Need help w/ console resolution

[cmasters <cmasters@nbnet.nb.ca>]

Greetings,

I'm ~trying~ to change the standard 80x25 layout of my non-X consoles
(vt 1 - 6), with only moderate success.

I've RTF'd manpages for lilo, console, console-tools, frame-buffer,
and any others than I thought might help. I've also googled with
various combinations of: console, virtual, terminal, non-X, video,
resolution, etc.

I can't seem to get the behaviour I want :-(, and I am at a loss.

I managed to get ~partial~ success with changing "vga=normal" to each
of the following:

vga=extended
vga=ext
vga=0x0103 #this was determined with "lilo -T video"

I manage to see (what would appear to be) 132x60 (or so) layout during
the bootup process right up ~until~ all drives are mounted. Then in
mid-continuing-to-boot it reverts to the 80x25 layout. How do I change
this?????

Relevent specs:

Riva 128 (nvidia) card - about 3 yrs old
X works up to 1024x768x32bpp

I'm trying to change this because my monitor is beginning to die (dark
areas tend to "streak" to whole screen) and I tend to use non-X apps
almost as much as X; I'd like to use the vt's directly without having
to resort to X-terminal apps.

Could somene please help?

Many thanks,

C. Masters