vbeinfo and grub2 resolution

[stan]

On Sun, 07 Jun 2015 10:34:28 -0400
Alex Regan <mysqlstudent at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I have a few fedora20 systems running on 1U rackmount servers with
> basic video cards. One of them is an MGA G200eW WPCM450
> 
> 03:03.0 VGA compatible controller: Matrox Electronics Systems Ltd.
> MGA G200eW WPCM450 (rev 0a)
> 
> Where can I find the current documentation on how to set a reasonable 
> console text video mode for this card? The docs I've found either
> relate to older grub2 or just grub.
> 
> I've seen references to vbemode and vbeinfo as well as gfxmode and 
> gfxpayload, but don't understand how to determine what video modes
> the controller supports. Is it possible to choose "800x600" and have
> grub figure out which mode that is for the particular controller?

I can't point you to documentation.  But I used to set the resolution.
It doesn't seem to be necessary anymore.  It's strange, when it failed
to set the resolution for me, it defaulted to 640x480, so large it was
almost unusable, but not slow.

In /boot/grub2/grub.cfg, there used to be a stanza to load font. From
an F20 grub.cfg.

if loadfont $font ; then
  set gfxmode=1920x1080
  set gfxpayload=keep
  load_video
  insmod gfxterm
  set locale_dir=$prefix/locale
  set lang=en_US
  insmod gettext
fi

I added these two lines in order to set the screen resolution.
  set gfxmode=1920x1080
  set gfxpayload=keep

In F21, that loadfont stanza is missing, but just putting the 
  set gfxpayload=keep
into each kernel stanza after load video seems to work.

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry 'Fedora' --class fedora --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class
  os --unrestricted $menuentry_id_option
  'gnulinux-simple-f908bebb-66db-48db-a429-fe716bf67592' { 
        load_video
        set gfxpayload=keep 
        insmod gzio
        insmod part_gpt
        insmod ext2

I do this so the virtual consoles have the same resolution as X.
Otherwise, they seem to default to 640x480.  X has the right resolution
by default.

> 
> I'd like a simple 800x600 or something that will scroll smoothly. 
> Whatever the current default is, causes the text to scroll entirely
> too slowly.

You could try setting it using the above statements.

Not very definitive, but maybe it will help.