  • Using gop set <n> crashes the laptop, i.e. the screen goes black and the laptop does not respond to any keys anymore.

Anyone has any ideas on how to fix this?

Tommiie
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  • Interesting question, unfortunately I can't say I have a direct answer, but it does appear you are looking in the right place (i.e. loader.conf). Check out the bottom of this bug report and see what the users' resolution was, hopefully it can help. Possibly add "mode 0" to /boot/loader.rc.local (you may have to create that file)? https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/kernel-boot-resolution.53150/ – bgregs Dec 04 '18 at 16:08
  • related? https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/361243/using-native-1366-x-768-resolution-in-a-lenovo-ideapad/361244#361244 Would "mode 2" work? – Rui F Ribeiro Dec 04 '18 at 17:17
  • `mode 2` doesn’t work either. The file _/boot/loader.rc.local_ is not referenced anywhere. The file _/boot/loader.conf.local_ is though. But that file is no different than the one I was already using. In addition, setting `mode` also prevents the commands behind it from executing. Since I had my WLAN config in the file behind the `mode` command, my wifi card stopped working. So FreeBSD clearly doesn’t like the command. – Tommiie Dec 04 '18 at 19:39
  • Which size of the font makes *characters too small* at 1920×1080? Modern systems (FreeBSD included) are supplied with fonts up to 16×32 which is sufficiently readable. Forcing a TFT matrix into non-native resolution is a bad idea. – Incnis Mrsi Jan 15 '23 at 14:04

3 Answers3

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The way to change the resolution of the kernel virtual terminals is the vidcontrol command. The -i mode option causes it to display a table of available video modes. Make the chosen mode setting be applied at bootstrap by setting the allscreens_flags variable in /etc/rc.conf.

Further reading

JdeBP
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It's possible your video card is not supported by the default vt driver. Switch to sc by placing this in /boot/loader.conf

hw.vty=sc

Reboot, login, and try vidcontrol -i mode again.

Thanks to protocelt on FreeBSD forums

user112358
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  • Could be. I don not use FreeBSD anymore as my daily driver on the laptop so I cannot check whether this is the case or not. – Tommiie Sep 08 '20 at 10:18
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You can change the resolution and font size of the console in /boot/loader.conf.

These are my settings, as an example:

screen.font="10x20"
efi_max_resolution="1920x1080"

Of course, after editing /boot/loader.conf, you need to reboot for the changes to take effect.

kodcode
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