High resolution CLI?

For what it's worth, this is something Kernel Mode Setting does for us automatically. KMS is a feature available for most of the open source graphics drivers. Basically, it means the system figures out the screen resolution as early as possible and sticks with it.

If you are willing to give up fancy 3D support and your graphics hardware has an open source driver available, you can try switching to that.
That's “nouveau,” as opposed to “nvidia,” for NVidia hardware.
“ati/radeon,” as opposed to “fglrx” for ATI hardware.

Here is what you have to do to get Plymouth working with proprietary Nvidia drivers.

1. Edit the /etc/default/grub file.

Open a terminal and run this command (you can paste it in):

gksu gedit /etc/default/grub

Uncomment this line (by removing the leading # character):

GRUB_GFXMODE=1440x900

2. Edit /etc/grub.d/00_header.

Run:

gksu gedit /etc/grub.d/00_header

Find the line that says:

gfxmode=${GRUB_GFXMODE} 

Make a new line right after that line. The new line should say:

set gfxpayload=keep

3. Update the GRUB2 configuration.

To apply the new GRUB configuration, simply run:

sudo update-grub