screen not visible while booting

[Chris Plummer]

If the screen resolution is higher than 1024x767 when I boot into ydl, I
won't see any of the boot log, nor the text login (although it is there
and I can login). Once X starts up, it has no problem supporting the
1600x1200, so everthing is fine once I'm in X.

However, if I check the bootx "no video driver" button, I can see the
boot log and text login, although it boots in 1024x768 mode. Once I
start X, it switches to 1600x1200 and everything is fine again.

Is there a way I can get the video to work while booting without first
having to boot into macos and lower the screen resolution, or having to
remember to check the bootx "no video driver" option?

I also have another somewhat related question. How do I get X to use a
different resolution without running Xconfigure and simply limitting the
maximum resolution it can choose from. I know about fbset, but I can
never get it to set the resolution in a way that makes a screen readable
(something is very wrong with the scanning). None of the modes in
/etc/fb.mode seem to work with my monitor. It looks X knows about modes
that are not in /etc/fb.mode and also knows how to choose a mode that
works. I'm assuming the modes X knows about are the ones in
XF86Config-4. How do I force X to use one of these modes?

Chris