Thanks guys. I had seen the hex mode numbers at the lilo stage, but then I remembered doc/lilo/Manual.txt: vga=<mode> alters the VGA mode set at startup. The values normal , extended , ask or a decimal number are recognized. (See also "Booting kernel images from a file".) And so I didn't think that hex would work. Moral Of The Story: RTFM, but don't T(rust)TFM :) jc