Changing resolution of your Ubuntu Server command line in VMWare Fusion

UPDATE: I’ve since been told this doesn’t work for all users. I’ve done a bit more searching and the easiest solution is to simply use Mac OSX Terminal at full screen :)

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Once again I find myself blogging about something that took way too long to solve. If you want to change the console / cli / command line resolution of your Ubuntu Server running in VMWare Fusion then this is what you need to do:

Edit the grub template file:

sudo vi /etc/default/grub

Add the desired resolution from the table below to the file:

    | 640x480  800x600  1024x768 1280x1024
----+-------------------------------------
256 |  0x301    0x303    0x305    0x307
32k |  0x310    0x313    0x316    0x319
64k |  0x311    0x314    0x317    0x31A
16M |  0x312    0x315    0x318    0x31B
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINE="vga=0x317"

Trigger an update to all the grub config files by issuing the following:

sudo update-grub

Check it works :)

sudo reboot

You will get a message saying that “vga=” has been depreciated and that you should use GFXPAYLOAD instead. Unfortunately you cannot easily add that param to your /etc/default/grub file without changing a whole bunch of other stuff.

See here for more information:

Link 1

Link 2

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This entry was posted on Saturday, November 7th, 2009 at 9:29 pm and is filed under Linux . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to “Changing resolution of your Ubuntu Server command line in VMWare Fusion”

  • Big Mac Says:
    February 11th, 2010 at 5:36 am

    NO It didn’t work; and now nothing comes up. Yor a peace of shit.

  • Brady J. Frey Says:
    June 15th, 2011 at 1:33 am

    On the new Ubuntu’s, it’s a little different. Like you said, edit:
    etc/default/grub

    But now comment out the line
    GRUB_GFXMODE

    and make it something like:
    GRUB_GFXMODE=1024×768

    It’s human readable, so pick your resolution. Once done, you can:
    update-grub

    and
    reboot

    as normal. Rinse and repeat for the resolution of your choosing!

  • Pierce Says:
    July 12th, 2011 at 3:44 pm

    Came across this in a Google search. Kinda wish I’d read the whole article before jumping into it. Yeah, it killed my Ubuntu server VM display, luckily I was able to ssh into the server and undo what I did and rebooted and it all worked again. Anyone trying this, your mileage may vary. I would do as the author suggests at the end. Just SSH into the server and fullscreen your terminal.

  • Aji Setiabudi Says:
    July 20th, 2011 at 2:42 am

    These are mine: 4 servers (Ubuntu Natty), 1 KVM & monitor
    In /etc/default/grub, uncomment:
    #GRUB_TERMINAL=console
    #GRUB_GFXMODE=640×480

    Restart twice (LoL O_o), then it works. I don’t use update-grub tough.

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