[Lancaster] Wanted: A Command Line That Doesn't Make My Eyes Bleed

[David Smith]

Evening all,

A couple of quick queries really regarding command line only interfaces.

Situation:
At work, for a decent number of tasks, I only really _need_ a command 
line interface, with a quick and easy option to 'startx' when I need to 
double check some pictures / maps / diagrams.
Whilst I'm more than happy to get by (albeit fumbling in the dark a 
little bit at this point in certain areas) there's just one thing that 
really keeps bugging me.
I'm running Debian 5.0 (Lenny) on my Dell Latitude D630, starting up 
nice and quick to the command line, and very quick at booting into an 
xterm if I need to throw Inkscape up or similar. No problems there.

What I'm After:
A crafty way of effectively changing the resolution on the command line 
I face on start up.
I _believe_ (from some searching) that this is meant to be possible by 
adding a command to Grub for the kernel, along the lines of
	vga=$number_relating_to_a_resolution
but damned if I can find out exactly how to do that in the config.
  - 1) Is what I want to do possible?
  - 2) Where the devil do I whack the appropriate commands in to make it 
permanent?!

Whilst I enjoy the learning curve of working just from the terminal, 
having each letter I type appear to be a foot high(*) is a little 
overkill for my requirements. If I could get the print size down to 
something I'm more used to, say 1280x960, would just make things so much 
prettier, and easier to follow.

Any help on this would be massively appreciated. Apologies for any 
inaccuracies in describing the problem. :)

Best,

Dave

[*] Not strictly true