Relapse to 80x25 text mode from X

[Ian Smith]

On Wed, 21 Sep 2016 07:43:09 +1000, Felix Friedlander wrote:
 > > On 21 Sep. 2016, at 00:29, Ian Smith <smithi at nimnet.asn.au> wrote:
 > > In freebsd-questions Digest, Vol 641, Issue 3, Message: 15
 > > On Tue, 13 Sep 2016 23:59:43 +0200 Polytropon <freebsd at edvax.de> wrote:
 > > 
 > >> When I initially installed X on my "new" Lenovo Thinkpad R61i,
 > >> after leaving X (or after switching to text mode with the
 > >> key combination Ctrl+Alt+PF1) the screen would still show
 > >> the X image, leaving me "blind" at the console. Changing
 > >> the sc driver to vt solved that problem, but opened a new
 > >> one: The text mode font is tiny and unreadable.
 > >> 
 > >> What is the preferred way of keeping the console in 80x25
 > >> mode _and_ being able to switch from/to X?
[..]
 > >> In other words: Is it possible to relapse to the default
 > >> behaviour of 80x25 sc and X that has worked for decades?
 > >> If yes, how?
 > > 
 > > I don't know but I'd like to, and I don't know but I'd like to, too.
[..]

 > In vt(4), rows and columns are determined by font size. The default 
 > font (I think) is 8x16, so your terminal should therefore be 160x50.
 > 
 > I donÿÿt know why you would want an 80x25 console on a 1280x800 
 > screen, but it is a valid request, so:
 > 
 > 1280 / 80 = 16
 > 800 / 25 = 32
 > 
 > Looks like you want a 16x32 font. Youÿÿre in luck: from FreeBSD 11, 
 > thereÿÿs a font `vgarom-16x32' that should be what youÿÿre looking 
 > for. Load it with `vidfont' or `vidctl -f'. If youÿÿre still on 
 > FreeBSD-10, youÿÿll have to chase up a copy from somewhere, or 
 > compile it from the HEX file at 
 > https://svn.freebsd.org/base/head/share/vt/fonts/vgarom-16x32.hex 
 > (compile it with `vtfontcvt' - the finished file goes in 
 > /usr/share/vt/fonts).
 > 
 > I hope this helps - and I know vt sometimes has an odd way of doing 
 > things. I like it, but not everyone does.

Thankyou Felix.

My Lenovo X200 notebook also has a 1280x800 12" diagonal screen, and 
like Polytropon, my eyesight is not what it once was.  The difference in 
readability vs this older T23 (1024x768 but 14") is considerable, and I 
often enough switch from X to console that this is valuable info for me.

cheers, Ian