Ubuntu – How to change the console resolution of Ubuntu 9.10 Server running on VMWare

grubUbuntuubuntu-9.10vmware

I'm running Ubuntu 9.10 Server in VMWare Fusion (on a Mac) and I'm having trouble changing the console resolution. It seems to be stuck on 640×480.

Ubuntu 9.10 uses Grub2, so there is no /etc/grub/menu.lst.

I tried adding vga=791 to the kernel parameters (both during boot and by adding it to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT in /etc/default/grub and then running update-grub2) and neither had any effect.

When using vga=791, grub says that vga=791 is depreciated and that I should use gfxpayload=1024x768x16,1024x768 instead. However, that also does absolutely nothing.

I have a feeling this problem is specific to running Ubuntu 9.10 in VMWare, but Google hasn't turned up anything.

Best Answer

Tried all of these with Ubuntu 9.10 Server as VMWare guest and WinXP Pro as host and they didn't work.

I eventually found that you had to edit /boot/grub/grub.cfg but using the old vga=773 in this file caused the boot to fail to configure the console and so I was almost stuffed as the console was now blank :( ... until I remembered that I'd installed the SSH service and was able to login to fix it using Putty. Then it dawned on me that by using Putty I got what I was after ... a resizeable colour console window (any number in fact) and so I didn't need to tweek the main VMWare console dimensions. Duh! Add WinSCP (Windows) or CuteFTP/FireFTP (OSX) and you don't need to use the VMWare console at all. Just let the Linux server be a server. No more Ctrl-Alt's to free the mouse and with WinSCP you can use a decent text editor and directory/file browser.

Related Solutions

Ubuntu 9.10 – How to Change Console Shell Resolution

Edit /boot/grub/grub.cfg Identify a block that looks like this (your current running kernel):

menuentry "Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-14-generic" {
    recordfail=1
    if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi
set quiet=1
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,1)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set e5ce0bc0-d1b0-4802-a6d4-3fd9fc0e7e58
linux   /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=UUID=e5ce0bc0-d1b0-4802-a6d4-3fd9fc0e7e58 ro   quiet splash
initrd  /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic
}

Edit the "linux ..." line and, at the end (after "quiet splash"), leave a blank and add something like "vga=773" or another code, depending on the resolution. Here is a list of codes for various resolutions.

Reboot and the new resolution should be enabled.

The provided link gives a list of modes on one particular system; with the 'hwinfo' utility you can generate a list of modes for your system as follows:

hwinfo --framebuffer

How to enable boot timeout in Grub2

Answer taken from http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1373965

at the end of your /etc/grub.d/00_header file, comment out the if condition except for the regular set timeout line like this:

#if [ \${recordfail} = 1 ]; then
#  set timeout=-1
#else
  set timeout=${GRUB_TIMEOUT}
#fi

run update-grub to regenerate the grub.cfg with the new settings:

sudo update-grub

reboot, now it should always boot the default option after the timeout, even if the previous boot failed.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu 9.10 – How to Change Console Shell Resolution

How to enable boot timeout in Grub2

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