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28 .Dt "VIRTUAL TERMINALS" 4
32 .Nd virtual terminal console driver
34 .Cd "options TERMINAL_KERN_ATTR=_attribute_"
35 .Cd "options TERMINAL_NORM_ATTR=_attribute_"
36 .Cd "options VT_MAXWINDOWS=N"
37 .Cd "options VT_ALT_TO_ESC_HACK=1"
38 .Cd "options VT_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE"
39 .Cd "options VT_FB_DEFAULT_WIDTH=X"
40 .Cd "options VT_FB_DEFAULT_HEIGHT=Y"
41 .Cd "options SC_NO_CUTPASTE"
48 .Cd kern.vt.fb.default_mode="<X>x<Y>"
49 .Cd kern.vt.fb.modes.<connector>="<X>x<Y>"
54 .Cd kern.vt.kbd_halt=1
55 .Cd kern.vt.kbd_poweroff=1
56 .Cd kern.vt.kbd_reboot=1
57 .Cd kern.vt.kbd_debug=1
58 .Cd kern.vt.kbd_panic=0
62 device provides multiple virtual terminals with an extensive feature
64 .Bl -item -offset indent
66 Unicode UTF-8 text with double-width characters.
68 Large font maps in graphics mode, including support for Asian
71 Graphics-mode consoles.
75 .Pq Kernel Mode Setting
76 video drivers for switching between the
78 and virtual terminals.
81 Multiple virtual terminals are provided on a single computer.
82 Up to sixteen virtual terminals can be defined.
83 A single virtual terminal is connected to the screen and keyboard
85 Key combinations are used to select a virtual terminal.
86 Alt-F1 through Alt-F12 correspond to the first twelve virtual terminals.
87 If more than twelve virtual terminals are created, Shift-Alt-F1 through
88 Shift-Alt-F4 are used to switch to the additional terminals.
89 .Ss Copying and Pasting Text with a Mouse
90 Copying and pasting text from the screen with a mouse is supported.
91 Press and hold down mouse button 1, usually the left button, while
92 moving the mouse to select text.
93 Selected text is highlighted with reversed foreground and background
95 To select more text after releasing mouse button 1, press mouse button
96 3, usually the right button.
97 To paste text that has been selected, press mouse button 2, usually the
99 The text is entered as if it were typed at the keyboard.
101 .Dv VT_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE
102 kernel option can be used with mice that only have two buttons.
103 Setting this option makes the second mouse button into the
107 for more information.
109 Output that has scrolled off the screen can be reviewed by pressing the
110 Scroll Lock key, then scrolling up and down with the arrow keys.
111 The Page Up and Page Down keys scroll up or down a full screen at a
113 The Home and End keys jump to the beginning or end of the scrollback
115 When finished reviewing, press the Scroll Lock key again to return to
117 .Sh DRIVER CONFIGURATION
118 .Ss Kernel Configuration Options
119 These kernel options control the
122 .Bl -tag -width MAXCONS
123 .It Dv TERMINAL_NORM_ATTR= Ns Pa attribute
124 .It Dv TERMINAL_KERN_ATTR= Ns Pa attribute
125 These options allow changing the default colors used for normal and kernel
127 Available colors are defined in
132 .It Dv VT_MAXWINDOWS=N
133 Set the number of virtual terminals to be created to
135 The value defaults to 12.
136 .It Dv VT_ALT_TO_ESC_HACK=1
137 When the Alt key is held down while pressing another key, send an ESC
138 sequence instead of the Alt key.
139 .It Dv VT_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE
140 If defined, swap the functions of mouse buttons 2 and 3.
141 In effect, this makes the right-hand mouse button perform a paste.
142 These options are checked in the order shown.
143 .It Dv SC_NO_CUTPASTE
144 Disable mouse support.
145 .It VT_FB_DEFAULT_WIDTH=X
146 Set the default width to
148 .It VT_FB_DEFAULT_HEIGHT=Y
149 Set the default height to
152 .Sh BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY
153 Several options are provided for compatibility with the previous
156 These options will be removed in a future
159 .Bl -column -offset indent ".Sy vt VT_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE" ".Sy SC_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE"
160 .It Sy vt Option Name Ta Sy sc Option Name
161 .It Dv TERMINAL_KERN_ATTR Ta Dv SC_KERNEL_CONS_ATTR
162 .It Dv TERMINAL_NORM_ATTR Ta Dv SC_NORM_ATTR
163 .It Dv VT_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE Ta Dv SC_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE
164 .It Dv VT_MAXWINDOWS Ta Dv MAXCONS
165 .It none Ta Dv SC_NO_CUTPASTE
167 .Sh START-UP OPERATION WITH X86 BIOS SYSTEMS
168 The computer BIOS starts in text mode, and
172 runs, loading the kernel.
