Ssh – change to text console using ssh

Newer kernels use KMS by default, so you should move away from appending vga= to your grub line as it will conflict with the native resolution of KMS. However, it depends upon the video driver you are using: the proprietary Nvidia driver doesn't support KMS, but you can work around it.

You should be able to get full resolution in the framebuffer by editing your /etc/default/grub and making sure that the GFXMODE is set correctly, and then adding a GFXPAYLOAD entry like so:

GRUB_GFXMODE=1680x1050x24

# Hack to force higher framebuffer resolution
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=1680x1050

Remember to run sudo update-grub afterwards.

When trying to use similar window managers (xwem, ratpoison) for the first time, I first also tried to follow the setup instructions involving xmodmap to get a modifiier key for the window manager, but then I felt that using xmodmap in my system causes some mess, because in my system (an ALTLinux distro) attention has always been paid to multilingual keyboard configuration via XKB, rather than via xmodmap.

So, I found an XKB option to label the key I wanted as "Hyper", and then used the "Hyper" modifier in the configuration for xwem or ratpoison.

In my case, the option to setxkbmap is:

 -option altwin:hyper_win

and here is the comment I've saved on the occasion of adding it to my setup:

xemacs-xwem uses Hyper, so I found this predefined XKB map (in xkb/symbols/altwin), which uses the WIN keys.

Perhaps later I'll make up another XKB map for me, say, using the right Control as Hyper (that will force my hand to use the right Control--now my hand just ignores it).

I thought it's a more clean way to get myself a Hyper key through XKB rather than through xmodmap (as described in XWEM docs), because:

1. xmodmap configuration of modifier keys seems not to be nice w.r.t. the way it forces one to present one's intentions: one must say something about arbitrarily numbered modifier bits, but I don't want to think about these technical things: I need merely a "Hyper" modifier, not some obscure manipulations with the internals! In xmodmap, I'd need to give 2 or even 3 obscure statements to achieve the result, although logically this is a single wish and operation. (One xmodmap statement would not be enough, cf. XEmacs' warnings (FIXME: insert!) if you map Control_R to a modN; there are some technical constraints.)

2. one is told stories that XKB and xmodmap don't play well together, so that not all X programs will work nicely and coherently if you mix them (I must give a link here, FIXME).

Here is the relevant definition from /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/altwin, if someone is interested:

partial modifier_keys 
xkb_symbols "hyper_win" {
    key <LWIN> {    [   Hyper_L         ]   };
    key <RWIN> {    [   Hyper_R         ]   };
    modifier_map Mod4   { Hyper_L, Hyper_R };
};