Can I have KMS for X11 but not for the console?

[highlandsun]

Setting a larger font might make things more readable, but there's still too many pixels on the screen and scrolling a 1920x1200 screen without 2D acceleration is Very Very Slow.

[Linas]

I would suggest specifying output in video parameter, like this:

video=LVDS-1:1280x1024-24@60e

To see what outputs are named on your system, check /sys/class/drm/ directory. For example on my system it contains entries card0-LVDS-1, card0-SVIDEO-1, card0-VGA-1. This translates to LVDS-1, SVIDEO-1, VGA-1 (without the prefix) in the kernel parameter.

More info on what it actually means here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/KMS#Forcing_modes

[Melcar]

That video option never worked, at least for me and my laptop's main display.