How to change resolution of virtual console

On many systems, I find that the virtual console in Ubuntu is limited to 80x40. That is, it only displays 80 columns and 40 lines of text. The resolution of my display is much higher than this and I would like to render more lines and columns in the virtual consoles.

To do that:

• Open the file /etc/default/grub in an editor:

$ sudoedit /etc/default/grub

• We add two lines to the file. If these lines are already there, edit or comment them out. The first line provides the pixel resolution (say 1920x1200) of your display:

GRUB_GFXMODE=1920x1200x32
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=keep

• Update GRUB:

$ sudo update-grub

• Restart Ubuntu. The virtual console should have a resolution that matches your display resolution.

Note: This also works for virtual console of Ubuntu running inside a VirtualBox virtual machine. Since the VirtualBox window can be resized (and the virtual console cannot), I provide a smaller resolution to GRUB there. For example: 1024x768.

Tried with: Ubuntu 14.04