Setting the Resolution in an X-less VM
Ever been working in a VM that is command line only and wished it wasn’t so small? Well, that was how I felt constantly until now. Step on past the break to see how to change the resolution in an X-less install by utilizing uvesafb.
Let’s look at this from two points of view: Ubuntu and Gentoo.
Ubuntu with Grub2:
First, we are assuming that you want to make your window 1024x768-24... adjust as you see fit.
Install v86d so you can get uvesafb:
gene@ubuntu01:~$ sudo apt-get install v86d
Edit /etc/default/grub so that the lines referenced below are changed:
... GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nomodeset video=uvesafb:mode_option=1024x768-24,mtrr=3,scroll=ywrap" ... GRUB_GFXMODE=1024x768
Now add the following to /etc/initramfs-tools/modules:
uvesafb mode_option=1024x768-24 mtrr=3 scroll=ywrap
Now we need to force the use of the framebuffer:
gene@ubuntu01:~$ echo FRAMEBUFFER=y | sudo tee /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/splash
Lastly we need to apply these changes and reboot:
gene@ubuntu01:~$ sudo update-grub2 gene@ubuntu01:~$ sudo update-initramfs -u gene@ubuntu01:~$ sudo reboot
Gentoo:
I could reinvent the wheel here... or I can just let Spock, the author of uvesafb, tell us how this is done at http://dev.gentoo.org/~spock/projects/uvesafb/
That's it. I hope you enjoy having a little more real estate in your command line only VM's.