Manual: resizecons

RESIZECONS(8)					   System Manager's Manual				       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 ker‐
       nel  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 virtual consoles, and might fail if there is not enough memory.  (In that case, try to disallo‐
       cate  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 set‐
       ting of numerous registers. Only changing the number of rows is slightly easier, and resizecons 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	 re‐
       storetextmode 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 SIGWINCH 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 yourself 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 conflict with another command with the same name.

SEE ALSO
       setfont(8), stty(1), selection(1), restoretextmode(8), deallocvt(8), fbset(1)

kbd							 17 Jan 1995					       RESIZECONS(8)