RESIZECONS(8)			Console Support			 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 kernel 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 vir-
       tual consoles, and might fail if there is not enough memory.  (In  that
       case,  try  to disallocate 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 setting of numerous  reg-
       isters.	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 restoretextmode 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  SIG-
       WINCH 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	 your-
       self afterwards.


BUGS
       resizecons  does	 not  work  on	all hardware.  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), disalloc(8)




Local				  17 Jan 1995			 RESIZECONS(8)