How to set the resolution in text consoles (troubleshoot when any `vga=...` fails)

Newer kernels use KMS by default, so you should move away from appending vga= to your grub line as it will conflict with the native resolution of KMS. However, it depends upon the video driver you are using: the proprietary Nvidia driver doesn't support KMS, but you can work around it.

You should be able to get full resolution in the framebuffer by editing your /etc/default/grub and making sure that the GFXMODE is set correctly, and then adding a GFXPAYLOAD entry like so:

GRUB_GFXMODE=1680x1050x24

# Hack to force higher framebuffer resolution
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=1680x1050

Remember to run sudo update-grub afterwards.

For newer Debian & Ubuntu distros using nvidia, I had to do the following:

First, edit /etc/default/grub. Change the following line:

#GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480 

to this:

GRUB_GFXMODE=1280x800 
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=keep

replacing 1280x800 with the desired resolution.

Then:

echo "echo FRAMEBUFFER=y" | sudo tee /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/splash
sudo update-initramfs -u
sudo update-grub

To simply change the font size, you can do so using the following command:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure console-setup

Here's your best option:

Use sudo hwinfo --framebuffer as described, choose a video mode you would like to see during boot in console, then add the option vga=nnn to the kernel boot parameters.

The only trick is that nnn is the video mode you selected from the list produced by hwinfo - CONVERTED TO DECIMAL !!!

If you try vga=0xwhatever it's not going to work.

For instance I chose video mode 0x307 (1280x1024 (+1280), 8 bits), I converted 0x307 to decimal which is 775 and then I used vga=775 in the boot parameters of isolinux/extlinux.

You can use printf to convert hexadecimal to decimal: $ printf "%d\n" 0x307 775

And I got a nice fine text in all consoles from the start.

Success!