1 .\" Copyright (c) 2014 Warren Block
2 .\" All rights reserved.
4 .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
5 .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
7 .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
8 .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
9 .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
10 .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
11 .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
13 .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHORS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
14 .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
15 .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
16 .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
17 .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
18 .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
19 .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
20 .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
21 .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
22 .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
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"
49 device provides multiple virtual terminals with an extensive feature
51 .Bl -item -offset indent
53 Unicode UTF-8 text with double-width characters.
55 Large font maps in graphics mode, including support for Asian
58 Graphics-mode consoles.
62 .Pq Kernel Mode Setting
63 video drivers for switching between the
65 and virtual terminals.
68 Multiple virtual terminals are provided on a single computer.
69 Up to sixteen virtual terminals can be defined.
70 A single virtual terminal is connected to the screen and keyboard
72 Key combinations are used to select a virtual terminal.
73 Alt-F1 through Alt-F12 correspond to the first twelve virtual terminals.
74 If more than twelve virtual terminals are created, Shift-Alt-F1 through
75 Shift-Alt-F4 are used to switch to the additional terminals.
76 .Ss Copying and Pasting Text with a Mouse
77 Copying and pasting text from the screen with a mouse is supported.
78 Press and hold down mouse button 1, usually the left button, while
79 moving the mouse to select text.
80 Selected text is highlighted with reversed foreground and background
82 To select more text after releasing mouse button 1, press mouse button
83 3, usually the right button.
84 To paste text that has been selected, press mouse button 2, usually the
86 The text is entered as if it were typed at the keyboard.
88 .Dv VT_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE
89 kernel option can be used with mice that only have two buttons.
90 Setting this option makes the second mouse button into the
96 Output that has scrolled off the screen can be reviewed by pressing the
97 Scroll Lock key, then scrolling up and down with the arrow keys.
98 The Page Up and Page Down keys scroll up or down a full screen at a
100 The Home and End keys jump to the beginning or end of the scrollback
102 When finished reviewing, press the Scroll Lock key again to return to
104 .Sh DRIVER CONFIGURATION
105 .Ss Kernel Configuration Options
106 These kernel options control the
109 .Bl -tag -width MAXCONS
110 .It Dv VT_MAXWINDOWS=N
111 Set the number of virtual terminals to be created to
113 The value defaults to 12.
114 .It Dv VT_ALT_TO_ESC_HACK=1
115 When the Alt key is held down while pressing another key, send an ESC
116 sequence instead of the Alt key.
117 .It Dv VT_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE
118 If defined, swap the functions of mouse buttons 2 and 3.
119 In effect, this makes the right-hand mouse button perform a paste.
120 These options are checked in the order shown.
121 .It Dv SC_NO_CUTPASTE
122 Disable mouse support.
123 .It VT_FB_DEFAULT_WIDTH=X
124 Set the default width to
126 .It VT_FB_DEFAULT_HEIGHT=Y
127 Set the default height to
130 .Sh BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY
131 Several options are provided for compatibility with the previous
134 These options will be removed in a future
137 .Bl -column -offset indent ".Sy vt VT_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE" ".Sy SC_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE"
138 .It Sy vt Option Name Ta Sy sc Option Name
139 .It Dv VT_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE Ta Dv SC_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE
140 .It Dv VT_MAXWINDOWS Ta Dv MAXCONS
141 .It none Ta Dv SC_NO_CUTPASTE
143 .Sh START-UP OPERATION WITH X86 BIOS SYSTEMS
144 The computer BIOS starts in text mode, and
148 runs, loading the kernel.
151 is set, the system remains in text mode.
154 switches to 640x480x16 VGA mode using
157 .Pq Kernel Mode Switching
158 video driver is available, the display is switched to high resolution
159 and the KMS driver takes over.
160 When a KMS driver is not available,
164 These settings can be entered at the
168 .Bl -tag -width indent
169 .It Va hw.vga.textmode
170 Set to 1 to use virtual terminals in text mode instead of graphics mode.
171 Features that require graphics mode, like loadable fonts, will be
174 Set to vt to choose the
176 driver for the system console, if the
178 driver is also compiled in and is the default.
181 .Bl -tag -width /usr/share/syscons/keymaps/* -compact
183 .It Pa /dev/consolectl
187 terminal initialization information
212 driver first appeared in
218 device driver was developed by
219 .An Ed Schouten Aq Mt ed@FreeBSD.org ,
220 .An Ed Maste Aq Mt emaste@FreeBSD.org ,
222 .An Aleksandr Rybalko Aq Mt ray@FreeBSD.org ,
223 with sponsorship provided by the
226 This manual page was written by
227 .An Warren Block Aq Mt wblock@FreeBSD.org .
229 Paste buffer size is limited by the system value
231 the number of bytes that can be stored in the terminal
232 input queue, usually 1024 bytes