Solved Lenovo T420 FreeBSD 10.3 Console Text Resolution

azdatasci

azdatasci

All,

I am working towards making FreeBSD my main OS and have decided to give it a spin on a Lenovo T420 (model 4180) that I have to start getting familiarized (I have worked with FreeBSD before and have been a user of Linux for years). My question revolves around the resolution for the console on boot. I am not booting into X11 (at least not yet) and want to have the text based login/screen take advantage of the resolution the laptop provides.

Some Detail:
FreeBSD 10.3
Laptop: Lenovo T420
Screen Resolution: 1366x768 (should be, as I don't believe I have the NVIDIA model)
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 3000

I am working on a totally vanilla install. When I execute:

Code: 
vidcontrol -i mode

It returns several standard modes - but nothing that comes close the resolution advertised in the specs from Lenovo. I read that its possible VESA drivers may need to be loaded so, I execute:

Code: 
kldload vesa

However, it tells me that the vesa module is already loaded or in the kernel. I saw a post at:

https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/55548/

Which I thought might get me close, but that isn't working either. I'm not really sure what else to try. I'm thinking it might be an issue with drivers, maybe my kernel drivers/modules I am loading. Can anyone point me in a direction? Thanks!
 
Last edited:
Sir Dice -

Thanks for the info - what has me scratching my head is that I also have a T400, which, after looking at the
Code: 
vidcontrol -i mode
output, it listed 1280x800, which I was able to use. Granted, this is a totally different video card, that resolution doesn't appear to be listed in the standard VBE lists either. I'm curious as to why the resolution would be supported by vt(4) / sc(4) on that laptop and non-standard ones do not show up on the T420. I'm not challenging anything here, more curiosity.

So, is there any way to get the 1366x768 resolution in my console - any workarounds or am I limited to what
Code: 
vidcontrol -i modes
tell me?
 
Does the T420 support UEFI? If yes, boot using UEFI. FreeBSD should pickup the EFI framebuffer (which probably has the display's native resolution) and use it.

Also assuming FreeBSD 10.3 supports your GPU, loading the i915kms kernel module while using kern.vty=vt in /boot/loader.conf should switch your console to the display's native resolution.
 
tobik said:
Does the T420 support UEFI? If yes, boot using UEFI. FreeBSD should pickup the EFI framebuffer (which probably has the display's native resolution) and use it.

Also assuming FreeBSD 10.3 supports your GPU, loading the i915kms kernel module while using kern.vty=vt in /boot/loader.conf should switch your console to the display's native resolution.
Click to expand...
This laptop does support UEFI - should I download a UEFI image and reinstall the OS using that image? I will research the i915kms kernel and make sure to use kern.vty=vt in my loader.conf. How can I assure the i915kms module is installed and loaded? Thanks again, this is a great help!
 
azdatasci said:
How can I assure the i915kms module is installed and loaded? Thanks again, this is a great help!
Click to expand...
It comes with the system, so it already is installed. If it's loaded it should appear in kldstat.

Adding the following to /boot/loader.conf should work (assuming your GPU is supported)
Code: 
kern.vty=vt
i915kms_load="YES"
azdatasci said:
This laptop does support UEFI - should I download a UEFI image and reinstall the OS using that image?
Click to expand...
I would try this only if it doesn't work with i915kms.
 
tobik said:
It comes with the system, so it already is installed. If it's loaded it should appear in kldstat.

Adding the following to /boot/loader.conf should work (assuming your GPU is supported)
Code: 
kern.vty=vt
i915kms_load="YES"
I would try this only if it doesn't work with i915kms.
Click to expand...
Wow - this worked like a charm. I actually already started installing the UEFI image before I read your response. That wasn't a big deal - it takes like 10 minutes and I was dealing with a vanilla system. I installed the UEFI memstick 10.3 image, added the two likes to my loader.conf file and bam! It worked without anything else. I find it odd that now
Code: 
vidcontrol -I mode
doesn't return anything useful now (all the resolutions come back as 0x0), but I have a native resolution now that looks way better than the 1024x768 that I was dealing with (plus that was stretched out and looked horrible). Thank you so much!! Now, I need someone to help me solve my WPA-Enterprise issue on my other post.... but that is another story. Thanks again!
 
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