Extra large font during startup & shutdown

Running Opensuse 11.4 (but had same problem on 11.3). During startup and shutdown, the text messages are displayed using a very large font (characters are > 1 cm high).
How can I specify the font and font size it uses ? Presumably it is doing a bad job of detecting the monitor (its a Samsung SyncMaster P2250).
Which config file contains a suitable entry, and what is the entry ?
Thanks.
AM

But is everything OK when the system is running?

What graphics device and have you installed any driver?

GeForce 7100 card. I have the Nvidia-gfxG02-kmp-desktop driver module, version 260.19.44, which I think is the latest one.

Did you follow this
nVidia Driver via Repo in 11.3 & 11.4 - Guide

What does the “vga=…” statement on the boot options line say?

What’s the native resolution of your monitor?

It says vga=0x348
Where can I find what that means ?
The resolution of the monitor is 1920 x 1080. Not sure if that’s what you meant by ‘native’ resolution.

You can read the available vga= options here

VESA BIOS Extensions - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia