Just resolved the same issue for me. Here what I've done:
Disabled previous framebuffer (was vga16fb for me) and enabled uvesafb:
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-framebuffer.conf :
...
blacklist vga16fb
You can find what framebuffer is currently is use using lsmod | grep fb command.
/etc/modprobe.d/framebuffer.conf :
options uvesafb mode_option=1680x1050-24 mtrr=3 scroll=ywrap
/etc/modules :
...
uvesafb
The next step is to put uvesafb into initrd image.
/etc/initramfs-tools/modules :
...
uvesafb mode_option=1680x1050-24 mtrr=3 scroll=ywrap
Re-create initrd: sudo update-initramfs -u
For now, the hi-res console should be available after boot.
Next task is to turn grub2 into hi-res mode.
For some reasons, several important options was missing into my grub config file, so I added them into /etc/default/grub:
GRUB_VIDEO_BACKEND="vbe"
GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT="gfxterm"
GRUB_GFXMODE="1680x1050x24"
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX="1680x1050x24"
I'm not sure about next section, it may be not nesessary, but here what I've done to /etc/grub.d/00_header :
Almost at the top of the file there is a number of if [ "x${GRUB_... fallback operators. I've added two more:
if [ "x${GRUB_GFXMODE}" = "x" ] ; then GRUB_GFXMODE=1680x1050x24 ; fi
if [ "x${GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX}" = "x" ] ; then GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=1680x1050x24 ; fi
Now find the text set gfxmode=${GRUB_GFXMODE} in that file, and insert the following code as the next line:
set gfxpayload=${GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX}
Again, I'm not sure if it nesessary for the latest grub2 (I have 1.98)
Now update grub config file:
sudo update-grub2
and everything should be working.
