Pierre Couderc composed on 2018-07-12 12:20 (UTC+0200):
The point too is the font is very small on these Acer Swift when nothing
is installed, and as I am a bit old I have difficults to see characters...
While dpkg-reconfigure console-setup would be the preferred way to make console
text bigger, it takes time and effort to set up. Last century I found a simpler
approach that works well to produce bigger console text: tell the kernel to use
a video mode that reduces screen resolution via cmdline option at boot time.
This method can be applied temporarily with Grub2 using the e key at its menu.
I don't find anything objectionable to using reduced resolution in fullscreen
framebuffers, so this simplicity works well compared to finding, selecting and
installing a different console font, and having to do it all over again when I
use another PC or display. In fact, I've yet to find a console font I like as
well as the one the kernel uses by default, so the third thing I do on a fresh
install is dpkg-reconfigure console-setup to employ FONTFACE="" & FONTSIZE="" in
/etc/default/console-setup (#2 is apt install mc following apt update).
To illustrate, if a screen with native mode 1920x1080 is in use and its console
text is too small, I append video=1440x900 to make the text slightly larger,
video=1280x720 to make it larger still, or video=1000x600 to make it really
large. On a video=3840x2160 screen I use video=2560x1440 or video=1920x1080,
depending on display size and viewing distance. If using really old video
hardware or or nomodeset, I append vga=791 or vga=788 instead or in addition.
Grub complains, but the kernel doesn't disclose any objection.