1RESIZECONS(8)                   Console Support                  RESIZECONS(8)
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NAME

6       resizecons - change kernel idea of the console size
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SYNOPSIS

9       resizecons COLSxROWS
10       resizecons -lines ROWS
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DESCRIPTION

13       The  resizecons  command  tries to change the videomode of the console.
14       There are several aspects to this: (a) the kernel must know  about  it,
15       (b)  the hardware must know about it, (c) user programs must know about
16       it, (d) the console font may have to be adapted.
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18       (a) The kernel is told about the  change  using  the  ioctl  VT_RESIZE.
19       This causes the kernel to reallocate console screen memory for all vir‐
20       tual consoles, and might fail if there is not enough memory.  (In  that
21       case,  try  to disallocate some virtual consoles first.)  If this ioctl
22       succeeds, but a later step fails (e.g., because you do  not  have  root
23       permissions), you may be left with a very messy screen.
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25       The  most  difficult  part  of  this is (b), since it requires detailed
26       knowledge of the video card hardware, and the setting of numerous  reg‐
27       isters.  Only  changing  the  number  of  rows  is slightly easier, and
28       resizecons will try to do that itself, when given  the  -lines  option.
29       (Probably,  root  permission will be required.)  The command resizecons
30       COLSxROWS will execute restoretextmode -r COLSxROWS (and hence requires
31       that  you  have  svgalib  installed). Here COLSxROWS is a file that was
32       created earlier by restoretextmode -w COLSxROWS.   Again,  either  root
33       permissions are required, or restoretextmode has to be suid root.
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35       In order to deal with (c), resizecons does a `stty rows ROWS cols COLS'
36       for each active console (in the range tty0..tty15), and  sends  a  SIG‐
37       WINCH signal to selection if it finds the file /tmp/selection.pid.
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39       Finally, (d) is dealt with by executing a setfont command. Most likely,
40       the wrong font is loaded, and you may want to do another setfont  your‐
41       self afterwards.
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BUGS

45       resizecons  does  not  work  on  all hardware.  This command used to be
46       called resize, but was renamed to avoid conflict with  another  command
47       with the same name.
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SEE ALSO

51       setfont(8), stty(1), selection(1), restoretextmode(8), disalloc(8)
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56Local                             17 Jan 1995                    RESIZECONS(8)