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Is there any way to increase the character width from 80 to something higher in the shell in an Ubuntu server?

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migrated from serverfault.com Sep 22 at 20:08

This question came from our site for professional system and network administrators.
    
You should provide a bit more detail. Are you accessing the server via ssh? VMware console? Are you running telnet from a macbook? Normally the character width is a client setting. –  Andy Sep 21 at 4:11
    
@Andy: Although I agree more information would be better, I think it may be deduced that Geuis is referring to a default desktop-less ubuntu server install which has a default 80 character limit. –  chriskelly Sep 21 at 8:55
    
@Andy ssh from macbook terminal to Ubuntu 12 server. –  Geuis Sep 22 at 20:42

1 Answer 1

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Since you are using ubuntu server you (presumably) do not have an X gui installed. Therefore, you need to increase your console resolution using grub.

After checking that your monitor supports the resolution you would like (see notes below), modify your default grub settings (/etc/default/grub) and specify the resolution as follows:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="splash vga=795"

vga=795 is the boot mode required to have a resolution of 1280x1024 with 24-bit color. This should double the number of characters from 80 to 160 (default is 640x480)!

For other resolutions and color depths check out the table on this page: VGA Boot modes

NOTE:

  1. Default is 640x480 for a reason - it's supported by almost every monitor.
  2. 80 characters also has some historical reason (something to do with IBM punch cards) :)
  3. Your monitor must support the resolution you pick so be prepared to test a few different boot modes in case the one you select does not work.
  4. Heres how you can test boot-options safely using a live cd
  5. There are several similar questions on ask ubuntu.
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