Hello, I’m visually impaired, and I can not comfortable, nor easily read the text on the screen in this mode at 1920x1080. I think it’s way too small. At the least, I’d like it to offer “Text Mode (1920x1080)” and "Text Mode (1280x720) so I can read it better. I’d guess it’s 7 pt font or smaller, and it’s very time consuming to read. I like to stay about 18 inches away from the screen, and half of that’s not remotely possible in this mode.
please explain more what you mean booting from ISO
If this is a normal install you can set the text terminal resolution in yast - boot loader, but I don’t truly understand what you are doing so please expand.
Just like an ISO. It usually gets expanded for use as a boot medium. In this case I’m booting using a CD. I’m unable to get power to a flash drive in bios with this computer.
Still don’t know?? You use the ISO image to boot the installed system??? If so something is broken it should not be needed… You can change the resolution from the boot menu by editing the grub boot code but that is a one time change and if you are using an install image to boot the machine then you would need to do so with each boot.
You obviously are doing things differently then most others so you need to be clear on what and why you do things as you do.
You’re making this complicated! I have an old hard drive in the system, with an NTFS partition, so far it doesn’t look like I need to keep anything, but it’s fun going through it. It also (had) a copy of Debian on it, but grub isn’t there anymore, so I guess it’s gone.
I downloaded the Tumbleweed net installer for 32 bit. That download is an ISO file. With that ISO file, I burned it (expanded it) onto a CD, on windows, with CDBurner XP. Great program. With the CD, I put it into another machine (with the stuff written above on it). I booted with that CD. When I’m asked to “boot from hard disk”, “upgrade”, “installation” etc etc, I have several options to choose from at the bottom of the screen.
If I push F3, that is for video modes. I can pick many resolutions, and two of them being widescreen, only one (1280x720) being usable for me, as I don’t want to strain my eyes at close distances to the monitor.
The graphical mode for whatever reason (any of those resolutions) is slower than frozen molasses, and I’m not going to wait a week for my actions to be displayed. So I choose “Text Mode”. The problem is, it defaults to the highest native resolution, that being 1920x1080 of my monitor.
I struggle heavily to read this, and it’s not enjoyable. I like 720p. (or in Windows, I can scale up everything to that size and utilize 1080p. It’s 150% larger…).
I would like an option when choosing the video mode (by pushing F3 and picking from the list of options) to choose the resolution of the text mode, so I can enjoy installing OpenSUSE and not struggling to read it–this is extremely important when it comes to partitioning.
Well, I might be able to get somewhere with this. 1280x1024 is very close to 1920x1080 (the height controls size) but I chose the “No KMS” in the video options, and I just let it sit. For maybe an hour and a half. Then I think it really settled down, and I’m waiting to get into the partitioner. Linux finds a way! (Even if that way is really confusing and I don’t understand any of it, at least it’s an option!)
On Fri 29 Apr 2016 05:06:02 PM CDT, timpster wrote:
You’re making this complicated! I have an old hard drive in the system,
with an NTFS partition, so far it doesn’t look like I need to keep
anything, but it’s fun going through it. It also (had) a copy of Debian
on it, but grub isn’t there anymore, so I guess it’s gone.
I downloaded the Tumbleweed net installer for 32 bit. That download is
an ISO file. With that ISO file, I burned it (expanded it) onto a CD,
on windows, with CDBurner XP. Great program. With the CD, I put it
into another machine (with the stuff written above on it). I booted
with that CD. When I’m asked to “boot from hard disk”, “upgrade”,
“installation” etc etc, I have several options to choose from at the
bottom of the screen.
If I push F3, that is for video modes. I can pick many resolutions, and
two of them being widescreen, only one (1280x720) being usable for me,
as I don’t want to strain my eyes at close distances to the monitor.
The graphical mode for whatever reason (any of those resolutions) is
slower than frozen molasses, and I’m not going to wait a week for my
actions to be displayed. So I choose “Text Mode”. The problem is, it
defaults to the highest native resolution, that being 1920x1080 of my
monitor.
I struggle heavily to read this, and it’s not enjoyable. I like 720p.
(or in Windows, I can scale up everything to that size and utilize
1080p. It’s 150% larger…).
I would like an option when choosing the video mode (by pushing F3 and
picking from the list of options) to choose the resolution of the text
mode, so I can enjoy installing OpenSUSE and not struggling to read
it–this_is_extremely_important_when_it_comes_to_partitioning.
Hi
At the grub menu push the e key to edit and in the kernel options (the
one with quiet in it) add your desired vga mode via vga= eg vga=264
(80x60), when do, press F10 to boot.
