small console fonts at boot time

[Pierre Burri <pierre@globeall.de>]

Hi there,

I usually use the option vga=791 in lilo.conf to get the nice small fonts on 
the console. 
With the kernel 2.4.20 (Sid), the fonts come, but not from the beginning.
I recompiled the kernel with the .config of the current Kernel and with the 
freeswan patch to get ipsec. ipsec works fine but now the console just stays 
black, the vga option in lilo doesn't work at all anymore.
What is needed to get these smaller font right from the beginning of the boot?

Thank for any help.

Pierre