I am using a fresh install of BookWorm on a Pi 4. I am using it with a 1920x1080 HDMI monitor. Due to problems with WayVNC, I have used raspi-config to select Wayland option W1 (X11 = Openbox window manager with X11 backend). Also using raspi-config I have enabled VNC Server and have set the VNC resolution to 1920x1080.
If I boot the Pi with the monitor connected, I can then use RealVNC to access it without problems. I have set LxTerminal for 80 columns x 56 rows. If I start Lx Terminal then its size is as expected.
However, if I boot the Pi without the monitor connected then the window manager seems to think I have a smaller screen and limits the height of terminal windows to about 38 rows. The same is true of other terminals like Gnome Terminal. I can manually resize and reposition terminal windows over the whole screen. But something is limiting their size when a window is created.
This looks like a problem with setting the resolution on a headless system. I tried setting "video=HDMI-A-1:1920x1080M@60" in /boot/firmware/cmdline.txt but that doesn't fix the problem. I'd rather avoid having to boot the system with the monitor attached. Is there some other setting I can try?
If I boot the Pi with the monitor connected, I can then use RealVNC to access it without problems. I have set LxTerminal for 80 columns x 56 rows. If I start Lx Terminal then its size is as expected.
However, if I boot the Pi without the monitor connected then the window manager seems to think I have a smaller screen and limits the height of terminal windows to about 38 rows. The same is true of other terminals like Gnome Terminal. I can manually resize and reposition terminal windows over the whole screen. But something is limiting their size when a window is created.
This looks like a problem with setting the resolution on a headless system. I tried setting "video=HDMI-A-1:1920x1080M@60" in /boot/firmware/cmdline.txt but that doesn't fix the problem. I'd rather avoid having to boot the system with the monitor attached. Is there some other setting I can try?
Statistics: Posted by ISO8807 — Tue Jan 06, 2026 6:27 pm