See more here: VESA BIOS Extensions - Wikipedia
–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° LFCS, SUSE Knowledge Partner (Linux Counter #276890)
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Well maybe Linux doesn’t find a way today–still getting the error after all the repos load (it’s right after the language / keyboard / license screen in the setup. Once I click next, the repos start loading–then I’m thrown to a blue background and a red box saying “An error has occurred” so I have no idea how to fix that. Now trying with a wireless PCI card that has a driver in linux, which is always nice. So for now, I’ll go back to my other thread.
Is this a net install or are you using the full DVD?
You must remember we can not see over your shoulder so you have to tell use what you are doing. So it appears you are installing. The full DVD does not require a working network.
nokms forces use of fall back video drivers which generally do not support higher resolution.
Net install, sorry! Let’s take this to: TW net install "An error has occurred" red box. Can't proceed - Install/Boot/Login - openSUSE Forums
I made a new thread about it as this one was only related to resolution. Thank you for explaining nokms, that’s good to know, and it seems the limit is 1024 height.
@OP,
When you install openSUSE in "Server Mode,’
Grub boots with its VESA video driver but is never replaced by a more capable driver which is what happens when a Desktop is installed.
So, you have a few options…
- Modify the VESA configuration. See the GRUB documentation for doing this. You <may> be able to try setting an new xrandr configuration, but I haven’t tried that.
- You can install the “Minimal X” Desktop option. It’s not really a Desktop, but is a Windows Manager so you do have a graphical UI with some tools to work with. Since you’re still using the VESA driver, you won’t have many display options but it seems that you want to actually configure a <lower> resolution which should be possible (a higher resolution wouldn’t be possible). The additional benefit is that nowadays you should be able to do most console operations in a windowed console better than a true, bare tty. The resources used to run Minimal X is not much different than running in Server Text mode.
- You can install other “lighter” Desktops like LXDE and XFCE with more capability than Minimal X, but will likely require about 500MB more RAM (my own estimation).
HTH,
TSU
Thank you for the information, but that’s a bit too in depth. I don’t want to configure all the xrandr files, but what ended up working, (in 1920x1080) was a cd booting into a USB, with an openSUSE image made with UnetBootin. That last part is especially important.
In Unetbootin, it gives me the option of “Default” which doesn’t work at all! “Linux” which is just basically, “Start installation”. So, how might I configure the ISO files (it’s all expanded on the USB drive, so I don’t have to manually get into it) to start at a lower resolution, like 1280x720?
Typing in OpenSUSE 13.2 but I can’t get my wi-fi card working. When I try to both ‘Enable’ and ‘Start’ the network service, it won’t let me, it says it’s inactive. How can I fix that? Ethernet works fine.
Just giving you all the options I can think of for your choosing…
If you’d like a recommendation from the choices I presented, depending on your reason for selecting Server mode in the first place, I’d recommend
Re-install, but choose “Minimal X” for your Desktop instead of “Server” if you’re trying to minimize attack surface and resource usage whenever you’re logged in locally to your machine. You should then have a graphical tool to modify your screen resolution so you don’t need to know how to configure xandr. You should see almost no difference in CPU or memory usage compared to the text-only Server mode.
TSU
I’m trying to do this when booting from an install CD–in this situation, I don’t have a desktop, (not one that I know how to access) so I don’t think this pertains. In XFCE I can just change stuff to where I need it.
XFCE is a desktop
So I don’t think minimal X as the desktop will affect the display when I’m installing through system. I unbeatable how to configure the resolution when I’m installed and at a normal desktop.
I’m going against what I stated and I wouldn’t mind modifying the files available on the ISO as it currently seems the easiest and most persistent way to go. Where may I post a list of files in the / of my usb drive? I think if I modify the “Linux” option I could change the res.
Since I had to build a new machine (TW but the following should apply to MinimalX on all openSUSE versions)
I went ahead and tested the MinimalX solution I recommended…
So, this is what happens…
During the initial boot process, Grub and any screen messages you see will be at whatever the GRUB default configuration is, on your machine.
You will be presented with a login screen, enter your username and password.
You will then see a graphical Desktop like environment, but AFAIK it’s only a Window Manager at full screen for the most part with an application launcher button, menu and only one installed application, xterm.
Within this graphical environment, you can install any app you choose, for your described purpose I installed arandr (Another xrandr config utility). After it’s installed, you now have an easy to use app to re-configure your Desktop resolution, you can find it in the following menu item
IceWM_App_Button > SUSE > Utilities > Desktop > ARandR
When you open ARandR,
Click “New” in case you decide you’d like to save your configuration (for applying to another machine? Or, just skip this step, I don’t personally see a point for now.
Click “Outputs” in the menu bar, scroll down to “Virtual1” (It’s probably the only option not greyed out), click on “Resolution” and choose something.
After the new resolution is selected, click the “Apply” button and your screen will change.
HTH,
TSU