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 virtual 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  registers.  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 SIGWINCH 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 yourself afterwards.

BUGS

       resizecons does not work on all hardware.  For example, it cannot be used on platforms other than x86 and
       x86_64.  See the fbset(1) program if you are looking for an alternative.

       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), fbset(1)