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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.spclkeys=15
52 device provides multiple virtual terminals with an extensive feature
54 .Bl -item -offset indent
56 Unicode UTF-8 text with double-width characters.
58 Large font maps in graphics mode, including support for Asian
61 Graphics-mode consoles.
65 .Pq Kernel Mode Setting
66 video drivers for switching between the
68 and virtual terminals.
71 Multiple virtual terminals are provided on a single computer.
72 Up to sixteen virtual terminals can be defined.
73 A single virtual terminal is connected to the screen and keyboard
75 Key combinations are used to select a virtual terminal.
76 Alt-F1 through Alt-F12 correspond to the first twelve virtual terminals.
77 If more than twelve virtual terminals are created, Shift-Alt-F1 through
78 Shift-Alt-F4 are used to switch to the additional terminals.
79 .Ss Copying and Pasting Text with a Mouse
80 Copying and pasting text from the screen with a mouse is supported.
81 Press and hold down mouse button 1, usually the left button, while
82 moving the mouse to select text.
83 Selected text is highlighted with reversed foreground and background
85 To select more text after releasing mouse button 1, press mouse button
86 3, usually the right button.
87 To paste text that has been selected, press mouse button 2, usually the
89 The text is entered as if it were typed at the keyboard.
91 .Dv VT_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE
92 kernel option can be used with mice that only have two buttons.
93 Setting this option makes the second mouse button into the
99 Output that has scrolled off the screen can be reviewed by pressing the
100 Scroll Lock key, then scrolling up and down with the arrow keys.
101 The Page Up and Page Down keys scroll up or down a full screen at a
103 The Home and End keys jump to the beginning or end of the scrollback
105 When finished reviewing, press the Scroll Lock key again to return to
107 .Sh DRIVER CONFIGURATION
108 .Ss Kernel Configuration Options
109 These kernel options control the
112 .Bl -tag -width MAXCONS
113 .It Dv TERMINAL_NORM_ATTR= Ns Pa attribute
114 .It Dv TERMINAL_KERN_ATTR= Ns Pa attribute
115 These options allow changing the default colors used for normal and kernel
117 Available colors are defined in
122 .It Dv VT_MAXWINDOWS=N
123 Set the number of virtual terminals to be created to
125 The value defaults to 12.
126 .It Dv VT_ALT_TO_ESC_HACK=1
127 When the Alt key is held down while pressing another key, send an ESC
128 sequence instead of the Alt key.
129 .It Dv VT_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE
130 If defined, swap the functions of mouse buttons 2 and 3.
131 In effect, this makes the right-hand mouse button perform a paste.
132 These options are checked in the order shown.
133 .It Dv SC_NO_CUTPASTE
134 Disable mouse support.
135 .It VT_FB_DEFAULT_WIDTH=X
136 Set the default width to
138 .It VT_FB_DEFAULT_HEIGHT=Y
139 Set the default height to
142 .Sh BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY
143 Several options are provided for compatibility with the previous
146 These options will be removed in a future
149 .Bl -column -offset indent ".Sy vt VT_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE" ".Sy SC_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE"
150 .It Sy vt Option Name Ta Sy sc Option Name
151 .It Dv TERMINAL_KERN_ATTR Ta Dv SC_KERNEL_CONS_ATTR
152 .It Dv TERMINAL_NORM_ATTR Ta Dv SC_NORM_ATTR
153 .It Dv VT_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE Ta Dv SC_TWOBUTTON_MOUSE
154 .It Dv VT_MAXWINDOWS Ta Dv MAXCONS
155 .It none Ta Dv SC_NO_CUTPASTE
157 .Sh START-UP OPERATION WITH X86 BIOS SYSTEMS
158 The computer BIOS starts in text mode, and
162 runs, loading the kernel.
165 is set, the system remains in text mode.
168 switches to 640x480x16 VGA mode using
171 .Pq Kernel Mode Switching
172 video driver is available, the display is switched to high resolution
173 and the KMS driver takes over.
174 When a KMS driver is not available,
178 These settings can be entered at the
182 .Bl -tag -width indent
183 .It Va hw.vga.textmode
184 Set to 1 to use virtual terminals in text mode instead of graphics mode.
185 Features that require graphics mode, like loadable fonts, will be
191 .Xr sc 4 have been compiled into the kernel, the one to use for the
192 system console can be selected by setting this value to
196 If this value is not set,
199 .It Va kern.vt.spclkeys
200 bitmap of allowed special keys. 1 is enabled, 0 is disabled. Encoded as:
201 .Bl -tag -compact -width 0x000000
203 Debug request key combination. (Ctrl+Alt+Esc)
205 Reboot. (Ctrl+Alt+Del)
211 Default is 15, all enabled.
214 .Bl -tag -width /usr/share/vt/keymaps/* -compact
216 .It Pa /dev/consolectl
220 terminal initialization information
221 .It Pa /usr/share/vt/fonts/*.fnt
223 .It Pa /usr/share/vt/keymaps/*.kbd
227 This example changes the default color of normal text to green on a
228 black background, or black on a green background when reversed.
229 Note that white space cannot be used inside the attribute string
230 because of the current implementation of
233 .Dl "options TERMINAL_NORM_ATTR=(FG_GREEN|BG_BLACK)"
235 This line changes the default color of kernel messages to be bright red
236 on a black background, or black on a bright red background when reversed.
238 .Dl "options TERMINAL_KERN_ATTR=(FG_LIGHTRED|BG_BLACK)"
261 driver first appeared in
267 device driver was developed by
268 .An Ed Schouten Aq Mt ed@FreeBSD.org ,
269 .An Ed Maste Aq Mt emaste@FreeBSD.org ,
271 .An Aleksandr Rybalko Aq Mt ray@FreeBSD.org ,
272 with sponsorship provided by the
275 This manual page was written by
276 .An Warren Block Aq Mt wblock@FreeBSD.org .
278 Paste buffer size is limited by the system value
280 the number of bytes that can be stored in the terminal
281 input queue, usually 1024 bytes