GRUB VGA Modes

GRUB allows you to choose the VGA definition it uses when booting.
(Note: this does not affect the definition in Xorg).

You need to add the option vga=xxx on the kernel stanza in the file /boot/grub/menu.lst.

Of course, replace xxx with the video mode you want. Your kernel stanza will look like
this:
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-6-686 root=/dev/sda7 ro vga=791

Here is a list of the available video modes:

Colour depth 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024 1400x1050
1600x1200
8 (256)769 771 773 775
15 (32K) 784 787 790 793
16 (65K) 785 788 791 794 834 884
24 (16M) 786 789 792 795