Warning! Use exterme care with the display timing options, as an invalid one can damage your monitor. If you don't know what you are doing, don't mess with it.
Moving the Screen
A frequent delema of PowerMac users, is the display puts part of the image off the screen.
The -move flag will move the screen 8 pixels in your desired direction (left, right, up or down).
Example: fbset -move rigth
If you need more fine grained control, you can also specify the number of "steps" to move by using the -step flag.
Example: fbset -step 2 -move left
Changing the Resolution
Linux defaults to 640x480, which is to big for most people.
You can change this using the -xres and the -yres command. Using wacky values, will cause your console to blank out, you will have to type in the dark. Most users will want an xres of 480, 600, or 768, and a yres of 640, 800 or 1024.
Example: fbset -yres 1024 -xres 768
Changing the Colors
fbset can also control the number of colors in the console. If you are running Linux 2.4, it can go from monochrome to millions of colors (32-bit), assuming you have enough VRAM to do that. Linux 2.2 users can only go down 8-bit (256 colors).
Example: fbset -depth 16
If you want to run in grayscale mode, use the -grayscale flag with either true or false as an anwser.
Example: fbset -grayscale true
Generate Modelines for XFree86
Many users have trouble generating Modelines for XFree86. fbset, has an "XFree86 Compatbility Mode" that can dump the current fbset configuration, into a XFree86 compatible Modeline, that you can paste into you XF86Config.
cowsandcorn:/root# fbset -x
Mode "1024x768"
# D: 74.778 MHz, H: 56.308 kHz, V: 69.862 Hz
DotClock 74.779
HTimings 1024 1064 1200 1328
VTimings 768 771 777 806
Flags "-HSync" "-VSync"
EndMode
Titanium PB Users should be able to use: fbset -g 1152 768 1152 768 32 to get 32-bit color (millions of colors), along with the right resolution for your screen.
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