resizecons

RESIZECONS(8)                   Console Support                  RESIZECONS(8)

NAME
       resizecons - change kernel idea of the console size

SYNOPSIS
       resizecons COLSxROWS
       resizecons -lines ROWS

DESCRIPTION
       The  resizecons  command  tries to change the videomode of the console.
       There are several aspects to this: (a) the kernel must know  about  it,
       (b)  the hardware must know about it, (c) user programs must know about
       it, (d) the console font may have to be adapted.

       (a) The kernel is told about the  change  using  the  ioctl  VT_RESIZE.
       This causes the kernel to reallocate console screen memory for all vir-
       tual consoles, and might fail if there is not enough memory.  (In  that
       case,  try  to disallocate some virtual consoles first.)  If this ioctl
       succeeds, but a later step fails (e.g., because you do  not  have  root
       permissions), you may be left with a very messy screen.

       The  most  difficult  part  of  this is (b), since it requires detailed
       knowledge of the video card hardware, and the setting of numerous  reg-
       isters.  Only  changing  the number of rows is slightly easier, and re-
       sizecons will try to do that itself,  when  given  the  -lines  option.
       (Probably,  root  permission will be required.)  The command resizecons
       COLSxROWS will execute restoretextmode -r COLSxROWS (and hence requires
       that  you  have  svgalib  installed). Here COLSxROWS is a file that was
       created earlier by restoretextmode -w COLSxROWS.   Again,  either  root
       permissions are required, or restoretextmode has to be suid root.

       In order to deal with (c), resizecons does a `stty rows ROWS cols COLS'
       for each active console (in the range tty0..tty15), and  sends  a  SIG-
       WINCH signal to selection if it finds the file /tmp/selection.pid.

       Finally, (d) is dealt with by executing a setfont command. Most likely,
       the wrong font is loaded, and you may want to do another setfont  your-
       self afterwards.

BUGS
       resizecons  does  not  work on all hardware.  For example, it cannot be
       used on platforms other than x86 and x86_64.  See the fbset(1)  program
       if you are looking for an alternative.

       This  command  used  to be called resize, but was renamed to avoid con-
       flict with another command with the same name.

SEE ALSO
       setfont(8), stty(1), selection(1), restoretextmode(8), disalloc(8), fb-
       set(1)

Local                             17 Jan 1995                    RESIZECONS(8)