175 is set, the system remains in text mode.
178 switches to 640x480x16 VGA mode using
181 .Pq Kernel Mode Setting
182 video driver is available, the display is switched to high resolution
183 and the KMS driver takes over.
184 When a KMS driver is not available,
188 These settings can be entered at the
192 .Bl -tag -width indent
193 .It Va hw.vga.textmode
194 Set to 1 to use virtual terminals in text mode instead of graphics mode.
195 Features that require graphics mode, like loadable fonts, will be
202 to override the default driver used for the system console.
205 is used on computers that boot from BIOS, and
207 is used on computers that boot from UEFI.
208 .It Va kern.vt.fb.default_mode
209 Set this value to a graphic mode to override the default mode picked by the
212 The mode is applied to all output connectors.
213 This is currently only supported by the
215 backend when it's paired with a KMS video driver.
216 .It Va kern.vt.fb.modes. Ns Pa connector_name
217 Set this value to a graphic mode to override the default mode picked by the
220 This mode is applied to the output connector
222 only. It has precedence over
223 .Va kern.vt.fb.default_mode .
224 The names of available connector names can be found in
226 after loading the KMS driver.
227 It will contain a list of connectors and their associated tunables.
228 This is currently only supported by the
230 backend when it's paired with a KMS video driver.
232 .Sh KEYBOARD SYSCTL TUNABLES
233 These settings control whether certain special key combinations are enabled or
235 The specific key combinations can be configured by using a
239 These settings can be entered at the
243 and can also be changed at runtime with the
246 .Bl -tag -width indent
247 .It Va kern.vt.kbd_halt
248 Enable halt keyboard combination.
249 .It Va kern.vt.kbd_poweroff
250 Enable power off key combination.
251 .It Va kern.vt.kbd_reboot.
252 Enable reboot key combination, usually Ctrl+Alt+Del.
253 .It Va kern.vt.kbd_debug
254 Enable debug request key combination, usually Ctrl+Alt+Esc.
255 .It Va kern.vt.kbd_panic
256 Enable panic key combination.
259 .Bl -tag -width /usr/share/vt/keymaps/* -compact
261 .It Pa /dev/consolectl
265 terminal initialization information
266 .It Pa /usr/share/vt/fonts/*.fnt
268 .It Pa /usr/share/vt/keymaps/*.kbd
272 This example changes the default color of normal text to green on a
273 black background, or black on a green background when reversed.
274 Note that white space cannot be used inside the attribute string
275 because of the current implementation of
278 .Dl "options TERMINAL_NORM_ATTR=(FG_GREEN|BG_BLACK)"
280 This line changes the default color of kernel messages to be bright red
281 on a black background, or black on a bright red background when reversed.
283 .Dl "options TERMINAL_KERN_ATTR=(FG_LIGHTRED|BG_BLACK)"
285 To set a 1024x768 mode on all output connectors, put the following line in
286 .Pa /boot/loader.conf :
288 .Dl kern.vt.fb.default_mode="1024x768"
290 To set a 800x600 only on a laptop builtin screen, use the following line instead:
292 .Dl kern.vt.fb.modes.LVDS-1="800x600"
294 The connector name was found in
297 .Dl info: [drm] Connector LVDS-1: get mode from tunables:
298 .Dl info: [drm] - kern.vt.fb.modes.LVDS-1
299 .Dl info: [drm] - kern.vt.fb.default_mode
323 driver first appeared in
329 device driver was developed by
330 .An \&Ed Schouten Aq Mt ed@FreeBSD.org ,
331 .An \&Ed Maste Aq Mt emaste@FreeBSD.org ,
333 .An Aleksandr Rybalko Aq Mt ray@FreeBSD.org ,
334 with sponsorship provided by the
337 This manual page was written by
338 .An Warren Block Aq Mt wblock@FreeBSD.org .
340 Paste buffer size is limited by the system value
342 the number of bytes that can be stored in the terminal
343 input queue, usually 1024 bytes