OS: openSUSE 12.2 (64 bit) KDE (Nvidia GPU installed - problem independent of whether Nvidia/Nouveau driver installed for X-Window).
Problem: Using GRUB2, the TTY virtual console resolutions do not change whether modified within YaST or directly. This is especially a problem if the default resolution is inappropriately small (e.g. 640x480 or 800x600).
Workaround: Use GRUB Legacy. The resolution changes correctly after modifying the GRUB configuration.
What did you do to try and modify the console resolution directly? I haven’t had to change any parameter in /etc/default/grub, but if any changes are made there, it is then necessary to update the configuration to take effect with
grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
The ‘GRUB_GFXMODE=…’ option sets the console display mode. For example, mine is set to
GRUB_GFXMODE=auto
but it could be explicitly set with a valid mode eg
GRUB_GFXMODE=1280x960x16
Note: It the ‘nomodeset’ option is used, this will prevent the desired display resolution being set.
That & more is covered in the updated openSUSE documentation, see 8.2.2 here for Grub2
I used the last of your methods:
GRUB_GFXMODE=1920x1200x16
I tried other (more common) resolutions (e.g.1280x1024). I didn’t run grub2-mkconfig however so that might explain why it didn’t work!
consused wrote:
> That & more is covered in the updated openSUSE documentation, see 8.2.2
> ‘here for Grub2’ (http://tinyurl.com/8otk74t)
Hey thanks for that link! 
Well done, whoever wrote that. And I’m also
glad to see there is now a GNU grub2 manual. It’s been a while since I
looked.
Yes, information! That is what we need.
I tried other (more common) resolutions (e.g.1280x1024). I didn’t run grub2-mkconfig however so that might explain why it didn’t work!
Yep 
While exploring the documentation, and discussing grub2 a couple of weeks back in this thread, I ended up switching to it completely (a little sooner than I had intended.)
Did you check if new resolution was entered into /etc/default/grub? Which would imply that YaST2 does not run grub2-mkconfig at this point.
Thanks for GRUB2 info link :)!
Good question ! Unfortunately the answer is that I can’t be sure because I had previously made the modification myself manually. At the time I didn’t realise that grub2-mkconfig had be to run to update /boot/grub/grub.cfg . When I try GRUB2 again, I’ll experiment with this.
Thanks for all the suggestions! I just wanted to feedback on the result having read the GRUB2 info and running grub2-mkconfig - nothing worked. It appears to be a problem that is not confined to openSUSE (just Google `GRUB2 1920x1200).
For now I’m sticking with GRUB Legacy and I hope it continues to be supported. It’s only slightly annoying to have the GRUB2-associated boot options appended to the GRUB screen with the openSUSE updates…
Same here.