The tty (or in general; the boot console resolution) can be changed either by editing the kernel vga parameter in the /boot/grub/menu.lst by hand or with StartUp Manager.

This tool will allow you to change your bootloader (grub menu.lst) with a graphical user interface (i.e. the noob way).

sudo apt-get install startupmanager

After installing, you will find it at: System → Administration → StartUp-Manager.

After changing the boot up resolution to e.g. a wide screen resolution, the Ubuntu splash screen might look distorted. You can fix this by changing the resolution in /etc/usplash.conf to your value and then

sudo update-initramfs -u

StartUp-Manager edits the /boot/grub/menu.lst for you, but for some reason it does not offer (all) wide screen resolutions. Here are some tips on how to edit the grub menu yourselves:
You can find out the best kernel vga parameter for your screen resoultion with the command sudo hwinfo –vbe | grep -I “Mode ”.
To change the vga kernel parameter value in grub, please edit the defoptions instead of changing every entry. This will automatically apply your settings also to newer kernels.

## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs
# defoptions=vga=795 splash

Don't forget to do a

sudo update-grub

at the end! This will apply your defoptions to all kernels in the menu.lst.