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28 .Dt "VIRTUAL TERMINALS" 4
32 .Nd virtual terminal console driver
34 .Cd "options VT_MAXWINDOWS=N"
35 .Cd "options VT_ALT_TO_ESC_HACK=1"
36 .Cd "options VT_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE"
37 .Cd "options VT_FB_DEFAULT_WIDTH=X"
38 .Cd "options VT_FB_DEFAULT_HEIGHT=Y"
39 .Cd "options SC_NO_CUTPASTE"
48 device provides multiple virtual terminals with an extensive feature
50 .Bl -item -offset indent
52 Unicode UTF-8 text with double-width characters.
54 Large font maps in graphics mode, including support for Asian
57 Graphics-mode consoles.
61 .Pq Kernel Mode Setting
62 video drivers for switching between the
64 and virtual terminals.
67 Multiple virtual terminals are provided on a single computer.
68 Up to sixteen virtual terminals can be defined.
69 A single virtual terminal is connected to the screen and keyboard
71 Key combinations are used to select a virtual terminal.
72 Alt-F1 through Alt-F12 correspond to the first twelve virtual terminals.
73 If more than twelve virtual terminals are created, Shift-Alt-F1 through
74 Shift-Alt-F4 are used to switch to the additional terminals.
75 .Ss Copying and Pasting Text with a Mouse
76 Copying and pasting text from the screen with a mouse is supported.
77 Press and hold down mouse button 1, usually the left button, while
78 moving the mouse to select text.
79 Selected text is highlighted with reversed foreground and background
81 To select more text after releasing mouse button 1, press mouse button
82 3, usually the right button.
83 To paste text that has been selected, press mouse button 2, usually the
85 The text is entered as if it were typed at the keyboard.
87 .Dv VT_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE
88 kernel option can be used with mice that only have two buttons.
89 Setting this option makes the second mouse button into the
95 Output that has scrolled off the screen can be reviewed by pressing the
96 Scroll Lock key, then scrolling up and down with the arrow keys.
97 The Page Up and Page Down keys scroll up or down a full screen at a
99 The Home and End keys jump to the beginning or end of the scrollback
101 When finished reviewing, press the Scroll Lock key again to return to
103 .Sh DRIVER CONFIGURATION
104 .Ss Kernel Configuration Options
105 These kernel options control the
108 .Bl -tag -width MAXCONS
109 .It Dv VT_MAXWINDOWS=N
110 Set the number of virtual terminals to be created to
112 The value defaults to 12.
113 .It Dv VT_ALT_TO_ESC_HACK=1
114 When the Alt key is held down while pressing another key, send an ESC
115 sequence instead of the Alt key.
116 .It Dv VT_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE
117 If defined, swap the functions of mouse buttons 2 and 3.
118 In effect, this makes the right-hand mouse button perform a paste.
119 These options are checked in the order shown.
120 .It Dv SC_NO_CUTPASTE
121 Disable mouse support.
122 .It VT_FB_DEFAULT_WIDTH=X
123 Set the default width to
125 .It VT_FB_DEFAULT_HEIGHT=Y
126 Set the default height to
129 .Sh BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY
130 Several options are provided for compatibility with the previous
133 These options will be removed in a future
136 .Bl -column -offset indent ".Sy vt VT_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE" ".Sy SC_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE"
137 .It Sy vt Option Name Ta Sy sc Option Name
138 .It Dv VT_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE Ta Dv SC_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE
139 .It Dv VT_MAXWINDOWS Ta Dv MAXCONS
140 .It none Ta Dv SC_NO_CUTPASTE
142 .Sh START-UP OPERATION WITH X86 BIOS SYSTEMS
143 The computer BIOS starts in text mode, and
147 runs, loading the kernel.
150 is set, the system remains in text mode.
153 switches to 640x480x16 VGA mode using
156 .Pq Kernel Mode Switching
157 video driver is available, the display is switched to high resolution
158 and the KMS driver takes over.
159 When a KMS driver is not available,
163 These settings can be entered at the
167 .Bl -tag -width indent
168 .It Va hw.vga.textmode
169 Set to 1 to use virtual terminals in text mode instead of graphics mode.
170 Features that require graphics mode, like loadable fonts, will be
174 .Bl -tag -width /usr/share/syscons/keymaps/* -compact
176 .It Pa /dev/consolectl
180 terminal initialization information
205 driver first appeared in
211 device driver was developed by
212 .An Ed Schouten Aq ed@FreeBSD.org ,
213 .An Ed Maste Aq emaste@FreeBSD.org ,
215 .An Aleksandr Rybalko Aq ray@FreeBSD.org ,
216 with sponsorship provided by the
219 This manual page was written by
220 .An Warren Block <wblock@FreeBSD.org>.
222 Paste buffer size is limited by the system value
224 the number of bytes that can be stored in the terminal
225 input queue, usually 1024 bytes