How to set a higher screen resolution in a Parallels VM

[epmoyer]

To see a list of the available resolutions, press a key other than Enter during the boot loader phase of boot to drop into the boot loader menu, then run gop list.

I believe that this is the list of available resolutions which the Parallels EFI subsystem presents to the host. For host OS'es that Parallels has custom "Parallels Tools" integrations for (i.e. not FreeBSD, or at least not HelloSystem) Parallels will allow you to resize the host (post-boot) to any resolution you like, but for "unsupported" OS'es I believe that this list is everything that is possible.

One-time resolution selection
To try a resolution you can do a "one-time" resolution selection by entering gop set {mode} (e.g. gop set 10 to select 1920x1200), then entering boot (to boot into the OS).

Persistent resolution selection
This took me hours to figure out, so I am sharing it here.

Create the file /boot/lua/local.lua with the contents:

loader.perform("gop set 10")

(or whatever resolution mode you desire)

Things that DON'T work

Putting exec="gop set 10" in /boot/loader.conf almost works, but the resolution almost immediately changes back when the splash screen begins.

Putting efi_max_resolution="1920x1200" in /boot/loader.conf never had any visible effect for me.

Updating the docs
I'd be happy to write a PR for the docs to add this to the Parallels section of the "Getting Started" page. I'm not sure if the info has general applicability to users on any other VMs or real hardware?

[probonopd]

I don't use VMs, only bare metal, so I can't say. Maybe some other users know?