Setting the resolution for the console is not much of a concern normally. Your virtual terminals are set to a reasonable resolution by default on a normal Ubuntu desktop installation. If you run Ubuntu server in a virtual machine, however, you are stuck with 640×480 resolution.
Recent versions of Ubuntu all use Grub2 so the way to change the resolution is now:
sudo vi /etc/default/grub
Then add the following:
GRUB_GFXMODE=1024×768
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=keep
Save the file and run:
sudo update-grub
On your next reboot, there it will be.
Thanks for this info. Tons of other folks out there seem to think that the Payload section needs to go into the 00_header file and it doesn’t work there with grub2 as far as I know. Your method works. I’ll have a beer in your honor tonight. ;)
Thank you very much. This is the best explanation on web, and it works!